.:: band bio ::.
Atlanta, Georgia based NORMA JEAN are quickly being viewed as THE band who’s perfecting the “metal-core” blueprint. Having spent the last five years on the road, relentlessly playing ballrooms and basements, with their second proper full-length, "O’ God, The Aftermath", this five-piece is bent for world domination.
Recorded by Matt Bayles (Isis, Botch, Mastodon), "O’ God, The Aftermath" doesn’t just push the band’s personal limitations (which it does); it also pushes the limits of heavy music, period. “A lot of bands say ‘we’ve progressed...’” But the thing about these guys is they really did progress as musicians and artists, “a direct result of over two and a half years of touring while having only released one record” explains singer Cory Brandan. “[With O’ God], we wanted to do something that was musically challenging and artistically balanced," he adds.
The previous record, "Bless The Martyr And Kiss The Child" has scanned over 58,000 copies in the US, truly providing some pressure, but they’ve succeeded with aplomb. From the math-metal madness of ‘Muderotica’ to the mesmerizing melodicism of ‘Bayonetwork’ to the alternately ambient and aggressive ten-minute opus ‘Disconnetcktie,’ the new album spans the chaotic cannon of heavy music from Pantera to Poison The Well to Isis and is as cerebral and obscure to musical giants Tool. But, more importantly, it has as many stylistic shifts as it does time changes, refusing to fall back on hardcore’s clichéd song structures and “stabbed in-the-back” lyrical motifs. And the band’s heady ambition doesn’t apply solely toward the music. On "O God, The Aftermath", thematic lyrics, song titles and artful aesthetics are all open to interpretation. Oh, and then there are the insane live shows. Combining motion pictures, smoke machines and an epilepsy-inducing light show, the band are giving their peers a run for their money in all facets without letting up while new fans are taking stock in NORMA JEAN’s lethal delivery by the droves.
