Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child

Two albums formed the core out of what I want and expect from metalcore: Zao's Liberate Te Ex Inferis and Norma Jean's Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child. That the genre is largely unrecognizable from those two albums might explain why I struggle a bit with how the genre has evolved. At the time I was more of a Zao person (and still am), but hearing Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child was like getting a shot of adrenaline.

I know everyone points to "Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste" as the key track on this album and it's a great song. But what hit me on first listen—and has, in my mind, become more impressive with time—is that opening track, "The Entire World is Counting on Me, and They Don't Even Know." The oddly-timed, stop-start breakdown that happens midway through the song is a thing of beauty. While the album is often thrown into the realm of precursors like Dillinger Escape Plan and Botch and Converge, Norma Jean's ability to play with these unexpected-but-appealing rhythmical elements has been what I've always loved about Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child.

That and Josh Scogin, their vocalist, who has a monolithic-like presence on this album. He's both a part of the chaos that backs him and a life jacket keeping the listener afloat. He has a really comfortable screaming vocalization that is forceful without feeling forced, deep without entering the realm of death metal growls, and does a great job of finding places within the music to create a sense of tension.

I actually saw Norma Jean live during this era. They were on the bill with mewithoutYou (as memory serves, they did a lot of touring together in 2002 when their respective debuts released and the few years after). And for the life of me, I can only remember mewithoutYou's set. Which, like, mewithoutYou was a powerhouse during their A->B Life tours. Tight but unrefined. They quickly figured out the "unrefined" bit and just because good and tight (by the time they were touring Catch For Us the Foxes they were a well-oiled machine; still amazing, but I missed that unrefined bit). Point being, it's not a bad thing to be overshadowed by mewithoutYou in my memory. I also suspect this may have been right around the time Scogin left the band and they were without a vocalist. Regardless, I wish I could remember because every single Norma Jean show I've dug up on YouTube from this era is phenomenal. Like, if you're a fan of this album but never got to see Scogin's era live, go look some up. And honestly, watching their live videos really ramped my appreciation for this album; it's one thing to pull this shit off in the studio, but it's another to translate it to a live show while keeping the songs identifiable.

What a mammoth album.