ALBUM REVIEW: Deathrattle Sing For Me – Norma Jean
They might not have been there at the very beginning, but few could argue against NORMA JEAN being counted as metalcore legends at this point. Nine albums in, the Georgians have barely wavered in the quality of their output, evolving and growing even as the very meaning of the term ‘metalcore’ has shifted significantly. Their latest record, Deathrattle Sing For Me, arrives this Friday – just one day shy of 20 years since the release of their much-loved debut Bless The Martyr And Kiss The Child. Sonically, the two albums have little in common; a gulf explained by the quality releases of the intervening decades, and of course the band’s revolving door of line-up changes. All that really matters though is that the spirit of NORMA JEAN remains the same, as indeed it does here.
Never all that interested in repeating themselves, NORMA JEAN have expanded their sound further than ever on Deathrattle Sing For Me. Clocking in at a weighty 55 minutes, this is a big record in multiple senses of the word. It leans heavily on a modern production, with many of its tracks layered with pulsating electronics and subtle textures and samples which embellish the band’s potent traditional core of guitars, bass, drums and screams. Often, it results in what you might call a more radio-ready kind of metalcore, with early singles Call For The Blood and Spearmint Revolt both making plenty of sense in a world of the likes of ARCHITECTS and BRING ME THE HORIZON. Elsewhere, it manifests more dynamically, including not least in the lengthier – and both excellent – Penny Margs and Heartache which arrive towards the end of the record.
For all their more expansive and polished tendencies however, NORMA JEAN are at their best when they go for the jugular here. It’s their savagery which still really sets them apart, far more than when they try to blend into what one might call the modern metalcore landscape. Sixth track Any% is a prime example – a high-energy, bristling rager which gives the album something of a well-timed shot in the arm. Eighth track W W A V V E also delivers, this one bringing big riffs, furious verses and hypnotic guitar chugging before its immediate successor A Killing Word takes some of the more modern inclinations of this record and marries them to the kind of swaggering fury we’ve long come to expect from the band for a firm overall highlight.
Even if it is a bit of a mixed bag, one of Deathrattle Sing For Me’s central triumphs lies in just how easily it seems to run by. As mentioned, a 55-minute runtime is a fair undertaking, and yet it seems unlikely that many listeners will be checking their watches across these 13 tracks. There’s a good overall flow here, a sense of journey that’s brought somewhat full-circle in the lines “I think I’m witnessing the end of the world and I like it” and “This world was never meant for me / Or I was never meant for it” in opener 1994 and closer Heartache respectively. Perhaps the only tracks that could really do with a cut are the two shorter and mellower pieces Parallela and el-roi, neither of which feel wholly necessary in a record that already ebbs and flows plentifully within many of its individual songs.
Ultimately, it would be unfair to hold NORMA JEAN’s desire to push themselves against them. While some may miss the rawer and more continuously arresting ferocity of their earlier releases, Deathrattle Sing For Me is the sound of a band testing their limits once again and coming out with mostly impressive results. It’s an album worth investing a fair bit of time in, happy to reveal fresh little details to you on every listen. That the band are even trying new things at this juncture in their career is worthy of praise, but to imagine what they might manage if they refine this formula a little further is an even more exciting prospect altogether.
Rating: 7/10
Deathrattle Sing For Me is set for release on August 12th via Solid State Records.
Like NORMA JEAN on Facebook.