Norma Jean’s upcoming record, All Hail, releases next week on October 25. Truth be told, I only listened through O’ God, the Aftermath (2005) for the first time this year, and was very impressed by its balance of chaos and complexity. As we anticipate All Hail, here is a classic song from one of 2005’s metalcore masterpieces.
Song of the Day: Norma Jean - Bayonetwork: Vultures in Vivid Color
By Graham Wall in Video Flashback | 6 Comments
Oh man, I remember when O God, The Aftermath first came out. People absolutely hated it online, and I read comment after comment on all the Christian hxc forums of people ragging on it. People turned on Cory fast and thought Norma Jean had lost their touch. I enjoyed it at the time and didn’t get all the hate. Once Redeemer released, Norma Jean regained their love online, and I kinda forgot about OGTA because of it. Went through the album today thanks to this post, and I still think it’s a great album.
That is so surprising to me that it received that amount of criticism online … would not have guessed that at all. It sold a ton of copies its first week (even surpassed Switchfoot!), they were on the cover of CCM Magazine, had fantastic artwork, and so on. It’s a monster of an album.
It just sounded so different from its predecessor. Some of us just weren’t ready!
Well, Bless the Martyr was a hard album to follow up. I think musically people weren’t all that impressed with it at the time, and Cory had to deal with being in Josh’s shadow. It’s hard to believe that now, since I think everyone agrees that Cory is the heart of that band now. Redeemer was what changed everyone’s mind with him, though I also think the single “ShaunLuu” started swaying opinions.
🤘All Hail🤘
OGTA was monumental. It was meme-ing hxc music before meme-ing was a thing. Scenester fave? It made the scene. A rite of passage and the equivalent of Nevermind for core music. Hyperbole? Who cares. The album was giant.
The first time I listened to OGTA, I was coming off of 2.5 years of Bless the Martyr Kiss the Child worship, and I absolutely hated it! OGTA sounds nothing like BTMKTC! These acronyms hate each other! It took me three years until I could approach OGTA objectively. I’m glad that happened, though, because it quickly rose in my esteem, and is still one of my Norma Jean favorites, even now when they’re five billion albums into their career.