The Last Month...

december is here and like always, i refer to this as my favorite month. i don't know why i like it so much. i guess, maybe, that it all comes from the look and feel of the month. people are finishing up shopping and planning, students are just about done with finals, and then the wonderful break happens where we all get to relax and share our time with loved ones or just good friendly company. but still though, there are those out there who are not as happy as some, and they know this way before everybody else. they know that this time of year might not be the best for them. i feel sorry for those less fortunate, and i pray that they will all be happy and enjoy this time of year despite the harshness of everyday life.

this post will be a bit weird in a way since the music is so crazy and spastic and i just wrote some sentimental stuff above. here is a christian metalcore band that i really like called Norma Jean.



the term "christian" gets thrown around a lot in today's times. i for one am a christian and it doesn't bother me to say it. of course i use to sort of hide it when out in public since there are many who do not like that way of life and of course i get questioned when it comes to the music i listen to. to answer this i say, well for me, music is just sound. and with the sound comes the melody and all the quirks and snaps following in place. i can listen to the beauty of Nina Simone, and then the epic thrashness of Slayer and not be affected by it. i just like the way it all sounds in my ears. i don't pay much attention to lyrics unless they mean something to me. in this blog of mine i have almost always posted on artists who have lyrics of great worth, and then there is certain music that i don't ponder on much when it comes to content.

forming in 1997 after their former band Luti-Kriss broke up, norma jean became one of the most talked about christian metalcore bands of the 2000's. their music might not seem christian when first listened to and mixed with it is abstract, yet religious lyrics and great instrumentation that makes one wonder how it is all done, but still it's all good. when listening to these guys i think of other such artists like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, Coalesce, and Converge. all those bands do the math rock/metalcore style and do it well. norma jean have always been considered a "copycat" in those regards, but i think it's much more than that because not many can play this style of music as well as these guys can.

here today is the only album i own by the band. it's titled Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child. this is their first and only album with original lead singer josh scrogin, and if you like his barking vocals, be sure to check out his current band The Chariot.


http://www.mediafire.com/?estxgdznmrz

You waltz around the room with a glaze in your stare
In your tuxedo suit
I'll give it a name
Lower defenses
I'll Lower the casket
Open the door, open the grave

Murder

Now you're doing the waltz with your murderer
(Doing the waltz with your murderer)

You waltz around the room with a glaze in your stare
In your tuxedo suit
I'll give it a name
Lower defenses
I'll Lower the casket
Open the door, open the grave

Mediocrity is the killer

You find yourself helpless
Christ is not a fashion, fleeting away

Fashion, fashion, fashion
He laid emeralds in her eyes
Oh, but I'd already tried
A bracelet made of gold
And scarlet thread around her wrist

Everything was wrong so we sang sentimental songs
Oh how seldom we belong but how elegant our kiss
And we painted crooked lines
But we danced in perfect time
To a love so much refined
We know not what it is until like a dullen wine we pour into a grief we've known before
But never quite like this
Never quite like this
All I know now is regret
It follows like a silhouette on the cobbelstone behind me
But she has nothing left to say except to innocently ask
A voice delicate as glass
"Do you see me when we pass?"
But I continue on my way