Norma Jean – The Anti Mother

Score: 8/10

Some of the most dreaded words a musician hears are, “I like their old stuff better.”

Fortunately for Christian metalcore band Norma Jean, their new album “The Anti Mother” could attract many new fans in contrast with those old fans the album will scare away.

Trying a new sound is easily one of the riskiest moves to make in the music industry.

Unfortunately it is a necessary move. Norma Jean’s brand of hard-hitting metalcore takes a much more melodic tone on “The Anti Mother.” It seems like whenever a band known for heavy music takes a lighter and more melodic approach to the genre fans backlash against the band despite the actual quality of the music (see bands: Funeral For A Friend and In Flames). In Norma Jean’s case, the melodic approach seems to build off the band’s existing sound in an unforeseen way: this album is catchy.

The concept of consonance and dissonance is at the heart of the hardcore and metalcore genres.

Norma Jean’s older material delved deeply into the contrast of consonance and dissonance in such a way that more often gave the upper hand to the latter, which made the band a difficult listen for many metalcore fans. A Norma Jean song here and there sounded good, but the older albums in whole lacked songs that fell into the consonant category, thus making the albums difficult to get through.

However, “The Anti Mother” abandons Norma Jean’s old habits of layering dissonant chords in favor of a guitar-crunch that is just as crushing and brutal, but now has a melodic tone to it. The new sound of the band is more reminiscent of Thrice’s “The Illusion of Safety,” as opposed to “Redeemer” and “O’ God, the Aftermath.”

With tracks like “Self Employed Chemist” and “Robots 3, Humans 0,” Norma Jean produced material that appeals to the radio-metal crowd, but not to the point where they will alienate their entire fanbase. Both songs are catchy, but still maintain the conventions of metalcore which few bands outside of Killswitch Engage have been able to accomplish.

For the more traditional Norma Jean fan, the songs “Vipers, Snakes, and Actors,” and “Birth of the Anti Mother” don’t disappoint.

For the entire composition of the album, only the middle tracks “Death of the Anti Mother” and “Surrender Your Sons…” disrupt the intense flow of the album. However, the following tracks “Murphy Was An Optimist” and “Opposite of Left and Wrong” are an excellent example of blending the more melodic sound with the band’s traditional dissonance.

With few exceptions, “The Anti Mother” is a bold step forward for Norma Jean.