Reviews

Norma Jean’s latest drifting dreamscape of brutality begins with an ending. The album is subtitled The marvelous End of The Exhausted Contender and the first line of the first track, Murderotica, ends with the words “..for this, our ending.” Plus the epic middle passage of Disconnecktie repeats over and over, “So I begin with the end in mind.” So why all this talk of the end?  After the departure of original singer and driving force Josh, and his subsequent resurrection in the Solid State band The Chariot, maybe some people had written off Norma Jean as over. But Norma Jean has returned after the amazing Bless The Martyr album with a record that is put together differently, but still lives up to the pre-established pedigree. O’ God, The Aftermath is a fire than wanes and waxes with the wind, a creation that begins with another’s end but finds a terrible beauty of its own.
 
Following original singer Josh Scobin’s larger than life legacy is a hard road to ride, new addition Corey takes it head on, bringing a far reaching range to the project and summoning images of the walk-on success of DEP’s former-fan cum singer Greg Puciato. Corey sings a bit more than Josh did, but hey the man’s got his own style. The biggest difference between the most recent Norma Jean albums lies not in the separate singers, but in the way the record was conceived. Where Bless The Martyr was record totally analog and retained a groove and grittiness, O’ God, The Aftermath was produced digitally and thus is less messy but less organic.
 
O’ God is it’s own animal, and Norma Jean remain one of the only bands able to create such memorable heaviness.  What could be mere noise is elevated and given a life beyond basic bludgeoning brutality.  Also, if you’re down with the god talk, then this album will especially be for you. They update Joel 3:16!  That’s pretty ballsy, you know, rewriting biblical verses, but when the end result is the badass sounding, “The harvester’s mouth has not gone dry,” who’s going to complain?  God?