You’ve had a fairly good run of chances to see Norma Jean this year America, but they’re giving you another it seems – but this will be the last chance until summer 2012!
Amusingly titled ‘PIZZA RIOT 2011‘ (I’m sure there’s an in-joke there somewhere), they’ll be hitting the road for seven dates towards the beginning of December with Oh, Sleeper, Stray From The Path and Lower Than Atlantis, before they head to Europe in February with The Chariot, Stray From The Path again, and Admiral’s Arms for the Evil Tiger Vulture Tour.
Due to the overwhelming success of Jimmy’s ‘Five Reasons Why Deathcore Isn’t Total Shit‘ series last summer, Heavy Blog Is Heavy will be backing further up the ladder of ‘core’ for the next two weeks, and counting down the five reasons why metalcore isn’t full of shit. It gets a bad rap sometimes, and being the underdog(?) champions that we are, we’re making a stand for the fat kid and suplexing the skinny elitist bully right on his stupid face.
Make sure to throw your $0.02 at me and tell me why I’m completely wrong in the comments section, if you wish. I shall use it to buy soap to wash the spittle from my forehead, safe in the knowledge that I’ll be your boss at the plant some day.
Norma Jean. Really? Yeah, fuckin’ really. Although their releases since have ranged from pretty good (Meridional) to distinctly average (The Anti-Mother), nothing has ever come close to the masterpiece (yeah, I said it) that is Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child.
Bless the Martyr, for those caught unawares with their metaphorical trousers-of-metal-knowledge firmly around their ankles, was actually their first album, so to find it included in this list is no mean feat. Released in 2002 – almost a decade ago now – it found the band at their very best. No discredit to the current incarnation, but something about the original line-up just had it. It featured drummer Daniel Davison, who was responsible for much of the writing (and as a side note, he left in 2007, which was when The Anti-Mother came out…). The original five also contained vocalist Josh Scogin, who for me makes this album. His vocal performance elevates the album to something really special, and if it weren’t for The Chariot, I’d be super bummed that he left shortly after this was released.
Just an interesting snippet that popped up on The PRP today – that being Norma Jean performing the third track “Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste” from their 2002 debut Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child with original vocalist Josh Scogin (now of The Chariot).
I love Norma Jean, but I love them more with Scogin. Of course, I wouldn’t want him to go back, because The Chariot are even better in my opinion, but I’m glad they’re still friends and meet up to do awesome stuff like this for each other.
Norma Jean are currently on their headlining Scream the Prayer Tour, and Scogin has been doing this pretty regularly. Catch them if you still can!
Wow! I mean I know the legendary Travis Barker of, like, my favourite band EVER Blink 182does this, but it’s still impressive nonetheless!
I wonder how often he had to practi–erm, wait a minute, something’s not right here…
Hahaaaaaa. No, that wasn’t funny, I’m sorry. Talk about a roundabout way of telling you that Buffalo’s own metalcore raconteurs Every Time I Die are working on new material, and have posted some footage of drummer Ryan Leger at work. I’m always excited for news about these guys – they manage to keep metal fun, whilst not sucking the fecal matter from 10,000 crusty anuses (anui?). Hopefully we’ll be getting some more concrete news about the release soon, but until then, watch one of my favourite mashups ever, which involves ETID and an early Norma Jean song.
It took them long enough, but the Scream The Prayer Tour 2011 dates have finally been announced. The tour features Norma Jean, Sleeping Giant, The Chariot, War Of Ages, Close Your Eyes, Texas In July, I The Breather, The Great Commission, As Hell Retreats, and Sovereign Strength. This package is a mixed bag for sure; you can check out what I think of the lineup in detail if you haven’t already. The tour is intersecting with Cornerstone Festival soon after it begins, and later on with The All Stars Tour. All I have to say is that you’ll steer clear of the dates with The All Star Tour if you know what’s good for you. Tour dates after the jump:
Man I love me some Norma Jean, their newest release did not disappoint and neither did this newest video. The footage mostly contains closeup shots of the band’s instruments while they’re all rocking out. These images are the spliced with some guy watching, and recording the footage in another room. By the way, if you can tell me what medication is in the pill bottle the spectator grabs for I applaud your eyesight. I couldn’t figure it out. I found the video to be original, as everyone else on the blog rightfully states “at least they weren’t playing in a warehouse.” Regardless if the video-description entices you, I recommend watching it just to hear Bastardizer as it’s an awesome song all by it-self. Also be sure to catch them if you can on their upcoming tour. If you’re second guessing their live performance, just read my review to restore your confidence.
I’m cheating a little bit with Hero In Error, as they actually hail from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. Although not actually British, the poor bastards are stuck having to look at our ugly backsides so it’s only right that they get a bit of recognition.
They came to my attention through a recent tour with Chronographs which, although I missed, I kept a weather eye on, and was impressed by the tunes – like a cross between The Dillinger Escape Plan and the vocals of Norma Jean/The Bled.
They’ve got a seriously mighty history of support slots on tour too, having backed up the likes of Mastodon, Architects and TesseracT. Definitely worth checking out further.
Alright, so the lineup for the Scream The Prayer IV has just been announced. As usual with a tour of this size, it’s a mixed bag, and you also have to consider that these are all christian bands, and therefore they are more likely to suck. However, I do believe that this year the good may actually outweigh the bad, unlike last year. Thank goodness. Lets have a look at the lineup shall we?
As soon as the piercing feedback and subsequent hellish dirge of opening track “Hello, World!” erupts from your speakers, it becomes abundantly clear; Meek is Murder is the powerful return of the mathcore aesthetic done right. Sounding like Nails fronted by The Chariot’s Josh Scogin, Algorithms is so good that you can pretend Norma Jean never found out about Warped Tour and instead decided that a path of righteous technical showmanship and a steamroller of hardcore assault was the better way to go.
Okay, so maybe it is, but it doesn’t make this any less awesome. This brilliant mashup takes one part Every Time I Die‘s “Ebolarama“, mixes it with Norma Jean‘s “Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste“, and throws in a little KRS-ONE for good measure. The result? Well, see for yourself:
These things often have the potential to be either terrible and/or boring, but this manages the feat of just being good.
Major props to The Legion of Doom for making this. I know it’s pretty old at this point, and some of you may have heard it already, but I thought it was at least worth sharing on a painfully slow news day.
Meek Is Murder
