28th
Norma Jean- Sludge Metal?
A few years ago, I would have considered myself a pretty dedicated fan of the band Norma Jean; after hearing one of my scenester friends wanking to them for a while, I decided to pick up what was, at that time, their new album Redeemer. I thoroughly enjoyed the album’s Botch-esque, noisy mathcore for about a year, but after a while, my interest in the band waned. When their most recent album, 2008’s The Anti-Mother was released, I picked it up mostly on a whim, and gave the first few tracks a half-hearted listen, before putting on the shelf for nearly a year. But recently, feeling in the mood for some of Norma Jean’s more abstract sounding 2004 release O God, the Aftermath, I for whatever reason felt compelled to give The Anti-Mother another listen. As the first track, Vipers, Snakes, and Actors unfolded, I began to notice something peculiar that had escaped my attention when I first bought the album: rather than sounding like the noisy, abstracted mathcore that the band’s previous two albums had been, it bore a more striking resemblance to the slowed-down, chugging-yet-melodic genre of sludge metal. Not necessarily in the vein of sludge pioneers such as Eyehategod, but a cleaner, yet still decidedly dirty version of the subgenre that hovered somewhere between the hardline, crusty sludge, and the atmospheric, experimental post-metal. While I didn’t think much of this album when I first heard it, after re-listening multiple times over the past few days, it’s stark, yet melodic sounds have grown on me. While it may seem almost heretical from the standpoint of the metal purist, I am not ashamed to admit that I found this to be a pretty great album overall, and that my interest in this band has been re-awakened.
4.1 out of 5
- Post-Industrial Waste
