All New Releases V.2

Another Norma Jean album, another lineup change. This time, drummer Chris
Raines steps in for the absent Daniel Davison, who exited the lineup in 2007
to pursue a career in visual art. Raines is a solid replacement, having honed
his percussive thunder with Spitfire, and The Anti Mother offers up another
batch of cathartic, pummeling metal. Although the bandmates still flaunt an
ability to grind their audiences eardrums into powder, Norma Jeans hidden
strength lies in their dedication to melody, which hides behind walls of
sound and rears its head during key moments. Self Employed Chemist and
Robots 3 Humans 0 are prime examples, mixing distortion with melodic hooks
and vocal harmonies. Norma Jeans members arent softening in their old age
rather, theyve learned to add variation to the metalcore pattern, injecting
bursts of melody and offering cameo spots to members of the Deftones, Mighty
Six Ninety, Saosin, Helmet, and others. The Anti Mother ultimately boasts the
best of both worlds: heavy riffage with manic, tortured shrieking, and
aggressive melodies sung with equal parts passion and grit.