REVIEW: NORMA JEAN - BLESS THE MARTYR AND KISS THE CHILD

 

NORMA JEAN - BLESS THE MARTYR AND KISS THE CHILD (Solid State Records, 2002)

Produced by Adam D. And Norma Jean

Recorded at Zing Studio

Cover Art by Asterisk Studio

Tracks: 1- The Entire World is Counting on Me and They Don´t Even Know it, 2- Face: Face, 3- Memphis will be Laid to Waste, 4- Creating Something Out of Nothing only to destroy it, 5- Pretty soon, I don´t know what, but something is going to happen, 6- The Shotgun Message, 7- Sometimes it´s our mistakes that make for the greatest ideas, 8- I used to hate cell phones but now I hate car accidents, 9- It was as if the dead man stood upon the air, 10- the Human Face, divine, 11- Organized Beyond Recognition

The cover art of this release fools you a bit...I had not listened Norma Jean´s music before I thought that it was some kind of gothic metal band or something like that, but I was completely wrong. Here we have this band that plays modern metal with a lot of emphasis on the rhythms and a sound that is like a mix of bands like Machine Head, Sepultura, Extol, Pantera and more but with screaming vocals that are sometimes processed giving an industrial feeling to the songs! Crazy? Well, then check for example the riffs in "The Entire World is..." to see the eerie sounds and rhythms that this guys create. But the main thing here is the pure power that the band´s songs have. The guitars are really distorted and have a huge sound that create all the heaviness that the band need to destroy the listener´s brain. One of the best things here is that despite using a lot of distortion and some effects you can listen everytyhing perfectly due to the clear mix.

Favorite tracks: "Memphis will be laid to waste", "Sometimes ...." and "I used to hate..."

Contact: www.solidstaterecords.com