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Norma Jean - O' God, The Aftermath

 

RELEASED: March 1st, 2005 PRODUCER:Matt Bayles LABEL:Solid State Records BAND: Cory Putman Chris Day Scottie Henry Jake Schultz Daniel Davison

+ Heavy, Chaotic, And when it hits, it hits hard - Lack of coherent songwriting, Songs occasionally drag on too long

TRACKS: 1.Murderotica (An Avalanche In D Minor) 2.Vertibraille (Choke That Thief Called Dependence) 3.Bayonetwork (Vultures in Vivid Color) 4.Dilemmachine (Coalition; Hoax) 5.Coffinspire (Multitudes, Multitudes In The Valley Of Decision!) 6.Liarsenic (Creating A Universe Of Discourse) 7.Disconnecktie (The Faithful Vampire) 8.Absentimental (Street Clam) 8.Characterantula (Talking To You And The Intake Of Glass) 9.Pretendeavor (In Reference To A Sinking Ship) 10.Scientification (I. A Clot Of Tragedy; II. 11.A Swarm Of Dedication)

OVERVIEW

Chaos in music is good.  Who can forget the first time they heard the all-out speed assault of “Kill ‘Em All?” or Eddie Van Halen straight ripping with no regard for time signature?  For the more seasoned hard music vets out there, how about the first time a band like Suffocation or Napalm Death smashed your eardrums in?

        So chaos is, um, good, but chaos at the expense of coherent songwriting isn’t, and that’s my primary problem with Norma Jean’s “O’God, the Aftermath”.  Their previous record was darn close to a home run at the time – brutal, cathartic, messy, and about as close to chaotic hardcore perfection as you could really get at the time, but its success was equally due to the fact that each individual song was written with something unique about it, whether it was killer riffage (yep, I made that one up), a bone-crunching breakdown, or Scogin’s screaming making your throat hurt.  “Aftermath” is a quarter turn off when it comes to memorable songs – it’s heavy as crap, arguably even more chaotic than “Martyr”, and new screamer Cory Putman (Eso-Charis, Living Sacrifice) is certainly capable, but the one thing this album needs is some cohesive songwriting to tie all the horror chords and breakdowns together.  It’s still pretty darn good, and, like the score reflects, is a solid record, especially for fans of the genre who probably don’t care much about songwriting to begin with.

SONGS

In the interests of keeping your faithful reviewer carpal-tunnel-free, I’m only going to refer to each song by its first name.  “Murderotica” is a decent album opener, and at only 2:00, it doesn’t really suffer from its lack of form and repetition simply because it’s too short.  “Vertibraille” is one of my favorite tracks on here, simply because it hits hard right from the downbeat and sees Norma Jean making the most out of a riff or two and actually expanding on good ideas, which is where they really show how talented they are compositionally.  “Bayonetwork” is a no-brainer for the album’s first single, as it features the closest to clean vocals that Cory Putman will likely ever lay down in a disturbingly catchy sing-along chorus, if the word singing can even be used in this context.  Things move right along with “Dilemmachine”, which is another 2-minute adrenaline blast with some of their catchier riffing, and “Coffinspire”, another one of the better-written songs on the record.  “Liarsenic”, the album’s 2nd single, is also an almost surefire winner due to Putman’s quasi-clean vocals making another appearance – it’s probably as catchy as this sort of music will ever get, at least on this album.  In the tradition of “Bless the Martyr…”, Norma Jean again elects to throw their longest song right in the middle of the record, and if you can make yourself sit through the whole thing, “Disconnecktie” isn’t too shabby for a 10-minute dirge in chaotic metalcore – this song was a good choice for Putman to mix up his vocals a bit.  “Absentimental” is right back to business as usual, and “Charactarantula” isn’t anything remarkable, but that brings us to “Pretendeavor”, which is somehow both brutal AND catchy, and certainly one of the better songs on here.  “Scientification” is a decent album closer, but at this point, the offbeat tritone/9th chords are starting to wear a little bit.  It’s not a bad song, but it doesn’t really bring anything we haven’t heard on this record already.

CONCLUSION

I hate to be that loser that’s always going on incessantly about how such and such band’s first record was so much better than their latest one, but in this case I think Norma Jean’s songwriting has definitely taken a turn for the worse.  I realize that 2 members have changed since “Martyr”, but the results this time around are just a bit lacking in the songwriting department.  I’m not asking for some verse-chorus-breakdown garbage, but I’m much more inclined to listen to something like “Vertibraille”, where good ideas (and there’s plenty of them here) are expanded on than the more discombobulated songs.  It’s still solid, and it’s sold well, but it’s definitely one where I’ll reach for it every now and then, rather than all the time.
Of course, some 32,837,932,742,997,873 Hot Topic junkies disagree with me and will be happy to tell you why this is the greatest record of all time.  Suit yourself.

 

Review by Matt Rewinski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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