Note: Dear friends, at this time I am unable to latch videos of the songs I refer to below. Until such a time that I am able to place those tunes in this article, please accept the below live clip and the official video for "If You Got It at Five, You Got It at Fifty" as an apology and a teaser. And pick up this record. It's filthy.
I would argue that I’m a patient person, and rarely the type to
let anticipation dominate my mindset. However, when I heard at the beginning of
the year that Norma Jean was working on a new album, I had no idea how to
contain myself during the interminable wait. After devouring their previous
catalogue over the past two years, Norma Jean quickly rocketed into my list of
favorite bands, and the thought of new music to meet my fix was one that never
left my head. And since it’s arrival at my doorstep three months ago, Wrongdoers has
remained in heavy rotation, for the boys of Norma Jean are never ones to
disappoint.
If there is one sound Norma Jean sought to capture with this
release, it is the ear-pounding beat of adrenaline. Jeff Hickey and Chris Day
match licks and chugs on guitar, through which the thumping bass work of John
Finnegan demands to be heard. Clayton “Goose” Holyoak absolutely slaughters on
his drums, ranging his approach from speed-metal thrashing to laying down beats
worthy of a hip-hop record. His eclectic but rock-solid drumming feeds the
focus of the instrumentation on creating serious, swaying grooves, something
relatively unheard of from this act. But despite featuring three completely new
members in the lineup, Wrongdoers lacks not at all for Norma Jean’s
signature smashing heaviness, and Goose would argue this is perhaps the band’s
most “pissed off” record to date[1].
The brutality and chaos that defines this band’s sound is a heavy presence,
with every tune featuring disgustingly low tunings and no small amount of
screeching feedback. The insanity and truth inherent in the mess of this
group’s music shines throughout—indeed, the middle of “Neck in the Hemp”
features a complete collapse of the song before an explosive return, which
drives me wild every time. The sonic onslaught recorded on this record pure and
honest in every way, and as always, super goddamn heavy.
With Wrongdoers, it is wholly apparent that Norma
Jean has spent some real time cultivating a sound so dynamic, it simultaneously
encapsulates the sonic journeys of previous albums while maintaining an
extremely distinct flavor of its own. After completing recording, Cory Brandan remarked
on the new record that “we really pushed ourselves to do something really
different while expanding on what we’ve done in the past.”[2]
And while I always hate to place an album against its predecessors, with this one,
the band deftly recalls old musical themes—or as Brandan calls it, “old school
classic Norma Jean nastiness”[3]—and
takes them farther than they had previously gone. For instance, “Hive Minds,”
the record’s opener, features a long instrumental space reminiscent of Bless
the Martyr & Kiss the Child, while “If You Got It at Five, You Got It
at Fifty,” sounds like a b-side from the Redeemer days. Despite
this, Wrongdoers maintains itself as the continued evolution
of the band’s pounding voice. It is as soaked in the melodic melodies of later
releases as it is driven by atonal, grindcore guitar that hasn’t really been
heard since O’ God, the Aftermath. Brandan’s blatant juxtaposition
of frank, beautiful vocals and guttural screams break ground that Norma Jean
has only tasted previously, and the decision to focus the majority of the
instrumentation in stomachable time signatures furthers this band’s foray into
the melodic sector of hardcore, without sacrificing the fearsome voice for
which they have always been known.
One of the most sonically interesting tunes from this
record is the album’s closer, “Sun Dies, Blood Moon.” Clocking in at a little
over fourteen minutes, it is an epic that effectively sums up the many themes
and choices evident on Wrongdoers. Inherent in the tune are
multiple references to the band’s previous work: the song is separated into two
suites, a callback to O’ God, the Aftermath’s closer
“Scientifiction,” and both the instrumental space and sheer length of the tune
are highly reminiscent of the band’s first release. However, the definition in
“Sun Dies, Blood Moon” obviously flows from the span of new sounds and
approaches built into it. Opening with a clean guitar riff (practically a Norma
Jean first), the heavy palm mutes and simmering vocals seem to be an apparent
homage to Tool, and the small orchestra dominating the beginning of the second
suite speaks to this band’s commitment to making interesting and meaningful
music that is beyond themselves. Though the tune’s focus is melody from all
angles, yet it lacks nothing of the grinding, heavy foundation this band has
built itself upon, leaving “Sun Dies, Blood Moon” as a perfect amalgamation of
everything that originally hooked me into this band and everything that keeps
me craving more.
Check out this live amalgamation of "Sun Dies, Blood Moon" and "Disconnecktie"
Also groundbreaking for Norma Jean is Brandan’s performance,
both vocally and lyrically. While the past couple of records have given him a taste
of a singing voice, it is on Wrongdoers
that he truly discovers how much that voice is worth. The album is an even mix
between clean, sung melodies and heavy screams, and Brandan functions quite
well in both realms, giving each style its due over the progression of their
tunes. “Sword in Mouth, Fire Eyes” is
dominated by Brandan’s powerful and evocative melody, before transitioning into
the brutal thrash-punk yells of “The Lash Whistled like a Singing Wind.” Accompanying
the dynamo vocals are lyrics that, while not Brandan’s best, are consistently
interesting and stuffed with raw emotion. Many of his phrases are
straightforward, yet in some songs his word choices explode with originality,
such as with the phrase “Unhand the knife drawer” in “Wrongdoers,”[4]
while in others, he takes a cliché image completely reworks it, as in “Sword in
Mouth, Fire Eyes:” “We calmly weigh our thoughts before we know them / Careful
not to break our only scale.”[5]
Many of these lines seem to focus angst and anger against the music industry,
but Brandan’s images and allusions make this bloody pulp of a topic seem like a
fresh corpse ready for beating—his comparison of a record company to giant man-eating
plants through the title “Triffids” is brilliant in its brutal honesty.
Although the lyrical content of Wrongdoers may be the weakest part of a strong record, Brandan and
the rest of the band hit a grand slam in one particular tune. “Hive Minds,” the
apocalyptic opener to the record, features music and verse that flow like pure
poetry, painting an image of a world slowly being dominated by creeping vines. The
tunes lyrics are the most solid on the record, as Brandan implores his listener
to see the destruction slowly swallowing the world around him. His desperate
vocals seem to writhe with energy, which is easily captured in his original
approach to his lyrics. As in other tunes, he re-imagines a cliché into
something light years better with his line: “Gravity may not be a law / but all
things will find ground.” Furthermore, many of Brandan’s phrases, such as
“change hungry hands” and “a sunset care ride with a bottle of meds” create
such powerful images that they seem more worthy of a poem than a song, but his
deathly screams assert that they belong to this saga alone. Mix that with a
drawling instrumental bridge and a thunderous performance from all ends
(especially Goose’s landmine drumming), and you have a monumental opener in “Hive
Minds,” a sure sign that the end is indeed here, even if no one saw it coming.
"If You Got It at Five, You Got It at Fifty"
With Wrongdoers,
Norma Jean took a ton of risks. Between new sounds and an upheaval in the line-up,
this record could be seen as hardly worth the title of a true release from this
band. But spin this record one time and any doubt that what your hearing is
Norma Jean will be erased. With this record, the band begins a move into a new
era of music, one that Brandan calls “easily the most energetic.”[6]
Wrongdoers is as brutal and honest as
it gets from this group—it’s smart, it’s scary, it’s heavy, and it rocks. Embedded
on this record is the simple truth of what a hard-working and fun-loving band
is capable of, and if you haven’t picked it up yet, you are truly missing out.
Tunes to Check Out:
1) “‘The Potter Has No Hands’”
2) “Hive Minds”
3) “Triffids”
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