holy ghosts and talk-show hosts

This week I discovered that I like Norma Jean.

I've always had a bit of a strange relationship with Norma Jean. They were one of those bands that I felt like I should like - lots of my friends like them, and don't understand why I don't.

What's more, I find their aesthetic incredibly appealing. NJ's album art, merch designs and tour posters are brilliant. Their song and album titles are amazing. And the lyrics... well, it's Christian Metal and as such I don't often relate, but I can appreciate that they're well-written.

So for a long time I've wanted to like Norma Jean. I've had Bless The Martyr... and O God, The Aftermath on my computer for a while and I've tried to listen to them, hoping that things would fall into place and I'd see what other people see. But I never 'got it'. My problem was, basically, that I find the music itself fairly unlistenable.

I've always grouped NJ in a category with some other inexplicably popular bands, most notably Converge; bands whose music I simply didn't enjoy listening to. What's more, I had a sneaking suspicion that these bands didn't really want me to enjoy their music.

Sometimes I felt like maybe I was missing the point of this music. Other times I thought I must just be too 'mainstream' - perhaps my simple mind craves verses and choruses and major-key melodies and catchy singalongs, all the things that bands like Converge and Norma Jean seem to abhor.

Then I listened to the appropriately-titled Redeemer. This record has structure(!), and rhythm, and melody, and songs that start somewhere and finish somewhere else. It even has -gasp!- pretty singing. Upon listening, I remarked to Zoe my surprise that it's Norma Jean, but it sounds like music. The album is heavy, and dark, and intense, but not to the extent that it precludes actual enjoyment.

So now I file Norma Jean under 'bands whose music I enjoy, but I wish I didn't know what the lyrics were about,' among such illustrious company as As I Lay Dying and Underoath.