Southern metalcore mainstays Norma Jean drop the memorable Deathrattle Sing For Me 20 years after their debut.
Norma Jean produced an incredibly solid cache of albums in the past ten years. From the chaos and immersion of Wrongdoers to the mercurial All Hail, their latest iterations pass the stress test. Though the band doesn’t retain a single member of its original lineup, one can look at the entirety of Polar Similar as proof of their greatness. Arguably its crowning achievement since the Josh Scogin-led Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child from all the back in 2002, tracks like “1,000,000 Watts” and “Reaction” suggest an artist only just settling into its groove given how new and exciting that sound still is.
One of the critical advantages Norma Jean retained over the years remains their ability to evolve from album to album. With that in mind, expectations for Deathrattle Sing For Me stand tall given the titans from the last decade. In short, it may not land all of its shots, but it’s a worthy addition to a packed discography.
And you can see the plunge,
Bite them all off in,
In front of all of us.
Curiously, as if to blunt some of the hype, the weakest track on the album appears as its lead single. The song certainly has merit, but the “Ones and zeroes incoming” refrain makes me think more of turn-of-the-century Powerman 5000 than most of us would be comfortable with. I can’t fault the band for taking some chances, and other experiments throughout the album yield better results. Unfortunately, here it serves to take some of the air built during the wicked open “1994”. Even so, the sludgy pace of the lead riff sounds hypnotic, and vocalist Cory Brandan rights his own ship in time for the chorus.
January, you’re the furthest thing,
Even when I’m standing right behind you,
But I didn’t say it like I know you don’t get it.
“Spearmint Revolt”, on the other hand, could wind up an instant classic. The guitarwork sounds absolutely southern-fried throughout, bringing forward their trademark aggression. The entire low-end moves like a sea of molasses clear through to the song’s bridge. Not only bringing an endlessly replayable chorus, but also a series of winding passages to eschew the traditional structure. The name dropping of the album title sounds purely triumphant despite the misanthropy the themes point to. Though it clearly was written to be a single, even with the painfully distorted outro, it still demonstrates a willingness to step outside the normal Norma Jean style, which constantly evolves throughout not only this album, but throughout their tenure as an outfit. Brenden did refer to the album as “extremely dense” in the album’s promotion, which thus far rings solidly true.
“Memorial Hoard” does an abrupt left turn, sounding at points like Language–era The Contortionist, a high compliment. The mildly-hokey “Imagine” interpolation limits the enjoyability to some degree, but it’s still a stand-out track. Other highlights down the stretch include the brief, claustrophobic “Parallella” and the sometimes Vein.fm-like “W W A V V E”. The albums really ramps up with its last three songs, including the scene-setting interlude “el-roi”.
Don’t you “Glass half full, half empty,”
No glass at all.
If I have one complaint about “Sleep Explosion”, it’s like it’s an interlude of its own, the lead-in to stellar closer “Heartache”. That’s more praising the latter song than slighting the former, though. This track is a beatdown, an angry detonation before the more progressive final track. Brendan mentioned there’s “a nineties vibe” on this record, and “Sleep Explosion” fits that bill. Once we’re through it, we’re onto the aptly-named “Heartache”, which I really can’t say enough about. Norma Jean is no stranger to long, building last tracks, such as “Sun Dies, Blood Moon” and “IV. The Nexus”, and this fits snugly in that company. It’s a long moment of catharsis on an overwhelmingly negative package and gives the listener a massive gem to look forward to on subsequent playthroughs.
Ultimately, it’s hard to place Deathrattle Sing for Me in the context of Norma Jean‘s discography. I’d place both Wrongdoers and Polar Similar higher in my own personal rankings, but it accomplishes its apparent goals a bit better than All Hail did. One could never complain that they don’t differentiate their sound album-to-album, and this one follows that pattern well.
At the end of the day, it’s simply impressive that they continue to rip this hard, and do it better than the vast majority of their metalcore-adjacent peers.
8/10
Norma Jean – Deathrattle Sing for Me is out this Friday via Solid State Records and can be pre-ordered here.