JesusfreakHideout.com: Top 100 Tooth & Nail Albums of All Time

41 of 100

#41. Norma Jean
Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child

Release Date: August 13, 2002

It wasn’t until I was older that Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child entered into my world. In fact, it wasn’t until about 2009, when I was 17, that I had even heard of Norma Jean. My first taste of the “screamo” music I had intentionally avoided was the song, “Pretty Soon, I Don't Know What, But Something Is Going To Happen.“ All my life, I had played covers of classic rock tunes — and I loved doing that — but there was just something about the audacity of a metalcore band writing and releasing a 15-minute song that I found inspiring. Even to this day, I listen to that song and smile because it’s so...ridiculous. It’s good, but ridiculous; and that’s what I like about it, and that’s what inspired me. Norma Jean was a band that already found itself in a category of music that was heavily criticized. The fact that they wrote, recorded, and released a 15-minute, wildly dynamic song just proved to me that you can write whatever you want. All I can say is, I still don’t really love metalcore, but I love that there are people in the world who write and release metalcore albums, because it proves to the world that art cannot be placed in a box. With that song, Norma Jean reminded me to write music, not for an audience, not for approval, not for plays, but for the beauty that exists in the freedom we have to make whatever we want.
- Ross Worthey of the band A Red Arrow and The Blood Orange Project Podcast

Visit our Norma Jean page for more information about them...