Norma Jean - Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child

[Austavious]

Norma Jean - Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child
Record Label: Solid State Records
Release Date: August 13, 2002

As a Norma Jean fan, and an even bigger fan of the metalcore genre, a lengthy listen of Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child was an incredible disappointment. This was the very first album produced, and (thankfully) the last that Josh Scogin participated in as vocalist. An obvious yet interesting fact about Bless the Martyr is that it was recorded without the use of computers, which was either a complete mistake, or maybe an act of over-confidence on Scogin's part.

The first track of this loud, unorganized mess of an album is "The Entire World Is Counting on Me, and They Don't Even Know It". After an incredible amount of boring guitars, almost inaudible drums, uninteresting and exasperating vocals, and loads of unnecessary stops and pauses, I could already tell that listening was a mistake. Being that there was not one audible word to this song, I looked up the lyrics, only to find the attempt of typical "fu** the world" poetry ("Set this world, all ablaze/For all I care set it all ablaze").

The third track, "Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste" was a step away from amazing. Starting off with an intense scream and building guitar, it later progresses into an eerie guitar bit with Scogin's distant moans. The song reaches an unforgettable climax when Aaron Weiss of mewithoutYou contributes a raw, intense vocal breakdown. This song is full of metaphorical meaning, and the vocals can actually be understood, making "Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste" an unforgettable track.

"Creating Something Out of Nothing, Only to Destroy It", the following track, starts off just like almost every other song off the album; uninteresting and bland. About one minute in, though, it becomes bearable, with change of pace instruments and interesting vocals. After these two accomplishments, the rest of Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child goes back to the lifeless, boring sound of early Norma Jean, complete with the 15:49 instrumental, "Pretty Soon, I Don't Know What, but Something Is Going to Happen", the dullest instrument collision I have ever had the misfortune of hearing.

Post-hardcore, generic metalcore; the Norma Jean discography.

[gjpinizz]

this is norma jeans best album and in my opinion one of the better metalcore albums out there.

[awakeohsleeper]

Sounds like someone doesn't like Scogin. Sounds like someone wanted to write a review just to say that. How anyone can call 'Memphis will be laid to waste' unforgettable is beyond me. I don't care much for Norma Jean, but that's an excellent track.

[denissuxx]

Did you forget to write a conclusion?

[fobmcrafi6]

Sounds like someone doesn't like Scogin. Sounds like someone wanted to write a review just to say that. How anyone can call 'Memphis will be laid to waste' unforgettable is beyond me. I don't care much for Norma Jean, but that's an excellent track.
THERE S A HELL OF A LOTTA BANDS IN THE POST-HARDCORE SCENE THAT COVER THAT SONG. Honestly i love it and honestly it seems like you were writing more of a hate note to the band than a review. If you hate the album because of one person show the downfall in the vocals don t let it affect your whole view on the album.

[bard]

terrible review.

[awakeohsleeper]

THERE S A HELL OF A LOTTA BANDS IN THE POST-HARDCORE SCENE THAT COVER THAT SONG. Honestly i love it and honestly it seems like you were writing more of a hate note to the band than a review. If you hate the album because of one person show the downfall in the vocals don t let it affect your whole view on the album.
I'm guessing you weren't meant to be quoting me?

[Atell]

Wow, horrible review, great Album.

[Alex1410]

this album is amazing.

[Rationalist]

Great rating, but you and I have different reasonings behind it.

[Rationalist]

Did you forget to write a conclusion?
Yes, indeed he did.

[defmytones]

Did you forget to write a conclusion?
This. Apparently the album ends there?

This album has a great deal behind why I listen to many of the artists I do today. I could go on and explain reasons why this is so, but Ill follow suit and end with no purpose really given to what I said.

[ohmessylife]

It's a sad day when this album is referred to as an "unorganized mess".

[fobmcrafi6]

I'm guessing you weren't meant to be quoting me?
yeah sorry i was actually agreeing with you, i forgot to mention that in the post.

[jamjams]

saying you're a norma jean fan and writing this review is an absurd contradiction.
this is the landmark norma jean record.

and seriously????? claiming the lack of computers is a mistake???
most ridiculous comment i've read in a review.

don't use a review to tell everyone you don't like something.
just tell your friends you don't like it.

[dancorexx]

dude I love this album it's one of my all time that's a pretty bad review in my opinion. Scogin does best in this album and Everything is alive everything is breathing (the chariot) he uses all his vocal range which i love. I also like how this album is raw and it's just true true hardcore music.

[Mitch Dickard]

worst review i've ever read. Unfounded opinions can be stated on any review, you can't even back up what you've said.

computers lacking is what made this album .... you dumb shit. seriously? norma jean's raw emotion, the fact that this album was recorded LIVE in a studio is phenomenal. so many bands can never achieve such a sound through live plays.

on top of this you gave the album a genre and the band a niche to fill. You can't define a bands sound by a genre and when you do, you give them something to live up to. No band can live up to a listeners obligations if there are prejudices' they are wanting the band to make.


This was a TERRIBLE review, you looked like an ignorant dumbass for stating that one of the most influential records of it's time was "unorganized" which makes zero sense.... go listen to your produced, sampled, and quantized BULLSHIT music and remember that those steady, and perfect double bass drum hits, WERE NEVER PLAYED LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE! cuz it's overdubbed with samples.

[CobraKai84]

this album is a classic. at least you didnt miss the brilliance of memphis will be laid to waste. But tracks like i used to hate cell phones.., human face divine, and prganized beyond recognition should have stood out as well. The vocals are raw and full of passion. I think you need to take another listen. It may grow on you

[Jamos4184]

Just noticed this review and thought "who would give this album a score like that unless they hated this genre?", after reading the review, however, I can see why it's the only review the user has posted.

Let me guess, you became such a "huge Norma Jean fan" after Redeemer came out?

[Equality 7-2521]

My apologies for bringing this topic back. I couldn't help it.


After a decade of listening to this album, I'd have to say that this review doesn't do this album justice. Before I get into this, I just want to let you know that I'm not a very big fan of metal. With me, hard music died long ago. I had been to many shows in and around Raleigh NC around the time that this album was released, and what I saw were many many bands. I was a fan of solid state, and I have very fond memories of seeing Beloved, Norma, Zao, and a few other earlier bands to boot. Post 9/11, the explosion of these bands was nothing less than miraculous, given at how stale, brash, repetitive, minimalistic, ugly and aggressive they were. But there was something about them that drew people to them. There was something they had that no one else had. They weren't your typical metal-head, long hair goatee dethklok fat wiccan guitar virtuoso's that shredded for minute after minute. They were the disenfranchised youth. They were the victims of an ever distancing surburban wasteland of mediocrity. They were us. There were no real gimmicks with them. The ones who followed, eventually made gimmicks that superficially mimicked their behavior and style. They were copied again and again, from band to band, with each iteration growing more fickle than the last, until now. What you have now, is a bunch of trendy scene **** that don't even know what it was like. They don't even know how strong the relation was, between your average confused high-schooler, to the elder college go-er that worked a job, lived within his means, and still got burnt by the system, day in and day out, and came to some shit-hole venue in everyday regalia to scream his heart out to jarring guitar rythms and double bass pedal pumping. They were just like us. The only difference, is that they were expressing something artistically, that no one else would ever touch, in a very genuine way. They were expressing the adversity that everyone knows. The deepest darkest aspects of the reality in which we live in, in all of it's ugly monotonous glory.



To me, this album is not pleasant to listen to. In fact, I try not to listen to it. I try to hide it. I try to ignore it's existence, and that I ever heard it, and saw it performed live. I don't have a hard copy anymore. I don't want one. I don't like this album. It's ugly. It's bland, and monotonous. It's difficult to listen to this album, beginning to end. It's really difficult. The rythm of the guitars can be jarring. They will mislead you, and confuse you. The suspense of it will leave you hanging, at times, only to leave you feeling indifferent... even disappointed. This album is everything in life, that is undesirable. It represents the deepest, darkest repressed thoughts that I've ever had. The lowest of the lows... and the repression of humanity, emotional stability, and absolute knowledge. It is something that I simply cannot enjoy.

I don't like this album. I love it.

There is value, in bringing you to a place that you would never want to go back to. There is value in exuding the monotony and harsh reality of human existence in art. There is value in knowledge, no matter the source, no matter the context. There is value in understanding. When you view this album through that prism, you begin to realize the genius of it. You begin to see the beauty. This is a beautiful album, because it can take me away from the pleasantries of everyday small-talk. It can take me away from the slow-mo drug-company ad portrayal of life, by our media. It can take me away from that funny sitcom, or my seemingly insignificant day at work. It can take me away from all the superficiality that has become the crutch with which we choose to live our lives by. It can take me away from that. It can carry me... not away from reality... but to it.

If you look at it like that, you too, will undoubtedly fall in love with this album... and mark my words... you will never ever let it go. I can never leave this album. I can never ignore that I listened to it. When I listen to "Pretty Soon, I Don't Know What, But Somethings Going to Happen" and reach that interlude where josh screams: "It kills their walk. I watch them wash away" I know that I'm truly lost. I realize the futility of my existence. And then, the interlude continues into an epic (and intentionally repetitive) build up where he follows up with "Its all worth while. Time goes on." again and again... I realize that all is not lost. That there is hope. The beauty in this music exists not in how it is portrayed. The beauty exists when they deviate from that portrayal, lyrically. These moments exist in pockets throughout the entire album, and are mostly at the climax of build-ups and break-downs etc. This album is work. Personally I have to be a particular frame of mind to listen to it. And I don't enter that frame of mind often. But when I do, this masterpiece does it justice, and there is nothing more intense.

Thanks for reading. Much love.

[awakeohsleeper]

My apologies for bringing this topic back. I couldn't help it.


After a decade of listening to this album, I'd have to say that this review doesn't do this album justice. Before I get into this, I just want to let you know that I'm not a very big fan of metal. With me, hard music died long ago. I had been to many shows in and around Raleigh NC around the time that this album was released, and what I saw were many many bands. I was a fan of solid state, and I have very fond memories of seeing Beloved, Norma, Zao, and a few other earlier bands to boot. Post 9/11, the explosion of these bands was nothing less than miraculous, given at how stale, brash, repetitive, minimalistic, ugly and aggressive they were. But there was something about them that drew people to them. There was something they had that no one else had. They weren't your typical metal-head, long hair goatee dethklok fat wiccan guitar virtuoso's that shredded for minute after minute. They were the disenfranchised youth. They were the victims of an ever distancing surburban wasteland of mediocrity. They were us. There were no real gimmicks with them. The ones who followed, eventually made gimmicks that superficially mimicked their behavior and style. They were copied again and again, from band to band, with each iteration growing more fickle than the last, until now. What you have now, is a bunch of trendy scene **** that don't even know what it was like. They don't even know how strong the relation was, between your average confused high-schooler, to the elder college go-er that worked a job, lived within his means, and still got burnt by the system, day in and day out, and came to some shit-hole venue in everyday regalia to scream his heart out to jarring guitar rythms and double bass pedal pumping. They were just like us. The only difference, is that they were expressing something artistically, that no one else would ever touch, in a very genuine way. They were expressing the adversity that everyone knows. The deepest darkest aspects of the reality in which we live in, in all of it's ugly monotonous glory.



To me, this album is not pleasant to listen to. In fact, I try not to listen to it. I try to hide it. I try to ignore it's existence, and that I ever heard it, and saw it performed live. I don't have a hard copy anymore. I don't want one. I don't like this album. It's ugly. It's bland, and monotonous. It's difficult to listen to this album, beginning to end. It's really difficult. The rythm of the guitars can be jarring. They will mislead you, and confuse you. The suspense of it will leave you hanging, at times, only to leave you feeling indifferent... even disappointed. This album is everything in life, that is undesirable. It represents the deepest, darkest repressed thoughts that I've ever had. The lowest of the lows... and the repression of humanity, emotional stability, and absolute knowledge. It is something that I simply cannot enjoy.

I don't like this album. I love it.

There is value, in bringing you to a place that you would never want to go back to. There is value in exuding the monotony and harsh reality of human existence in art. There is value in knowledge, no matter the source, no matter the context. There is value in understanding. When you view this album through that prism, you begin to realize the genius of it. You begin to see the beauty. This is a beautiful album, because it can take me away from the pleasantries of everyday small-talk. It can take me away from the slow-mo drug-company ad portrayal of life, by our media. It can take me away from that funny sitcom, or my seemingly insignificant day at work. It can take me away from all the superficiality that has become the crutch with which we choose to live our lives by. It can take me away from that. It can carry me... not away from reality... but to it.

If you look at it like that, you too, will undoubtedly fall in love with this album... and mark my words... you will never ever let it go. I can never leave this album. I can never ignore that I listened to it. When I listen to "Pretty Soon, I Don't Know What, But Somethings Going to Happen" and reach that interlude where josh screams: "It kills their walk. I watch them wash away" I know that I'm truly lost. I realize the futility of my existence. And then, the interlude continues into an epic (and intentionally repetitive) build up where he follows up with "Its all worth while. Time goes on." again and again... I realize that all is not lost. That there is hope. The beauty in this music exists not in how it is portrayed. The beauty exists when they deviate from that portrayal, lyrically. These moments exist in pockets throughout the entire album, and are mostly at the climax of build-ups and break-downs etc. This album is work. Personally I have to be a particular frame of mind to listen to it. And I don't enter that frame of mind often. But when I do, this masterpiece does it justice, and there is nothing more intense.

Thanks for reading. Much love.
Ummmm... Happy Christmas?