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Rating: September 12, 2006: Norma Jean returns with a brand new album named "Redeemer."
First of all, let's just say they play noise and are labeled as Christian-rock.
This time the album was produced by a certain Ross Robinson (Slipknot knows who he is...), it's unclear how much influence he had, but the result is slightly less aggressive music with some clean vocal passages.
The album kicks off with "A Grand Scene for Color Film", a beautiful track, perhaps almost close to nu-metal. It is followed by the single "Blueprints for Future Homes", and here too, there are some clean passages. The third track stands out: "A Small Spark Vs. A Great Forest" lasts five minutes, starting in a paced and melodic way, then unfolding and concluding with a finale bordering on madness.
Next comes a quick punch to the teeth. "A Temperamental Widower" reminds us how hard these Americans can hit their instruments. Other noteworthy tracks include "The End Of All Things Will Be Televised" and "Amnesty Please" (absolutely fantastic). The album concludes with "No Passenger: No Parasite". A sort of instrumental track, repetitive, obsessed in both the brief lyrics and music but elevated by an excellent performance by Cory Brandan.
In conclusion, what can we say? Little publicized and not trend-focused, these Norma Jean can teach lessons to the trendy bands claiming to know how to play metal-core. They can go to hell.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 A Grand Scene for a Color Film (03:25)
Return to sender, I've fallen off the hint of suggestion
Unlearning the strange devices of the world
Is this the end of the earth. Or something like it
The great, the great universal coma has arrived
We are holding our hands towards the sun
Sit down, Come on sit down
Let's break out the shotguns, we're going to town
Return to sender, Carried straight from the womb to the grave
Your eyes have been paled to emptiness
All things have been carved out by the unceasing haunts of this
The Great Manipulator
The holding of our hands upwards and around the eclipsing sun
Has become empty and automatic
Sit down, Sit down, Come on sit down
Let's break out the shotguns, we're going to town
Let's break out the shotguns, we're going to town
You've given us user friendly grenades,
Just what are you trying to say?
Just what are you trying to say? (8x)
The holding of our hands upwards and around the eclipsing sun
Has become empty and automatic
Sit down, Sit down, Come on sit down
Let's break out the shotguns, we're going to town
04 A Temperamental Widower (02:48)
We're not going backwards
We're not going backwards
We're just killing onward, today
And put that knife away!
My first thought, a dragon
My first thought, a dragon
Two contending marches
And put that knife away!
She'll sting you to death
Like a swarm of hornets
From the hive
Endlessly I drift
Into this distraction
Sign my name to shame
Press hard, there are three copies
You'll put me in the grave
You'll put me in the grave
We're not going backwards
We're not going backwards
We're just killing onward, today
Put that knife away!
And put that knife away!
Making progress like that of a dead man
Constant last words, the last word.
The last words.
06 Songs Sound Much Sadder (03:18)
We’ll be legends
We are smashed men, still moving
We've tried everything in the book
No stranger to failure, death with a steady heartbeat
Scratching into any surface it wants
Joy and beauty rejected so many times
A world of hurt, a heart of false hope
And while we thought that we were learning how to live
We have been learning how to die
I should have known, we will be legends
Our hopes and dreams, our worst nightmares
Our worst nightmares have now come true
Tonight when this deep sleep falls on men
Driven by an instinct more powerful than life itself
From horror to hope, from hope and devastation
And while we thought that we were learning how to live
We have been learning how to die
I should have known, we will be legends
Overfed and unconcerned
It came with teeth and claw
Oh, hated form of emotion
You have become so obvious
My friend, the fatal habit of being myself
Ok, there's hope, step down with all your friends
09 Like Swimming Circles (03:06)
I don't care what you said
I won't sink in the flood
But I listen to every noise
That you make and make sense of what you say
And I take note to every sound
We're not the same again
Don't you dare insinuate me
You don't care what you create
You can't swim in this flood
And you'll swallow with every wave
That comes by and take, take what you need
You'll still swallow with every tide
We're not the same again
Don't you dare insinuate me
To hell with that!
10 Cemetery Like a Stage (04:20)
There will be no more color
Broken I stand here
A new creation
On the stage of history
Where map and compass
Mean nothing at all
The arrows are in me
My spirit drinks poison
I joined the avalanche
Just to feel alive
I remember sitting in
My mothers room
And I watched them cry
We're not supposed to be here
Tonight I will sleep on the floor
Oh, such weight
All colors rushing back
Restoring frail life
We're broken here
We're ruined here
There are strangers
In my house
Tripping over
Themselves to
White wash this
Disaster
I am young but
I'm not blind
All colors rushing back
Restoring frail life
We're broken here
We're ruined here
The Voice of Heaven
Speaks with time
A new understanding
Dedication
This will never fade
I guess the body
Means nothing, means nothing at all
Broken and unbroken
All colors rushing back
Restoring frail life
We're broken here
We're ruined here
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Other reviews
By RobyMichieletto
Their debut remains a cornerstone of post-core derived metal-core.
With Redeemer, the situation becomes even more complicated, revealing a lack of sonic inventiveness.
