Review Summary: Noise never sounded so good.
Norma Jean is a name that has gained much notoriety over the course of the last few years. Hailing from the city of Atlanta, GA, this is the first and last Norma Jean record to feature vocalist Josh Scogin who went on to form The Chariot almost a year after parting ways with the band. They used to play a Nu Metal style under the name of Luti-Kriss, signed to Solid State in 2000, but changed their name and their sound drastically by 2002 when "Bless The Martyr And Kiss The Child" was released.
For a Christian act, Norma Jean is extremely dark and dare I say heavier than many Metal bands. The basis of this album is that almost every song is just one big, skull crushing breakdown with dissonant chords jumping at you from all directions. Very simplistic riffing is met with the growl of the aforementioned Josh Scogin. The riffing never gets too technical or inspiring but that's not the goal here. The goal is to be as loud and noisy as is humanly possible with a 5-piece band. The lyrics are almost indecipherable due to Scogin's throat and the same goes for the actual lyrics. Convoluted by metaphors and similes, the only thing you can take away from his poetry is that it is somehow referring to Jesus or Christianity in one way or another. If "Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste" didn't have the line "Christ is not a fashion, fading away" you would have no idea what it's about. A wonderful aspect to "Bless The Matyr" are the song titles, furthering the notion that Scogin really doesn't give a damn if the title matches what the track is actually about. He's quite clever, actually.
One of the album's most admirable traits is the song "Pretty Soon, I Don't Know What But, Something Is Going To Happen". Clocking in just shy of 16 minutes, this is an epic and atmospheric piece of material that tricks you into thinking it's an instrumental. The vocals don't kick in until about 6 minutes after it starts, building momentum the whole way until you just can't take it anymore. The song swings from moody melody, to thunderous chugging, to quiet, almost serene guitar parts. A complete contradiction to this is "Shotgun Message" which comes in right after "Pretty Soon" ends and is just over one and a half minutes in length. "Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste" is probably the most memorable with a riff just about every Hardcore fan boy knows and loves featuring guest vocals by Aaron Weiss, the vocalist from Mewithoutyou.
The intensity portrayed is not overdone and does not get old because they still have a sense of balance when it comes to their wall of sound. If they wanted to make pure noise they would have made a Wolf Eyes record, meaning there is a significant amount of dynamics being utilized making each track unique in its own way. On "I Used To Hate Cell Phones But Now I Hate Car Accidents" the group goes from Metalcore chaos to a laid back bass driven measure with what sounds like chanting in the background, only to finish you off with, what else, a breakdown... and actually one of the better ones of the entire effort. "Sometimes It's Our Mistakes That Make For The Greatest Ideas" is another song laden with atmosphere, its soothing nature constantly at odds with Scogin's scream while "The Human Face, Divine" starts strong and falls into an uneasy calm. I should also mention that "It Was As If The Dead Man Stood Upon The Air" is the counterpart, and prelude, to "The Human Face, Divine", both featuring the same riff and faring a similar vocal delivery. The closer, "Organized Beyond Recognition", stands out from the rest of the record, breaking the record's consistency with an almost Rush-like quality in the middle of the song.
Bassist Josh Doolittle, and guitarists Chris Day and Scottie Henry play well off of one another. Like I said before, the music is far from complex by way of notation. Their complexity is derived from the song arrangements. They pull off sudden stops and riff changes at every bend, going off time and destroying the tempo frequently. It takes a few listens to figure out what goes where and how many times a certain part is played before the next arrives which is mostly characterized on "The Entire World Is Counting On Me, And They Don't Even Know It" and "Face ; Face". I, personally, like this approach but some people may be turned off by just how often they steer everything in a completely different direction without warning. Another turn off could be the constant use of dissonant chords which, seemingly, never let up aside from a few places. You can even compare most of what they are playing to Every Time I Die's "Last Night In Town" released a year earlier which hurts the credit of them creating something new and different. The drummer Daniel Davison, who left the band in 2007, doesn't offer much by way of inspirational drumming but he is a solid musician and keeps things moving. His drum parts sometimes sound too much alike and this is apparent on "Creating Something Out Of Nothing Only To Destroy It", and "Pretty Soon, I Don't Know What But, Something Is Going To Happen". There are drum fills for both that sound almost identical. Nevertheless, he keeps up with the time signature perversion effectively, is efficient with his use of double bass and even has something similar to a blast beat on "The Human Face, Divine".
Norma Jean has become a staple in the Hardcore and Metalcore communities and, for a short time, had kids quoting a line from the breakdown of "Creating Something Out Of Nothing Only To Destroy It", "Like bringing a knife to a gun fight" on their Myspace accounts. Their popularity is a love hate affair. There are the fans who stuck with them after "Bless The Martyr", welcoming Cory Brandan as the new vocalist but then there are fans like me who can't stand anything they have written after Josh Scogin dispersed. I still hold this as a defining moment in the "Hardcore scene". This is the album that brought Norma Jean to the masses and if you dislike the rest of their discography you have probably already moved on to The Chariot like I have. I wish more bands had the creativity that Norma Jean had on "Bless The Martyr Kiss The Child". It's more than just noise. It's a groundbreaking debut that thousands of bands are still copying to this day.
Highlights: "Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste", "Pretty Soon, I Don't Know What But, Something Is Going To Happen", "Creating Something Out Of Nothing Only To Destroy It",
