Glasgow Grin -- 'Saints of the Greatest Sin' [review]

Glasgow Grin - Saints of the Greatest Sin
Year of the Sun Records (11/18/08)
Metal

Who doesn’t love an engrossing story?

With its debut album, Canada’s Glasgow Grin serves up a bludgeoning slab of extreme metal, but in doing so also offers an intriguing story of a serial killer out to do the Lord’s work.

Saints of the Greatest Sin is a concept album detailing the final mission of a hunter of pedophiles (or so it would appear), presented in one nasty, metallic purge of hate. The stutter-stop, hardcore-influenced dirge of metal pours out of the speakers at such a breakneck pace, at times, that the listener almost feels like they are the hunted, trying to escape the wrath of our story’s protagonist.

The vocals grate over each word, oscillating between horrific wails and deathly growls, and this approach may prove to be one of the album’s few downfalls. The total message of the story gets lost at times, and it seems a little surprising that the band would chose to take this approach, solely. After all, for every one-dimensional song (the chug-a-chug approach on "Remorseless" or the full-on assault of "Hole Replaces Face") there are others on the album where the band takes a more dynamic route (the melodic bridge of "Epinephrine", easily the band's best moment) or the times a little bit of groove works its way into the mix ("Remorseless" and "The Terminal"). Then there’s the downright beauty of "Last Rites", which, if this album, at just over a half-hour in length, were a runaway train, would act as the moment right before derailment, where time seems to slow to a stop, even if only for a moment, before the carnage continues.

Taken as a whole, Saints of the Greatest Sin pretty much shows that Glasgow Grin has the ability to really grow into a dynamic metal outfit. Of course, there’s also that chance of the band stubbornly sticking to the bare essentials of its sound, which would ultimately be quite a shame.

Any fan of extreme metal/hardcore hybrids will find a lot to love about this album. It’s one of those which gets a little better with each listen. And, as a plus, the liner notes contain an accompanying story that more fully explains the hero’s (?!) final moments. Like I said, who doesn’t love an engrossing story?

Norma Jean -- 'O God, The Aftermath' [review]

Norma Jean
"O God, The Aftermath"
(Solid State Records)


Norma Jean creates music that isn't immediately accessible to the average listener. The band specializes in a sub-genre of hardcore some have dubbed noisecore -- a type of music that relies on breakneck tempo changes and minimal song structure. Let's put it this way: what a band like Dream Theater might be to progressive rock, Norma Jean is to hardcore.

The band offered up an intense, bombastic release in 2002 ("Bless the Martyr & Kiss the Child") that left fans salivating for more. Little did they realize the sophomore release would take almost three years.

And what a tumultuous two and a half years it would be.

Shortly after the release of "Bless the Martyr," Norma Jean lost its front man Josh Scogin. For "O God..." the band picked up Cory Putman, who had previously worked with notable metal bands Living Sacrifice and Eso-Charis.

The band doesn't seem to have missed a beat. The entirety of "O God..." unfolds like a musical assault on the senses. Odd tempos fall over one another and give way to repetitive riffs and aggressive backbeats. While at times the sound will stop long enough to indicate a track change, for the most part the entire album is like one solid wall of sound. Song structures are scatterbrained at best; there's hardly a verse, chorus, verse foundation, much less noticeable verses or choruses on any of the tracks. Putman does a good job filling Scogin's shoes, though it seemed hardly a difficult task as a majority of the vocals are throaty yelps (though, it should be noted, Putman is far less guttural in his delivery).

But as much as Norma Jean's sound is built around the concept of a cacophony of sound, there are some impressive moments squeezed in too: there's a great melodic bridge towards the end of the album's second track, "Vertebraille"; the band almost channels the spirit of Fudge Tunnel's popular song "Grey" during the "chorus" of "Bayonetwork"; there's some fantastic "singing" during parts of "Liarsenic," probably the best and most easily accessibly song on the album.

Overall, Norma Jean is able to craft a pretty intricate, hard-hitting album. The songs easily bleed into each other and the vocals are pretty low in the mix, giving way to the music which is the real focus (or at least should be) of what Norma Jean is putting forth.

While it's not the most accessible album, "O God..." is exactly the type of album Norma Jean wanted to release. It's abrasive, it's in your face, it's unrelenting. And, for fans of the genre, it\'s a solid release for fans that have been waiting for a long time.