Word on the street has it that Norma Jean has created their masterpiece with their fifth studio album, “Meridional.” It’s more ambitious, broad, and filled-out than anything they’ve done yet. It’s their best album to date. But it is not a masterpiece. There’s still plenty room for improvement. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s still a damn good album, and one of the more interesting Metal releases this year.
The momentum and pace is great. Leaderless and Self-Enlisted starts things off heavy, loud, and low-toned, punctuated by sporadic melodic vocals. The Anthem of the Angry Brides is heavier, and is the proverbial elusive unicorn of Metal – progressive, disjointed “mathcore” that actually sounds amazing. (Man, I feel so dirty for using that stupid, empty label.) Not too many bands can accomplish that, and too many people pretend to like it when it goes wrong.
Deathbed Atheist is the first video and single, and is the first change of pace. But the momentum doesn’t stop, it’s the end of a movement in a larger work. Things pick right back up with Bastardizer. From there on it stays pretty heavy until Falling from the Sky: Day Seven, a moody and ethereal piece that changes the mood for until things get torn back open by Everlasting Tapeworm.
The poppier tunes like People that Surround You on A Regular Basis manage to stay true to the overall tone of the work. They’re not just stabs at a hit. It’s nice to see that Norma Jean won’t dumb their sound down, but fully embrace all that makes this album rock.
Nonetheless, it’s still short of a masterpiece. While the lyrics seem to fit the flood of the music, they’re a tad undeveloped and a bit juvenile. We all know Norma Jean is a Christian band. And that’s fine, they still have plenty of artistic integrity. On the spectrum of religious bands they’re somewhere closer to MxPx or 108 than Stryper or Deicide. However, while they have managed to evolve from some obvious hardcore musical influences and explore a fuller, more intricate sound, they’ve retained much of the flimsy early hardcore writing.
Most of “Meridional” is written as a 2nd-person accusation. The content is directed at an unidentified ”You” who either doesn’t want to accept the truth, or understand the truth, or listen to the truth, etc. It’s underdeveloped and none-too-interesting. Christian, Buddhist, Hare Krishna, Satanist – it’s really all the same — intelligent interpretations of religious belief in music can be intriguing. But if a band insists on injecting its religious beliefs into its art, an innovative adult exploration of how and why their faith matters is much more compelling than an indictment of the infidels. This finger-pointing is symptomatic of immature writing, and is the sole element of this album that holds “Meridional” back from being a masterpiece.
Regardless, it’s still a damn good album and one of the better Heavy releases of 2010. If these guys grow up a little, they might just pump out a masterpiece yet.
Popularity: 3% [?]
i bought their first record and thought it was pretty good. i saw them with….. umm….dillinger? maybe….a while ago. the singer (the old one) made his head bleed…… earned my twelve bucks.