Norma Jean
Wrongdoers

Razor & Tie

Street: 08.06
Norma Jean = The Chariot + Oh Sleeper
Norma Jean have gone through some serious transitions, speaking both of the musicians involved and their sonic output. I didn’t know what to expect out of this album—the band having dropped off my radar after O God: The Aftermath—but imagine my delight at listening to what would turn out to be a highly emotional and engaging post-hardcore record that has since become as addictive as Nutella-flavored crack. The songwriting here is so fluid that the album speeds by in peaks and valleys of one giant song and story. Screams are desperate and gut-wrenching. Singing is organically bound to the greater aesthetics of the song instead of being hammered in where it doesn’t belong, a post-hardcore cardinal sin. Peppered in the chaos are unique instrument choices, true sludge and doom, and riotous groove. Wrongdoers is poking holes in all the self-drawn boundaries of the genre and letting the ensuing deluge carry them to higher places. –Megan Kennedy