Norma Jean – Deathrattle Sing For Me (Review)

Three years after All Hail and nearly exactly 20 years after their debut album Bless the Martyr & kiss the Child, Norma Jean are back with their new album Deathrattle Sing For Me.

Through the course of their career, Norma Jean changed their musical direction and focuses several times. Their first two albums were some kind of finding process, somewhere between Coalesce and Botch. Redeemer established Norma Jean as a force of its own. Anti-Mother and Meridional strengthened that. Wrongdoers saw them redefining their formula. Since then, Norma Jean have found their Metalcore niche, consisting of clean vocals, occasional melodies and a lot of chaotic and harsh aural attacks. Deathrattle Sing For Me executes this in a splendid fashion.

On the past three albums, Norma Jean always opened with a Sludge-bruiser and “1994” is no different here. After some ambient noises, you are greeted with this huge riff and a singer on the brink of shredding his vocal cords, in short: this is a great song to start a new era of Norma Jean. The return of producer Jeremy Griffith feels fresh and familiar at the same time. Some of Norma Jean’s finest songs were recorded with him (“A Media Friendly Turn For The Worse” or “Deathbed Atheist“) and with this album, there are surely some more fine moments.

“Spearmint Revolt“, the second song released prior to this album, is among the best material they have written so far. The longer the song lasts, the more danger rises for your surroundings. “Sleep Explosion” and “W W A V V E” are more typical new school Norma Jean anthems: big choruses, great mosh-parts, songs made for a live environment.

Deathrattle Sing For Me is great sign of life by Norma Jean after three years of absence. The moment when the epic closer “Heartache” ends this album, any Norma Jean fan will surely think the same: it is effing good that the almighty Norma Jean is back.