![]() ![]() ![]() As Patrick Kindlon of Self Defense Family will state, Norma Jean’s 2002 debut album Bless The Martyr And Kill The Child is “the pinnacle of mosh metal.” However metal you consider a band like Norma Jean to be, you can’t deny the influence of ‘80s and ‘90s straightforward hardcore music in their sound. To me, Norma Jean falls into the category of a group embracing the ‘classic’ sounds of metalcore with their own modern twist on it. ![]() On the other side are bands that are more closely associated to the singing aspect of it with some added breakdown elements, most notably somewhat cringeworthy names like The Devil Wears Prada and Asking Alexandria. Currently, we’re reaching a point in metalcore where some bands are embracing the older, more genuine meaning of it like Old Wounds and Code Orange. ![]() In the early 2000s, metalcore started being used as a descriptor of bands incorporating clean singing into the equation, like Shadows Fall, Eighteen Visions, and Atreyu. You also have groups like Converge, Botch, and The Dillinger Escape Plan, who fall into a sub-subgenre of metalcore that becomes ‘mathcore,’ in reference to the complicated guitar patterns and often-changing time signatures within their songs (similar to that of the more conventional, ‘math rock’). It originally comes from the literal combination of the words ‘metal’ and ‘hardcore,’ or alternatively referred to as ‘metallic hardcore.’ Aggressive bands from the ‘90s like Earth Crisis, Merauder, and Deadguy fall under the metalcore umbrella, most closely associated with the ‘metallic hardcore’ phrasing. The issue with metalcore is the same with most genres – it has come to define so many different elements. Norma Jean fall under the ‘metalcore’ subgenre, which make some recoil, and some celebrate, depending on who you ask. While I had an absolute blast at the concert, and I thought Norma Jean performed particularly well, this is going to be less of a concert review as it is going to be an analysis of the modern hardcore mosh pit. After almost ten years of following the band, I finally got the opportunity to witness them live last week at one of my favorite Chicago venues, Beat Kitchen alongside modern metalcore favorite He Is Legend. I was entranced by the cover art, an odd painting of a crow pecking at the head of a young child, the back cover outlined in mismatched typesets with song titles like ‘The End Of All Things Will Be Televised’ and ‘The Longest Lasting Statement.’ October 3 of this year will mark the ten-year anniversary of that album, which means I’ve been listening to Norma Jean for a decade, which is insane to me. I made my dad take me to Best Buy a few days later so I could buy the CD with my allowance. One of the bands I recall being featured was Norma Jean, and they were playing one of the songs off of their album at the time, Redeemer. The channel and Headbangers Ball specifically at that time were instrumental in my fascination and obsession with heavy music. I remember distinctly, in one night I was introduced to Killswitch Engage, Between The Buried And Me, and Avenged Sevenfold. Their double-decade-spanning Headbangers Ball program was still in its 90-minute format, but updated with metal bands of the current day. When I was in elementary school and early middle school, MTV2 became one of the most important factors in my music discovery. I’ve reminisced a couple times as of late with some friends of mine about the early-aughts days of MTV2. ![]()
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