Wrongdoers

To say Norma Jean’s Wrongdoers is an album of contrasts would render the word ‘contrast’ obsolete. Dictionaries would require hasty re-writes and TV remotes everywhere would need to be re-labelled.

This is the sixth studio album from a band formed in 1998, yet it marks three-fifths of the current line-up’s debut appearance.

The 11 tracks range from 50 seconds to 14 minutes in length. And the number of genres, heavy or otherwise, represented throughout the record is baffling.

Tone-setting opener ‘Hive Minds’ perfectly exemplifies Wrongdoers’ eclectic sentiment. Paced and atmospheric but brutally hard-hitting, the progressive tension-builder is the musical equivalent of being slowly bludgeoned by a buddhist monk in a Deftones t-shirt.

‘If You Got It At Five, You Got It At Fifty’ then launches into a polar-opposite punk rock barnburner before vocalist Cory Brandan Putman’s harrowing screams give way to colourful whisperings in the eponymous third track.

Throughout the record, the vocal rollercoaster ceaselessly dips and darts – Putman unabashedly showcases the astounding versatility that’s afforded him a decade at the core of a band that’s chewed through 14 members.

Wrongdoers’ production values are noticeably mellower than those of past efforts, finely balancing organs, strings and acoustic guitars with Norma Jean’s trademark sludgy bite.

Right up until epic closer “Sun Dies, Blood Moon”, rounded sonic landscapes and evocative Thrice-like atmospheric breakdowns sit inexplicably comfortably aside furious mathcore beats.

Amongst a deluge of copycat contemporaries, Wrongdoers ensures Norma Jean remain clear-cut champions.

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