Customer Reviews

Convergence

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Honestly, I have never heard any of Jame's stuff with any of the thrash bands that he was in. I initially heard James on the Rush Tribute album, Working Man. He did some great solos on that one, so I decided to check him out. This album is about half vocal, half instrumental. His intrumentals are awesome. The rhythms are heavy, and the solo work is clean and impressive.
Visions is my favorite instrumental. The vocal songs are awesome. James brings in some very good singers, which compliment his writing style. Touching the Earth and Deeper Within are great tunes. This album shows that James can do his own thing, and do it well. Highly Recommended!!!

Murphy is god! I have several albums featuring Murphy on guitar. He has been in Death(Spiritual Healing, Testament(Low,Live at the Filmore,The Gathering), Disincarnate(Dreams of the Carrion Kind), Konkhra(Weed Out the Week), and more. His fluid and exquisite playing has reached is zenith on the 2 solo albums he has put out (this one and Feeding the Machine-1999). I bought Convergence a year and a half ago, and it hasn't come out of my disc changer yet. Simply remarkable...Best songs-Vision and Shadow's Fall.

James Murphy, from Death to Obituary to Testament, even the obscure but magnificent Explorers' Club... a flawless guitarist! About a nine on the shred scale, with a completely excellent blend of acoustic and electric guitars on songs like "Touching the Earth," dedicated in memory of Murphy's grandfather and featuring Chuck Billy on vocals, and Tempus Omnia Revelat to close the album... unbelievable technique and emotion. Don't wait, just scoop this one up!

This is the first (of two) solo albums by guitar virtuoso James Murphy. Although James has been in a few extreme Metal bands, the albums I have of his catalog are his two masterpieces from Testament, which are "Low" and "The Gathering". As well, I have seen him once live from each of those tours. From those situations and recordings alone he is one of my favorite guitar players.

This album is basically a mix of instrumental and vocal songs, fairly split between the two types. Some of the personnel on this album are vocalists Chuck Billy (Testament) on one song and Devin Townsend (Ocean Machine, Strapping Young Lad) on two songs, as well as current Journey drummer Deen Castronova. This is a varied and professional Metal album that can appeal to various types of fans of the genre. James' guitarwork can easily stand up to anyone else that has ever picked up the six-string. Amazing shred-work as well as some extremely well-written and catchy songs, especially one of the absolute GREATEST songs you will EVER hear, which is "Touching The Earth" with Billy on vox. This is a brilliant, mesmerizing and haunting 7 minute + song, completely an utter piece of musical accomplishment.

This CD is a MUST BUY if you are a fan of Metal and amazing guitar playing. It's really that simple.

I actually heard this chaps second album before this debut effort and what I said of that album is also true of this one - that it is highly entertaining. This chaps day job of guitar slinger for Testament has not exactly put him on my radar, that band just doesn't float my boat, but I might have to give them a second chance after catching this and Feeding the Machine (the follow up to this). And just why do I like this slab of sonics? Well, let me summarise for you;

A - The album hangs together so well. Unlike some solo projects where a lot of disjointed oddities are strung together until the requisite time has elapsed this album feels fully realised and coherent.
B - James has had the privilege of using a number of `name' vocalists, not least Devin Townsend. And the vocal styles of the of the singers suit the music admirably which assists with the aforementioned coherence of the project and gives this album an edge of a purely instrumental shred album - that human touch.
C - The songs sound as solid as an old oak desk. The production job is warm, strong and brings out the crunch in the guitar. As expected I suppose but still a nice thing to hear.
D - It's not just the sound of the thing that is solid but the songs too. I'm not sure how much song writing Mr Murphy has done with his other bands but while I can't claim that there are a stack of absolute killer numbers here the fact that each one sounds so complete and is so forthright means that this is a quality source of listening pleasure.

There aren't a lot of downsides to picking this up - especially if you can get it cheap. No lyrics in the booklet but you do get full credits including who did the vocals on what. This is a very steady album of heavy metal guitar work and Murphy has eschewed the chance to go all neo-classical on our backsides and kept it true and trad.

James Murphy has been a part of some important metal albums ranging from his solo albums to his personal death metal project Disincarnate, to the amazing guest appearances he has had over the years on landmark albums. This includes soloing alongside Chuck on Death's Spiritual Healing. Or his work in Testament lending a hand as Testament dove into death metal territory on Low and The Gathering. Let's not forget his contributions to Obituary and Cancer and many other projects. He has even helped produce many albums. The man is nothing less then a legend in the metal community. In many ways his first solo album takes the stomping grooving rhythms of Disincarnate and super clean and smooth lead style ever present in all his work and magnifies the fusion aspect. The end result is a collection of amazing instrumentals mixed with stand alone songs that he brought in a collection of singers to fill in vocals duties for. The album opens with Devin Townsend taking vocal duties, and he knocks his two songs he contributes on out of the park. Chuck Billy of Testament comes onboard to record the best ballad that Testament never recorded in "Touching The Earth". The fusion instrumentals stand very strong as compositions, and and never feel as if they were tacked on to show merely show off the immense talent of James Murphy. The title track, "Shadow's Fall" and "Vision" are all exemplary fusion death metal tracks. The album gets a little weak in the middle which is why I ultimately was unable to give this overall performance a 5, even though the quality throughout was strong enough to warrant one. "Red Alert" is the one time where James get's off track when writing an instrumental, and it ultimately feels tacked on to beef the length up a bit. "Deeper Within" comes off as a bit of a failed grunge song with joint writing credits going to Eddie Head. On the whole this set of songs comes highly praised from me as a more then worthwhile purchase to any fan of James Murphy, fusion metal, or anyone that appreciates listening to truly skilled guitarists.

I can't believe you people don't know James Murphy. He has played with so many great bands over the years. I first recall him playing on Death's "Spiritual Healing", and then on Obituary's "Cause of Death". He then went on to play on Testament's "Low", and is a studio musician on Konkhra's "Weed Out The Weak". I guess most people don't really pay close enough detail to the musicaians who play on these albums or to the actual members of the band like I do. I am a devoted fan of heavy metal. I own over 300 CD's from AC/DC to Vio-lence. I also love Stevie Ray Vaughn. This is his first solo effort and I must say I love it. It may not be death metal, but it is heavy as sh**! His guitar work is legendary with me and I worship the ground he plays on. He blows any other guitar player away because he knows how to play the guitar. I would kill and dismember a person to have him in my band. That's how good he is. He hyptnotizes me with his fretwork and leaves me yearning for more. If you consider yourself a fan of great guitar players or heavy metal than this album comes highly reommended by me. Everyone else next to him is just getting started on learning how to play guitar. Buy or DIE! I guess since I'm the first person to review this album that means you all must die!

This is nothing but crazed, chaotic, demonic noise disguised as music. This takes the gift of music given to us by God and turns it into something nasty and perverted. Guard your heart and stay away from this one please!!!