Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Ranking ALL 9 of Norma Jean Albums

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Ranking ALL 9 of Norma Jean Albums · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Now round.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: All right, today, we've got our good friends JJ from
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Idle Threat and Joe from Light Worker.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: You guys have been on the podcast so many times
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: you need no new introduction. Uh, but we're just excited
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: to chat with you guys. So what we're gonna do
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: today is we're going to be ranking all nine Normal
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Gen albums, which it's kind of hard to believe that
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: they have nine albums now at this point, quite a
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: bit an output, especially for like a metal core band.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: You know, I think, you know, obviously metalcore kind of
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: probably got it to you know, origin probably in the
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: late nineties, and so there aren't too many bands that
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: are even over like thirty years old, but they've got
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: to be probably have one of the greatest outputs now
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: at this point in the metal core scene. But yeah,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: we're gonna rank each album from Uh so, each one
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: of us we'll do a ranking of our favorite Norman
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Gen album all the way down to our least Norman
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: favorite Norman Gen album. And then what we're gonna do
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: is we're gonna compile all of our rankings and then
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: come up with a definitive Black Sheep Normal Ranking Normal
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Gene Ranking list Normal ranking.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Ranking. So I'm looking forward to it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I just mentioned right before we started recording that, you know,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: because they have so many albums out now, and because
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: each one of us, Norman Gen's probably at least for
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: each one of us a top five favorite band of
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: all time, you know that we're we love them enough
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: and they have enough albums out where it feels like
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: we could do something like this, you know. So we
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: we definitely have probably a definitive least favorite Normangen album,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: and we certainly have a favorite Norman Gene album.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: So I'm super stoked about this.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: How about you, guys, dude, I'm pumped.
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: I guess what I will say though, to begin with,
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: is that I don't think there is a single bad
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: normal Gene album like to me. To me, it's like, hey,
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: it's like pizza or like sex.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: It's like you know, I mean, it's which none of
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: it's JJ and I would not know about that at all.
• 2:29
  Speaker 6: Right, Yeah, I don't eat pizza, and I definitely am
• 2:31
  Speaker 6: still a virgin.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah dude, absolutely, Yeah, dude, there you go. But yeah, no,
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: I mean it's it's one of those things where it's
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: just like a normal Gene record is always going to
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: be a solid you know, like four out of five
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: at minimum, so at least to me. So, I mean, so,
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: I you know, I don't want anybody coming at me like, yo,
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: what's up, because I know I have some takes here,
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: but yeah, but I'm pumped.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, agreed fully. And also the fact that there's been
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: what twenty members of Normal Gene and they somehow maintain
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: just a solid, solid cohesiveness with just enough difference along
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the way. That's the most impressive part to me.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: The one thing that I think is maybe the thing
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I like the most about Norma Gene is the fact
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: that they have that consistent sound throughout all of their albums,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: even despite the fact that they don't have any original
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: members at this point.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, I.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Think it's just a really cool part of who they
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: are as a band. You know, obviously at this point now,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Corey has been a part of the band longer than anyone,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: and you know, I would say probably the sort of
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Norma Jeen sound that we associate with Normal Gene.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: Is probably due to to Corey.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: But still, the fact that, like you've got to be
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: that doesn't have any original members, having some sort of
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: consistent theme. I mean, if you listen to their most
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: recent album and you listen to bless the Martyr, there's
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: still going to be these common kind of core tones
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: that you hear that are just normal Gene tones that
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: sound nothing else, but like Norman Gene tones that there's
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: just something about it. I don't know that they just
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: have a Norman Gene sound.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: Through and through.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: It's one of the coolest, coolest things about the band,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would definitely agree.
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: I think, you know, even and every album sounds completely
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: different even so, like that's what's kind of weird, and
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: it's just like it's not linear but in terms of
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: like sound, but you can always tell where it's coming from,
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: and it's I think it's been very respectful of what
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: like the original lineup actually laid down with Blessed and
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: Martyr while still expanding and.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Their sound and their identity. But yeah, I.
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: Was talking about them today with a friend actually, and I,
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: you know, just to wrap it up nice and Neat
• 5:09
  Speaker 6: put a bow on top of it. It's like they
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: they go across the spectrum of chaos very well. And
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: we can get more into that later, but their entire
• 5:19
  Speaker 6: discography just shows you exactly what chaotic music is. But
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: then each of those albums are different, so it's just
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: all over that spectrum, covering every space.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: So really just a total complete band and yeah, absolutely,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Well we'll.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: Dive into it.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: But before we dive into ranking these albums, important news
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: to be made on the Blacksheet podcast.
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: Do you hear you heard it here? Breaking news?
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I'le Threat is releasing a new album, which I don't
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: think is breaking news. I think that has been at
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: least known that you all are going to be releasing
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: new music at some point this year. However, is different
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: is Cullen, Joe and I have heard the album and
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: we got to say it's the best Idle Threat has
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: ever been. Got to be honest, yeahs, yes absolutely. I
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: don't know if we can say. We certainly can't leak
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: more than that, but I just want you all to
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: know it's the best Idle Threat probably will ever be.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: I used to.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know how you've peaked, JJ, you've.
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: Peaked, man, I peaked in high school. I don't know
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: what y'all talking about.
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: It's I think it's similar to Norman Jeane. I think
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: it's it also still retains a lot of that idle
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: threat sound that we heard on the earlier stuff, but
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: while still moving forward and the guest vocal spots are brilliant.
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: They sound seamless. And this is all I'll say. That
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: last track definitely made me reflect a lot, and you know,
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: maybe maybe made me well up a little bit or not.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm just saying, yeah.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: That's you're absolutely right, it's it's it's great. JJ is
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: probably not going to say anything else. I don't think
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: he was supposed to share it with us, but he
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: did because he's a because he's a bro. He's a bro, like, hey,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I even wear his cat back.
• 7:26
  Speaker 6: I'll share more about it, uh, in my own episode
• 7:30
  Speaker 6: or something like that. But we're he thinks he's getting
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: another one.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Oh what.
• 7:36
  Speaker 6: I am a black sheet podcast? But nah, I'm really
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: excited to finally put this out. Everything's kind of, you know,
• 7:46
  Speaker 6: hitting the grounds now and we're running with it. So
• 7:50
  Speaker 6: we're gonna have this out by the end of the year.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: I don't want to make promises or anything like that
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: because it's out of my control, but we're really pushing
• 7:58
  Speaker 6: for it. Yeah, and I'm just really excited to get
• 8:01
  Speaker 6: it out. To whoever's going to listen to it. So yeah,
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: I can't wait. But anyway, Norma Jean.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Speaking of real bands, all right, so what we're gonna do.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: We're gonna start with the very.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: First Normal Gene album and we're going to just slowly
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: work our way through each one to the most recent.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: So it all starts out with Blessed the Martyr, Kiss
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the Child two thousand and two. Yeah, Colin, I don't
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we have a particular order that we.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Should probably put a little caveat on this that because
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of super fans of Normal Gen
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: out there, and so we're not going to include Ludacris
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the band name before Normal Gene, even though it is
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: still technically Normal Gene. We're not going to include Throwing Myself,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: which is also a great album in its own right.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: But these are Normal Gene monikered names or bands or albums.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Jeez yeah albums. So yeah, bless the Martyr, Kiss a Child?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Who wants to go first? Yeah?
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: Who wants to go first? Where do you have it ranked?
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: You know, I don't want to just jump in there
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: and you know, be that guy, But I'm gonna be
• 9:17
  Speaker 6: that this is such an outlier because like, on one hand,
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: it's like, this is one of the most like iconic
• 9:24
  Speaker 6: records that we could talk about, and it, you know,
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: it deserves its own like glory. But also like the
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: way that I view Norma Jean is like, this is
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: Corey Brandon's band. Like I one hundred percent say that.
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: Like when I think Josh Goggin, I think The Chariot,
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: I think sixty eight. When I think Norma Jean, I think.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Corey, and I think I don't know what you're talking.
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: About it, but I just you know, I I love
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: this record for what it is. I had a really
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: hard time placing it in my my own ranking, so
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: it's literally smack dab in the middle. It's just such
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: an outlier, which like it's it's great for what it is,
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: but like, you know, does it stand the test of time?
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: I do think so, But like you know, when I'm
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: comparing it to the Quarry Records, you know, do I
• 10:19
  Speaker 6: like it more or less?
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 10:21
  Speaker 6: So I had a really hard time with this one.
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: I wrestled with it for a while, but I put
• 10:26
  Speaker 6: it at five out of nine for their records. But
• 10:30
  Speaker 6: before we really get into it, you know, Like, I mean,
• 10:33
  Speaker 6: there's so many different like pieces of this record that
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: we can talk about. But you know, Josh doing the
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: vocals on it alone, it's it's gonna bump it up,
• 10:45
  Speaker 6: you know, the ranking. But this album absolutely sat of
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: tone for you know what this band would end up being.
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: So yeah, I don't even know where up again really, Like,
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: it's just there's so much you can say about, you know,
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: the guitar work, the drums, the vocals, you know, their
• 11:05
  Speaker 6: live show during that time, and the fact that it's
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: you know, over twenty years old now is pretty crazy.
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: But I don't know, there's just a lot to sit
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: with with this record, and just because it's such an outlier,
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: it's just such a powerful entity. I you know, where
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: do you put it? So like, I'm curious to see
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: what you guys think too.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Well, I think along those lines at least for me is.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: So let me just preface it by saying, I've got
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: it number two, culin, So I've got it number two
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: for me. So it's it's obviously in the in the
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: top third. Even what drives me nuts though about Bless
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: the Martyr is there are Norman Jeans fans out there
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: where when they think of Norma Jean, they only think
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: of that album and they really haven't listened to anything
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: sent or if they have, they almost think of it.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: They almost like listen to the other albums or the
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: other Norman Gen songs through the lens of well, this
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: just doesn't stack up to Josh Cogga Norman Gen, and like,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I just think that totally does a disservice to normal Geneah.
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: Absolutely, yeah, And.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: So that is the part of this album that sort
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: of drives me nuts. And it's not actually the album itself,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: it's just normal some of the Norman Gen fans.
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: Now, with that said, whenever.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: There is a Blessed Martyr song that they play live,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: I don't like. I think part of my excitement about
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: that is seeing how everybody freaks out, probably more than
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: any other song on any other album. There's just something
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: about that album that just carries some weight that is
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: really cool for the band, and especially the fact that
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: it's the band's first album kind of and and I
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: don't know, there's.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Just something really cool about that.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: So I have at number two partly because I think
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: it just it holds up me. It's almost twenty three
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: years old now and just sound wise, even though it
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: was recorded completely alive or whatever, it just holds up
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: really well, especially when you think of its contemporaries, even
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: outside of the Christian music world. You think of like
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Converge releasing, Jane Doe, the Yeah Botch releasing some albums
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: around that time. Like you think of some of those contemporaries,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: they sound kind of right in that mix, and it's
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: just as iconic. You have extremely iconic riffs. I mean,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: especially you've got like just an iconic song like Memphis, right,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: but just the whole album you've got. You've got a
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: sixteen minute long song and you have a one minute
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: long song. I mean, it's just it's like everything you
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: would ever want. And a number gen album. You have
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: an album Closer that just crescendos beautifully. Yeah, I don't know,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: just everything about it is just lovely. And it's hard
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: to believe that a bunch of like eighteen nineteen twenty
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: year olds made this album.
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: Wow, but they did, and it's it's pretty cool. So anyway,
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: I've got a number two.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: It's just it's an album that I listened to probably
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: at least once a month. I just think it's incredible,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: And again, like I said, maybe I think it's within
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: the context of it does drive me nuts that there
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: are a lot of Norman Geen fans that only see
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: this album as like the pure Norman Gen album, and
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: I just think that does a disservice to the band.
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Joe, I would say that for me, I kind
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: of don't look at it like norma Gene for the
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: reasons that you know, Justin said. It's it's like, I mean,
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: those are Josh's lyrics, those are his vocals, and you know,
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: I definitely recognize it as like a normal Gene record,
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: but I kind of see it as proto Chariot also,
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: and it exists in this weird like dimension where it's
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: Norman Jean Chariot ish, you know, just this weird like conglomeration.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: So and I would say that.
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: As I was listening to it today, I noticed that
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: there's actually a little bit of new metal influence that
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: still is leaking over from the Yeah, and as you
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: guys know about me, I'm not really a big new
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: metal guy. So you know, like I definitely objectively I
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: do take in stance at the time, I love what
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: they were doing. Also, even back then, with having a
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: metal band or metal core band or whatever or heavy
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: band record like live.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: And stuff was just unheard of.
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: You know, it's like everybody's just sitting next to the
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: console and just even back then.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: But this is number nine for me, to be honest,
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Wow wow, Yeah.
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: Because like I said, it's hard for me to correlate
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: it with what has become Corey's band. You know, I
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: would also say that I'm definitely a big Chariot band.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: But there's something about Corey's lyrics, his approach, and especially
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: as he grew as a musician of vocalist and and
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: a frontman, like seeing that evolution and and is I
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: don't know, it really strikes a chord with me. And
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: as we get into the later part of the discography,
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: I think you'll see how passionate I get about this band,
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: because it's just something that just really stirs something in me.
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: But but I definitely do own you know, this album
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: on vinyl. I have two copies of this and and
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: you know, like I you know, face Face is like
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: a fucking classic.
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: It's my favorite song on that record.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, And and so I mean, like I said, the
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: caveat for me at the beginning was like, yeah, you know,
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: some of these records might be ranked lower, but that
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: doesn't mean that I don't love them.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: But that's where it is for you.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Interesting I ranked this third on my list, but for me,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: this record is so substantial in where it rests in
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: my personal music listening journey. This was the album that
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: like moved the needle for me like this this was
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I got it in two thousand and three, and it
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: opened the door for what I realized music could be.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: I did not know music existed that was that heavy.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I did not know music existed that that was that unpredictable,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: but also still maintaining so much, so many melodic elements
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: that didn't seem like anything else I had heard, And
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: even to this day, I would argue that that dissonance
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: they have like the like. If there's one thing I
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: can say about Norman gen throughout their entire catalog, it's
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: that they have a dissonance in all of their songs
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: that produces melody. Usually dissonance and melody, I feel like
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: they don't really coexist very well, but Norma Jean does it,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: and they've been doing it since Bless the Martyr, and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: that's absolutely astounding to me. On top of that, like
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: just visually, the first music videos that I really remember
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: watching over and over and over again were from this record,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and it really just blew my mind. It it expanded
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: my my universe. I went from listening to like Aaron
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Carter to to fucking Norma Jene, Like how does that work?
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: How does how does how does that that key get unlocked?
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: You know, like, how does that key unlock that door?
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: But it did?
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: So they're my They're my gateway drug. This is the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: gateway album for like my entire listening experience. That's why
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: it's it's high for me. But third is not first.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: So that puts our average score at a four point
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: seventy five. So I assume we round that up to five. Yeah, yeah,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: sounds good.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: See how that.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: We'll see how that plays out at the end. Yeah
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: that works for us, all right. Next album came out
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and five. Oh god, The Aftermath another
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: incredible album.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, look at that. Wait, JJ, when did you
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: get that?
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: I've had it?
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: What Colin and I have that on? I have it
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: on my back?
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: Oh really?
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: Oh my god?
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Yea, I have it on my legs.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: Joe, You're next dude, I have no tattoos.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, oh, you're so straight edge.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: But I thought even that, dude, it's just that I'm
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: afraid that Trump's gonna come after me and tattoo. Bro, Like,
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: come on, can't wear skulls.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: They're gonna photoshop it on you anyway, don't worry.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like this, I mean, if they're gonna photoshop tattoos
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: on you to deport you, they might as well photoshop
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: the hook man, right.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Actually it would probably save you. It would probably save you,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: would be like, oh that's an umber gene. You're good,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: You're good, You're definitely you're definitely.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Southern metal court baby, let's go. Yeah, so.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: That they should just like they should give you like
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: a red carpet right to the White House, like you
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: are as American as American gets.
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: Dude, fucking give me have like a luxurious McDonald's meal
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: with Trump.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, there you go, but I go.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: But anyway, yeah, oh god, let's see here. I'll go first.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: If you guys are cool, do it to it, man,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah.
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: I could not get Network out of my head like
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: a solid three months, and it's so cool.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: And like I really liked.
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: That kind of gruff, tough guy singing that like Corey
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: does on some of the tracks on There and They
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: and and while there was like some dissonant sounds that
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: you could hear on and and that chaos that you
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: could hear on Bless the Martyr, I feel like it
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: got a little in some ways, it became a little
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: bit more straightforward, but in some ways some of the
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: riffs got like even crazier, like Charac Tarantula. Yeah, like yeah,
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: like it's just like that, dude, I fucking love that.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: And it's just like it literally just reminds me of
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: like a tarantula.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: It's just so fun and I just love it. And
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: and I think also the way that I I guess for.
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: Me, like thinking back on it now and having been
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: in a band now for a while, you can definitely
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: see the seeds of him as a lyricist beginning to grow.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Like if you read the lyrics that he had back.
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: Then compared to like on Death Rattle, like it is
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: night and day, and you see the evolution of this vocalist,
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: this human being. And also you know, let's go there spiritually,
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: how different the trajectory is also, you know, and with
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: that being said, I mean we got to mention the
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: B side, which is Sean Lou Yeah, you know, which
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: definitely and Norman Gene definitely has their share of B
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: sides that are sick. I'm not sure why some of
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: those were omitted, but like, that's probably my favorite B
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: side of theirs. And coincidentally, I think of you know,
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: early Norman Gene. I would say that's definitely one.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: Of the more spiritual ones.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: And and it's just it's so cool and the fact
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: that they named it after like a band friend, you know,
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: who had passed.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: I think is is uh is an awesome testament.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: And yeah, it's just so for me, I would say
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: it ranks like again, it's hard, it's hard. This is
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: really hard, but I would say it ranks at number
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: six for me because I feel like the best is
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: still yet to come.
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna take that and run with it. This is
• 23:35
  Speaker 6: my favorite Norma Gen record, so it's number one.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: Dang.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: Yeah, we already kind of mentioned I have a no
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: God tattoo. Actually, and even though this this is literally
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: the first Normal Gene record in my you know, in
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: my mind, I think it really set the tone for
• 23:56
  Speaker 6: how this band you know, kind of really created something
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: that is a masterpiece, which you know, that's their whole
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: body of work. But oh God, was just you know,
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: chaotic but also melodic. And then I think, you know,
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: Corey stepping into the role that he has, like you
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: know with his lyricism and vocals and you know, with
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: the guitar riffs and the I don't know, like I
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: could gosh forever, but like the drums, like especially how
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: I want to play, Like you know, if if I
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: could pick a band to be in in a specific
• 24:37
  Speaker 6: record like in an era, it would be Norman gyna
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: O God like and I don't know, like it's just
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: like like the beginning of Liarsonic is one of my
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: favorite like opening like sections to a track because it's
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: just so crazy and since I'm a big horror fan,
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: it's like this is what I feel like like serial killers,
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: like here with killing someone, you know, like that the
• 25:14
  Speaker 6: beginning of the track is like what is going through
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: someone's mind when they murder someone, but in the same
• 25:22
  Speaker 6: vein too, Like the opening track is called murder rotica,
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: which is coincidentally my favorite genre of movie. But I
• 25:32
  Speaker 6: don't know, like this band's like really did something special
• 25:36
  Speaker 6: with Oh God. And you know, I've seen reunion shows
• 25:40
  Speaker 6: and stuff that they played with this record, and you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 6: I'm just I listen to I listened to it all
• 25:48
  Speaker 6: the time, like it's it's in my top fifteen records
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: of all time. You know, every time they play anything
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: from it live, like it's just so fun. You know
• 25:57
  Speaker 6: when when Idle Threat toured with them for a little
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: bit a couple of years ago, they were playing like
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: the Breakdown from Dylan Machine, and I don't know, every
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: once in a while they'll just be like, you know,
• 26:10
  Speaker 6: here's the song from Oh God, and like play it.
• 26:12
  Speaker 6: It's just it's always so fun for me. But I
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: don't know, I'll pass the torch like it's my favorite
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: Norman Jean record by far. It's sitting pretty at number one.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll jump in right after you. It's also number
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: one for me. And I've blown out at least two
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of my vehicles speakers to this album, which is the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: best way to do it in my opinion, because it's
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: such a big sound. Even though it's not the best
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: recording in the world, it feels like it feels it.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: It feels like it fills every single ounce of Airspace Possible.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I think that this is the absolute masterclass of heavy
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: music drumming by Daniel Davison. It is the record that
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: put him number one as my favorite drummer ever. I
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: think especially the snare sound. What the hell is that.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know what he's playing there, but that snare
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: sound absolutely rattles me to the bone every single time
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I hear it, and it's like crack cocaine. It gets
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: me so excited every time I hear it, especially, it's
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: what I would imagine it to feel like. On top
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: of that, you brought up JJ the breakdown from Dilemmachine.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: That's probably my most replayed part of a song ever.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I listen to it all the time, and when we
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: are when we're seeing him live and they play Dilemmachine live,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I always feel so proud because I can always air
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: drum perfectly to it and no one else in the
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: crowd does, because it's like a weird like time signing.
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: The craziest thing about that is like at least the
• 28:06
  Speaker 6: last couple of times that I've seen them, where they
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: did do that, Corey just it's always at the end
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: of a song going into that part, and he just
• 28:16
  Speaker 6: goes like oh God, and like they'll do that. So
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: it's perfect.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: It's perfect. And I think I think the hidden gem
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: on that album though, is scientification or how are you
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: saying that is? I feel like you don't think Young Frankenstein. Yeah,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: you know, like the vibe that that movie kind of
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: gives out. Yeah, When I listen to that song, I
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: feel like I'm transported into like Gene Wilder's body and
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm in Young Frankenstein and there's just like that's
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: like where my brain has gone ever since I was young.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: And uh, I think that that that song in particular
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: has such like an interesting nomadic quality for a song
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: that has no business being cinematic whatsoever, and an album
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: that really isn't cinematic in any way.
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: I just you know real quick, I the the track
• 29:16
  Speaker 6: names on these Yes are so good. I've never seen
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: anything that like really captures my interests in these track names.
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: I mean, when you when you were real like Bay Network,
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: all of them are so good.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: When you were younger or younger, did you like try
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: to make your own track names that were like that
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: or it's like a mixture of like two words together.
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: I wish I was that smart?
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Like I used to sit in in industrial technology class
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: making different song names that bind two words together all
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the time. It was so good.
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: It's definitely clever. But I think it's called portmanteau. Yeah,
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: and it's it's it's it's so cool. One thing I
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: wanted to mention, though, was that you said you blew
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: out your speakers listening to Oh God. Well I got
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: into a car crash.
• 30:12
  Speaker 6: Nice.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I don't want to know the aftermath of that. That'd
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: be terrible.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Did you used to hate car accidents but now you
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: hate cel phones?
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: It is? Yeah?
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: And then I remember like and the car was totaled
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: so I couldn't take my normal Jean CD out of it,
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: and I was just like, this sucks anyway.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: I thought you guys were going to kick out of that.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's a little too on the nose though,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: I tell you what.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for me, I've got it at number five, so
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: it is yeah, right, smack dab in the middle for me.
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: Here here's what's interesting. I think for.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Oh God, and I think you all are kind of
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: alluding to this, especially for you JJ and and Clin.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: I think Oh God for me has the potential to
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: be probably a top one or two Norman Gen album
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: for me based on the instrumentation alone. I just think
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: the instrumentation, like if we were just ranking this on instrumentation,
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: oh god, the aftermath would be my probably my favorite
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Norman Gen album. My issue of the reason why it
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: just goes to number five, though, is the production of it,
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: for some reason just doesn't I don't know, it just
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: it sounds a little culin uses the term tinny a lot.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: Like, I don't know, there's just it doesn't quite.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: Have that full body sound that we now, especially with
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: the more recent albums for the last ten fifteen years
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: from Norman Gen, we that we expect, it just doesn't
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: quite have that same sound quality. And so I think
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: for that reason, and certainly like Corey, I think has
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: just gotten so much better as a vocalist with his
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: screams since this album. That yeah, I just I think
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: those two factors just places it down a little bit
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: lower for me to number five. But if those two factors,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: like if that wasn't the case in two thousand and five,
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: like let's say it was you know, produced really really well,
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: and let's say Corey had the same sort of vocals
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: that he has.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: Now, it probably would be my favorite.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Norman Gen album again because I think the instrumentation is
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: next level. So yeah, that's the reason why it's number five.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: So it's right in the middle of the pack for me.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: But you all are right, like, best instrumentation of any
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Norman Gen album by far, I can totally agree with that.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: That puts it at a three point two five on
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: our average calculator.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: Nice three, okay, so we'll put it at three for now.
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: I'm just see where asshole is just like bringing them
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: all these things down.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: My bad guys, my bad.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Well, dude, yeah, all the bad ones are gonna go
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: right to the top because of you.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: You can already see it shaken out. I'm just kidding,
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: all right.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Redeemer two thousand and six, Where where do we got Redeemer?
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Redeemer? I'll go first on this one. This is a
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: great record that impressed the normies. I feel like this
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: is a record that like if you were a friend
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: a fan of like Asking Alexandria or Sleeping with Sirens
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: or I don't know, what's another band from that time
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: period that was just like killing it. Can't think of it,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: but you would maybe went to like Warp Tour and
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: then you're like, oh, Norma, gee, well okay, let's go
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: listen to them. And then you heard your Deemer You're like,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: holy crap, this is really really good actually, and it's
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: good and it's in it's in a completely different way
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: than Oh God was. Right, Redeemer is is the most chantable, singable,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: uh like, the most dynamic record on their on their
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: on their discography, I would say, and I love it.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I absolutely love it, not as a normy but as
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: you know, a hardcore fan, right, but it is it's
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: it's their most accessible, right. That's the reason that I
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: think it's it's it's great because it showed that, you know,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Oh God was definitely not for the average listener. It
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: was a little too much. Maybe Redeemer is the pendulum
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: swinging all the way in the other direction, at least
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: in my opinion. But man, the the dynamics on this
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: album are so incredible, so many different interesting textures that
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: I you know, you hadn't heard from Norman Gene, you
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: didn't really hear in the in the scene in general,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: still maintaining that great dissonance when they need it. But
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Corey really stepped it up here, learned obviously some new
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: ways to manipulate and use his voice to create melody
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: where melody was maybe sometimes lacking on Oh God. And
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: there's earworms here everywhere, And I have to say, No Passenger,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: No Parasite. God, damn, why is that such a good song.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: It's so simple in comparison to the rest of their stuff,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: but it builds and builds and builds and builds and
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: finally releases in such a satisfying way. Again, that's one
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: of the If there's one thing that Norma Gen has
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: always done, is their closer song is so expertly crafted
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: all the way across their discography, and No Passenger, No
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Parasite is easily up there. I do think that there's
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: a couple filler songs on this album, but the ones
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: that aren't are absolutely enormously impressive. To me. I have
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: it number five.
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna piggyback on some stuff you said. I actually
• 36:14
  Speaker 6: have it on number two. For me, I think it's
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: their best record. It's not my favorite. Oh God is
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: my favorite, but Redeemer I think is their best record.
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: But yeah, to piggyback on what you said, I think
• 36:27
  Speaker 6: it's their most like accessible and then just the one liners.
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: Everything is chantible in this record, especially if you see
• 36:36
  Speaker 6: them live and you like know their music, like people
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: are always like climbing on each other and like going
• 36:41
  Speaker 6: nuts to these Redeemer songs, especially like, you know, my
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: favorite song on that record is the End of All
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: Things will be Televised. And you know, I'm a Southern boy,
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: but like you know, tonight the South is on fire,
• 36:55
  Speaker 6: so like everybody's always going nuts, you know, And I
• 36:59
  Speaker 6: just there was something really special when this record dropped.
• 37:03
  Speaker 6: I could be wrong, but I think this is when
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: they really broke into like the mainstream right, like like
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: markets and stuff, because.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: Like it definitely did feel like the biggest album to date.
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Like I was like a kid when this came out,
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: so you know, I do remember seeing like stuff in
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: like Walmart and stuff like that, like and we can
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: touch on that later, but I just this record. I
• 37:33
  Speaker 6: saw the ten year anniversary show and that that is
• 37:37
  Speaker 6: in the top ten shows I've ever been to. H
• 37:41
  Speaker 6: they played at the end with Gray Haven and in Nashville, Sorry,
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: and I just remember like the whole room was going
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: nuts for these songs and just you know, Front to back.
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: It was just so special because it's like, you know,
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: this this is a record that you know, it's one
• 38:00
  Speaker 6: of the most impactful, like influential records that I've ever
• 38:04
  Speaker 6: listened to, and like from the album art to like
• 38:08
  Speaker 6: the actual songs, to like seeing those songs play live,
• 38:12
  Speaker 6: like it's just everything is so you know special as
• 38:18
  Speaker 6: a listener, as a fan of Norma Jean, like it
• 38:21
  Speaker 6: just resonates through your whole being, you know, but this
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: is their this is their best record in my opinion.
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: It's very fun. I listen to it all the time,
• 38:31
  Speaker 6: and you know, just to rehash, like it's not even
• 38:34
  Speaker 6: my favorite record from them, but I do think it
• 38:36
  Speaker 6: is their best.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I'll I'll say the same thing. Actually, JJ,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: I think it is probably their best. Actually, what's interesting
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: is I've got two albums ahead of them, or ahead
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: of ahead of Redeemers, so actually Redeemers number three for me.
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: But I do think it's the best.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Like, like, for example, maybe the way I would say
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: or qualify the best is if somebody to say, I've
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: never heard of Norma Gene, Like.
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: Where should I be Redeemer? Yeah, listening to.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: Norma Geen, I do think no, or I think Redeemer
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: is like maybe the best representation at least as an
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: whole album that kind of gives you the complete sound
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: of all of their records, uh in one I think
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Redeemer might be the best at that. So uh for
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: that reason, I think it's their best or at least.
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: Maybe most complete.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: I don't I don't know if there's a differentiation there
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: for me, but certainly the most complete Normal Gene album.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: But I think it probably is their best album as well.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: It's not my favorite, I've got two other albums ahead
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: of it, but it's certainly I think their best and
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: so yeah and yeah, just to you know, you both
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: have already talked a little bit about just the the
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: the way that people react to these songs when they
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: play them live, like outside of maybe well certainly outside
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: of Memphis and then probably outside of maybe one other
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: maybe like Face Face or something from Bust the Martyr.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know if anybody gets as riled up about
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: any Norma Jean song other than Redeemer songs, Like I mean,
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: obviously lots of songs people start freaking out or whatever,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: but the way like when they start doing like you know, uh,
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: they start doing that, you know, South is on fire,
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: like people will freak out. Yeah and yeah they just
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: they do that well or you know, like you know
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: the beginning of a small small Spark, you know, like
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: when people know that that's starting to build or whatever,
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: and then that first like crescendo hits, people freak out.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: Like there's just something about, uh, some of the songs
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: on that album that just captured the imagination of their
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: fans more so than probably most of their other albums.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: So I have to I have to if I have to,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: I have to jump in the real quick, because I
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: remember a core memory that just popped up for me.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I remember Mason and I traveling in the church bus
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: and we're sharing one headphone each from my iPod Classic
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: and uh we we turn on Small Spark versus Great Forest,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: and Mason and I go absolutely ape shit, like a
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: bunch of like a like a couple kids who've had
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: way too much mountain dew and way too many way
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: too much Red forty or whatever it is. And everyone
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: on the bus is looking at us like.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: What a bunch of idiots we were, like legitimately having
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: like our own little mini mosh pit next to each other.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or seizures and you know, yeah, and we're like
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: shaking the seats ahead of us, and the kids in
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: front of us are like, would you please stop? I
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: am a distinguished gentleman, and we're like, no, you're not.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: You're in the pit now, bitch.
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: I have a similar story real quick. So yeah, Blueprint
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: Blueprints for Future Homes was featured on like a Vans
• 41:56
  Speaker 6: Warped tour like compilation or something like that, And specifically,
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: that was the one song I was trying to get
• 42:03
  Speaker 6: one of my best friends in middle school to listen to.
• 42:05
  Speaker 6: I was like, dude, you have to listen to this band,
• 42:08
  Speaker 6: like they're so good, you know, it's it's a rock
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: and roll bands, you know. And it didn't stick with them,
• 42:14
  Speaker 6: but you know, it stuck with me, so at least
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: I worked for somebody.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Joe here.
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So for me, I actually would say I before
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: I forget, I don't I this is okay. I'll say
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: it where it's in my ranking. First, it's at number
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: one and uh, and I'll get into the reasons why
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: for a second. However, it wouldn't be the first album
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: that I showed to somebody. That first album is I'll
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: point that out when we get to that album, because
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: I feel like there's another album that feels like more
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: of a compilation that's like encompassing of everything that they do,
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: and they really lean into it on each song. But
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: in terms of Redeemer, yeah, I think it just kind
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: of came out at the right time for me, you know,
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: And I think it was a good marriage of like
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: the chaos, but still they really kind of reined it
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: in in such a way that was accessible, you know,
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: and that's why there are a bunch of one liners
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: on that record. I think you also saw Corey beginning
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: to lyrically be that he began to be a little
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: bit more bold, I think by really just starting to
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: tackle some pretty hardcore stuff, like you know. I think
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: it was the song Cemetery like a stage he mentioned
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: on stage.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: I think it's about.
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: Him getting home from school one day and then finding
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: out that his father had been killed by a drunk
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: driver or something like that, and and just uh and
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: I was just like, whoa, that's you know, and and
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: just a lot of the uh, the lyrical.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: Content just really stuck out to me, especially being.
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: Uh uh, you know, kind of a younger, an greer
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: dude at the time, you know, like on Amnesty please.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: You know, I've been so bitter to you know, just
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: like over and over again.
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: And I have to say, like both him and Droscovin
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: are really good at like taking one line and then
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: just beating you over the fucking school.
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: Right, and and and and it.
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: And the more you do it like it or like
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: scream it back, like the more kind of like violent,
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: you get to like it takes out something very primal
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: in like at least my like being, you know, and
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: especially if the lyric is something that I could really
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: identify with. And but I actually think think that they yeah,
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: they started to tap into that mainstream stuff, but I
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: feel like there is a lot of artsy partsy.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Parts absolutely, yeah, and you know.
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: Like a small spark like yeah, I mean, just who
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: would have ever thought that they would have had, Like
• 45:17
  Speaker 5: I guess I can't I don't know, I can't pinpoint
• 45:19
  Speaker 5: what percussion that's being used on the build.
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: Up, but there's also acoustic guitar and.
• 45:24
  Speaker 5: You're just kind of like, fuck, yeah, they're throwing the
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: kitchen sink at this, and they're heavy as shit, and
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: I mean they're literally putting their like dong and.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: Balls on the table.
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: So anyway, so number one for me, you know, I
• 45:42
  Speaker 5: won't say uh, but it's very hard, like the top
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: three for me were very difficult.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, good pick. That puts it at two
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: point seven five. So it is now in contention with
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Oh God the Aftermath for the third spot. So we'll
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: have to come back and argue that at the end.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: Colin, are you actually writing down like the decibel number
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: two because that would be maybe helpful to.
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: Yep, I am good, good to know, all right? Perfect?
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: All right?
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: So next album Anti Mother two thousand and nine. Who
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: wants to start with that one?
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Ma said, I think you should start with this one.
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: Great, I can do that. It's my favorite Norman Gen
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: album of all time. It's number one for me. Wow,
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't know that it's number one.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: And here's what's interesting. I think maybe i'll just add
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: this commentary. It certainly was not my favorite, you know,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: like when it came out in two thousand and nine,
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: at that point, you know, having listened to Bless the Martyr,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Oh God and Redeemer, it immediately went to number four
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: for me.
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: It was just like I didn't really know what to do.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: With it.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: It just sounded so much softer at the time, at
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: least the singles that came out for it. I just
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: it sounded way softer, and I just didn't really get it.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: And then it was probably like, so that came out
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine, so I was probably like
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: a freshman in high school. I think maybe it's yeah,
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: freshman in high school, maybe eighth grade something like that.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: But it was like later on in high school and
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: certainly starting in college when I would like revisit that
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: album that I was like, oh, there's actually probably the
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: like catchiest hooks of any normal gen album, like the
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: earworm kind of hooks that just constantly are playing in
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: my head. This album just has so many of those
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: for me, and I understand, like to a degree why
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: people think of it as sort of like a maybe
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: a softer album in comparison, especially in comparison to the
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: previous three albums. But there's just something about the way
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: that they design their riffs on that album that just
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: feel so heavy to me, and I also.
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: Really love it.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: And not to say that this didn't exist on Oh
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: God or Redeemer, but you start to hear a little
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: bit of the the ethereal Norma Gen sound that we
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: really associate with Norma Jean. I think we start to
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: really hear that more on this album. I'm forgetting the
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Is it like Corey's brother that's involved, isn't.
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Will Putney, Yeah, Will Will.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: So it's I think, and again I don't know when,
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: maybe he was involved with the band before then, but
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: and I don't even know if he was involved with
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: with Anti Mother, But there is just something about that
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: kind of ethereal just noise that you hear or again
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: that we now associate with more modern Norman Gene albums,
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: that you start to hear that on this album. And
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: I really really love that dynamic that they added to it.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: So no anyway, actually I think on this record, what
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: I think that is, that almost ethereal kind of thing
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: is is actually the guitar tone. Guitar tone took a
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: big change on this record for sure, and I think
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: that's Page Hamilton influence from Helmet Helmett is is in
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: my opinion, they have the best guitar tone of any
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: heavy band ever. And Page Hamilton was helping write some
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: of this stuff a long with China Moreno, So I
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: think some of that kind of atmospheric kind of stuff
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: in terms of guitar tone, was Page Hamilton influenced, and
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: it is something that tends, at least in my ear,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: tends to kind of translate to the records following as well.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: And maybe that's just me, but you also have an
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: extra guitar here, so there's just there is more room
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: for some of that stuff to kind of kind of live.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: So yeah, anyway, I think it's one of those albums where,
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: you know, Colin, you mentioned before that Redeemer has like
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: maybe one or two fillers. I just don't think Anti
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: Mother has any filler For me at least I would
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: agree with that.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: I'd say that the Anti Mother is for me.
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: It's like I said, I love the whole discography. I
• 50:01
  Speaker 5: think I definitely need to be in a certain mood
• 50:03
  Speaker 5: for it. Yeah, it's uh, it rests at number eight
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: for me, but it's definitely got some of my favorite
• 50:12
  Speaker 5: songs that they've ever done on the record. And and
• 50:15
  Speaker 5: for me, I don't think any normal Gene record has
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: actually ever had a filler track in my opinion, So
• 50:23
  Speaker 5: for me, it's like I I genuinely enjoy everything I
• 50:27
  Speaker 5: think it. To me, it's also again just seeing like
• 50:34
  Speaker 5: Corey kind of opening up even further with fighters, snakes
• 50:39
  Speaker 5: and actors and self employed chemists. You know, just like
• 50:44
  Speaker 5: on the first track that I mentioned, you know, talking
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: about like you know, calling out religious people and whatnot.
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: And that's something that I know Mason knows something about.
• 50:57
  Speaker 5: And and you know I saw and uh and you
• 51:05
  Speaker 5: know Murphy was an Optimist. Just great fucking song and
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: you know it's to me, it's great. And then like
• 51:14
  Speaker 5: I think, I think what was the song? And there
• 51:15
  Speaker 5: will be a swarm of hornets? Yeah, not like just
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: even like I wonder if they like actually went to
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: an actual beehive or something like that and just like
• 51:24
  Speaker 5: took the mic or if it was just like a sample.
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: But it's just it's so cool.
• 51:29
  Speaker 5: And you know, however, I think, uh, for for me,
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: it's the the stuff that really resonated with me, aside.
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: From like what we talked about in There was a Redeemer.
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: Uh it's still yet to come, but again another great entry,
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: something that it's definitely an album I come back to.
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: I have.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: This one is number six for me. I think this
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: is their perfect record, and by perfect, I mean there
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: is no filler whatsoever. Every song has something that I
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: have taken something from. I think that it's expertly crafted
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: all the way, all the way across. I also, Mason
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: was onto something when he said that this like when
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: he listened to it in two thousand and nine, it
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: felt softer compared to some of the other records and
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, and I felt the same way. But
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: I also didn't care also much that it did feel softer.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: But I almost kind of put it in like a
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: I put it in a different category of music, I guess,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: and it's not. It's kind of a record unto itself,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: and that it is like it's like an indie metal record,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: like think of like indie rock, kind of kind of homespun,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: very designed for I don't even know how to say it.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: It felt like it was much more designed for a
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: broader market, but it did not appeal to a broader
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: market due to its content of the lyrics, especially of which.
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: I really quick on.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm kind of fumbling.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: Through because it's interesting you still categorize it more metal
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: because that this is the album where it feels it
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: actually is diverging a little bit from metal like the
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: previous three albums, feel very distinctly metalcore, very metal type riffs.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: This is the album where their rifts sound more punk like.
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: To me, the rifts sound more like refused rifts. Then
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: they do sound like converg your Botch rifts.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: Totally totally just the riffs just.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: Sound way more punk rather than metal in this album,
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: and I think that I think that threw me off
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: initially when I first heard it, and now I've come
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: to really respect it to the point where They've become
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: some of my favorite normal Gene riffs.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, uh, other than one of the record
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: on this on this list, I think this is Cory's
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: best writing. It is bitter and angry and in some cases,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: like Retributive U, it's so pissed off it feels like
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: all the way through. And it's funny because it's this
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: It's the album where the music feels like it fits
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: that mood the least. I'm I do feel depressed when
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I listen to this album, and it makes me It
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: really does put me in that that mood, that mindset,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: but it's the right kind of depressed. It's like the
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: depressed where like you're still motivated to do things, you know,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: but maybe not like motive, not like gonna go out
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: like kill people as what I mean about that, but
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: like because when you say depressed and motivated, that's usual
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: usually where it goes. I feel like, but I mean
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: like like I can still I can still live my day,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: if you know what I mean?
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: Does that make sense? I'm never gonna listen to that
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: album with you ever again.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: I think only when we're driving in the car, when
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: I'm when I'm that.
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: That was some white dude ship. I just wow, Like
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: I wanted to.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: I wanted to put the stipulations out there so that uh,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: you know, I didn't have people pointing fingers.
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: Not like Marilyn Manson kind of depressed.
• 55:26
  Speaker 5: Right, not that kind of impressed Trench Cope Mafia depressed,
• 55:33
  Speaker 5: but real quick.
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: Also, I think we should mention this too.
• 55:39
  Speaker 5: Ross Robinson Also, this was the first of the two
• 55:42
  Speaker 5: records he produced for the band too, which probably also
• 55:44
  Speaker 5: had an impact on a lot of the atmosphere and
• 55:47
  Speaker 5: the tone, you know, especially with his work with Corn
• 55:50
  Speaker 5: and what not to Yeah, which is part of the
• 55:53
  Speaker 5: reason why or slip Knot. But anyway, Yeah, sorry.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: I don't want to take I don't want to take
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: anything else. Out a JJ's mouth. But my last thing
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: is that I think Robots three Human zero is one
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: of the coolest opening drum riffs. I guess you would
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: call it? Would you call it a drum riff? Drum line?
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: What do you what do you call it?
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: JJ?
• 56:13
  Speaker 6: It's so funny. You were the only person I've heard
• 56:16
  Speaker 6: say the phrase drum riff?
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: Like, yeah, what else?
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: Do?
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: What do you call?
• 56:21
  Speaker 6: Talk to me about that? It's not I don't know,
• 56:24
  Speaker 6: a phill run whatever, like I I don't know, but see,
• 56:29
  Speaker 6: I call it a.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Riff because it feels much more musical than that than
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: just a fill. Yeah, and it's it's it starts.
• 56:36
  Speaker 6: I love that you've like quinned this phrase, so keep
• 56:40
  Speaker 6: saying it. It'll it'll stick. Eventually, I'll get its Wikipedia right,
• 56:48
  Speaker 6: But I guess it's a segue, not to ship on
• 56:52
  Speaker 6: everything that y'all have said. But surprisingly, this is my
• 56:57
  Speaker 6: least favorite Norman Jene record. It is at number nine
• 57:02
  Speaker 6: for me, and it's actually the only normal Gene record
• 57:06
  Speaker 6: I still do not own a physical copy of. I'll
• 57:09
  Speaker 6: probably change that eventually, especially now that I'm talking about it,
• 57:12
  Speaker 6: but I don't have it on CD. I don't have
• 57:15
  Speaker 6: the vinyl. I don't even know if they press that,
• 57:17
  Speaker 6: but I just got it never really stuck for me.
• 57:23
  Speaker 6: I listened to it occasionally, but you know, even saying
• 57:27
  Speaker 6: that that's being generous. You know, there's a couple tracks
• 57:31
  Speaker 6: on that record that I really like, but it's just
• 57:36
  Speaker 6: it's not one that I sit with, which like, I'm
• 57:39
  Speaker 6: just you know, surprised that you guys love it so much.
• 57:43
  Speaker 6: But this is why I love the normal Gene fandom.
• 57:46
  Speaker 6: It's because everybody has their you know, opinions on what
• 57:49
  Speaker 6: their favorite is, what the best is, and you know, yeah.
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: Able to separate the true Numagene fans from the.
• 57:55
  Speaker 6: Faith it just well, it just makes it really interesting
• 58:00
  Speaker 6: because like I don't know, like someone that's well we
• 58:03
  Speaker 6: even kind of talked about it earlier. It is like,
• 58:05
  Speaker 6: you know, if if you're going to show someone Norma Jean,
• 58:07
  Speaker 6: it's probably gonna be Redeemer, maybe even you know, one
• 58:11
  Speaker 6: of the other records. But I don't know, Like everybody's
• 58:15
  Speaker 6: favorite is always different, and I mean there are there
• 58:19
  Speaker 6: are some bands that have that, but a band of
• 58:23
  Speaker 6: this stature, you know, especially with the discography they have,
• 58:28
  Speaker 6: it's so broad and so unique. Everybody's gonna have something
• 58:33
  Speaker 6: different utronto.
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: So I will say I think this is probably the
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: last Norma Gen album that I would introduce to somebody,
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: because I do think it kind of is its own thing,
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: like it's yeah, it just has its own sound that
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: it doesn't feel particularly representative of all of the other albums.
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it just really is its own thing.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: So even though it's my favorite, it also is probably
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: the one that I would introduce to somebody last if
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: I wanted them Nagram.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: So something interesting about that is I do generally feel
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: the same way, but I have actually shown people first
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: not actually a Redeemer song, but I've shown Deathbed Atheist
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: as as an introduction because I do feel like that
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: song in particular is a very good representation of normal gene.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: And maybe that's just me.
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: But are we moving on?
• 59:25
  Speaker 6: Is this a transition?
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah, Sorry, my bad. I was,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: I was, I was getting convoluted there.
• 59:33
  Speaker 6: I don't know, but that this feeds into what you
• 59:36
  Speaker 6: were saying. Wasn't The Anti Mother the last record on
• 59:41
  Speaker 6: their first contract with Solid State before they switched over
• 59:45
  Speaker 6: to Razor tie with.
• 59:48
  Speaker 4: It was also their first one without Daniel gotcha.
• 59:50
  Speaker 6: Okay, that's right, Yeah, yeah, I say that. Yea cool?
• 59:55
  Speaker 6: All right? So next Cohen go.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: Oh well, I already went. But that gives it a
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: six on our list, So that one's interesting. That's probably
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: our most bipolar one because we went one, eight, six,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: and nine crazy, so we're best, middle and least. That's
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: that's kind of all over the board. Next one is Meridional,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: which came out when again Mason twenty twelve ten holy bukets.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 6: Okay, I was a freshman in high school.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: Also, I think I said Anti Mother came out in
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: twosand and nine. I am actually wrong two thousand and eight.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, all right, Meridional. This one was a weird
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: one for me. I'll go I'll go first in this one.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: This record I did not love when it first came out.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: This was one of those I had to sit with
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: for quite a while before I started appreciating it for
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: what it was. But there was one track right away
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: that absolutely blew me away. And I think it's Norma
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Jean's best song that they've ever made, hands down, bar none,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Falling from the Guy Falling from the Sky Day seven.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: I think that song is their best song and regardless
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: of whatever else is on the record. I think that
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: that song in particular raises it up in my books,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: like it could make an argument for wherever it wants
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: to be on the list. But I put it at
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: number seven. I think it's the record that I have
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: sat with the lyrics probably the least, though, I will
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: say so that being said, I don't have a whole
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: lot else to say about it except for this. I
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: kind of despise the album artwork, Like I know, I
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: know a lot of people like it, but I cannot
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: stand it, and I think it's off putting.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 5: I mean, I feel like that's kind of their theme though,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 5: I mean, like at least for like Norma Jean, Like
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 5: I've always felt, like you know, just mentioned this earlier,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 5: that there's kind of like some horror themes throughout their discography,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 5: I feel, and you know, whether it's Oh God or
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 5: The Afterbath, talk about it subtly, you know, like you
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 5: look at the booklets and stuff like that, and I
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 5: think they got nominated for a Grammy for that. But
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: but yeah, I know, if it's not your taste, it's
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 5: not your taste.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: I yeah, go ahead, go ahead, it's all yours. You're
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: the guest, You're you're not the host.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 6: What It's fine.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: I just.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 6: Meridional like it. It's other than Blessed the Martyr, Like
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 6: it's the record that I wrestle with the most, because
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 6: you know, today it might be sitting at a certain spot,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 6: but tomorrow it might be way higher or lower. It
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 6: just really roller coasters up and down their ranking for me,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 6: and today I actually put it at six on my list.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 6: But like my bandmate DJ, who is arguably the biggest
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 6: Norma Gen fan in my band, and we can get
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 6: to that later, Mason like it's his favorite Normal Gene record,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 6: and you know, he and I have talked about it
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 6: at lengths before, but I'm like, it's always towards the
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 6: bottom half of my favorite records from them. But like
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 6: every time I listen to it, it's one of those
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 6: that just jumps right back up, and then you know,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 6: it's not necessarily my rotation, so it'll fall back down,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 6: but then I'll revisit it and it jumps back up again.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 6: And really what speaks volumes to me is that this
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 6: record is the turning point of their career. And you know,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 6: I'm not like a historical like you know expert or
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 6: whatever on Norman Jean, but this was their first record
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 6: with Razor and Tie. Also, Fred says, hello everybody, But
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 6: you know, I just like this record. I wish I
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 6: loved more, and honestly, I wish they would still play
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 6: the hits and stuff more from this record because it
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 6: deserves more love. And my dog is all over me.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 6: So I'm gonna pass the torch to somebody.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: But I actually I like this point.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: I've never really thought about this JJ that Merinial is
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: sort of a transition type of album and and maybe
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: part of that is the fact that, you know, this
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: was their first album that wasn't on Solid State, and
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: maybe that's part of it. But just from a sound perspective,
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: it does seem like they start heading in a direction
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: where the the sound that we even know of them
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: now you can really kind of trace back to Meridinal.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: With that said, it's my least favorite Normal Gene album, Like,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: like that's not even a question.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: I've been interviewing thought twice about it, Like that's probably
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 4: been the case probably since it came out.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: And here's what's kind of a bummer about that, because
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: it was kind of the first Normal Gen album where
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: I was really really stoked about the release of it, like,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: you know, knowing that it was going to be coming out.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: I still remember going to Walmart the day that it
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: came out with Culin and buying the album and listening
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: to it for the first time in its entirety, and
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: obviously at that point they maybe had like one or
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: two singles out, but I just remember listening to it
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: in its entirety for the first time and just again
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: like kind of this excitement around, like, oh my gosh,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: like a new normal Gene album, and feeling like I
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: was able to participate in that with Culin for the
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: first time because by this point Colin and I had
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: become really best friends, and it just feeling like I
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: remember that on that first listen, it just falling flat
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: for me, and honestly, like I've listened to it many
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: times since and I just can't like get over that
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: hump for me where it's just it's still been my
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: least favorite.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 6: I'm shocked, honestly, and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 6: but I think I think there was a bonus track
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 6: called Killmore Presidents. So I'm shocked that, you.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: I know, the actually probably the only redeeming thing about
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: this album was especially at the time where I really
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: hated Obama. I thought that was an amazing album track,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: but I just, like you, you think that I would
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: be a big fan of it, but I just I
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: could not get over. I don't know, there's just something
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: about it to me that just felt like they went
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: in a direction that I just wasn't a fan of,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: and it, I don't know, it just never stuck to
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: me in the way that the other albums have.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: What's the what's the Angry Brides? What's the anthem of Agribrides?
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: Is that the name of this song?
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think it was a track that
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: got renamed the anthem of it angry Brides, And I
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: was pissed because I thought Killmore Presidents was the perfect
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: song title, and I think that they should have kept.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 4: It, but they know they had their own like music
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 4: video for it.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 3: I think, yeah, Killmore Presidents is its own song. It's
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: and ended up being a B side. Uh.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 5: I think there was like another one that was a
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 5: B side called Distance to Planets.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, okay, yeah, yeah, that's iTunes version.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: So I guess I can give my ranking and stuff.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 3: So a few things about this.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 5: I think that original since at number five For me,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 5: I uh, I think this album was the first album
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 5: to me, I agree with what JJ and and and
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 5: and uh Mason were saying where it's like there was
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 5: a turning point you could see that they were going somewhere,
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 5: and uh, that was a little bit different. That being said,
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 5: I do feel like this kind of felt like it
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 5: kind of in some ways picked up where Redeemer left
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 5: off in terms of like having combining that heaviness and
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 5: that chaos but still a lot of melting that this
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 5: strikes me is ridial. Strikes me as their first album
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 5: where it felt.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 3: Like a real event.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 5: I don't know how how else to put it, but
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 5: like you know, before it was just like, oh, we've
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 5: released albums, and I feel like Theritiinal was just like, Okay,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 5: not only are we dropping an album, this is like
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 5: a fucking event. And I think it has something to
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 5: do with how extensive the track list is, and also
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 5: like this has some of they also started to have
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 5: like instrumentals in there too. It's like little parts, and
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 5: so it felt like a story to me instead.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: Of a collection of song.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 5: And then I think they went back a little bit,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 5: and then after that, I feel like every Normal Gene
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 5: album has just been a fucking event. And like, to me,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 5: whenever I get a new Normal Gene record, now I
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 5: need to fucking I need to have the fucking vinyl.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 5: I need to sit down with a beer or other
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 5: adult things.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 7: Man, it's just treats and uh and I just need
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 7: to really like listen to it and absorb it and
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 7: like it's it's definitely almost kind of like a spiritual
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 7: experience for me.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 5: But we'll we'll get into that a little bit later,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 5: but you know it, this definitely feels like, yeah, that
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 5: different turning point. And it's also the last with I
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 5: think that with any other I think.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: This is the last record with Scott.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, and Jake and so yeah, where where it's
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 5: just starts to go in this direction where uh it's cinematic,
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 5: you know, just like uh and and that's where I
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 5: think where I really starts to tug at my own
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 5: fucking brain and as cheesy as it sounds like heart
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 5: and stuff.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 3: And that's when I really started to fall in love
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: with Normagy.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 5: Even though this is not my favorite, it's like in
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 5: the middle, but I sent something that's happening for sure.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: For sure. Six point seventy five is where Meridional lands.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: That is the lowest one, sorry, the highest score yet.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: So next is Wrongdoers, which came out. Let me guess
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: twenty thirteen.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 4: Mason, that's correct, that's correct.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, do you want me to start out with this
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: one because I've kind of got a fun little story. Yeah,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: when it came out, So yeah, it came out, and yeah,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: twenty thirteen. Let's see what the exact date was. Let's
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: see what Wikipedia says August sixth, So I remember probably
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: a week later, so yeah, like a week after August sixth,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: I was going down to college to move into college
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: because I had to go to college early because i'd
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 2: fall camp for football and stuff.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: So anyway, going to college early.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: And I remember on the way down to like driving
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: to college with my parents and then with my car
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: driving all the way down.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 4: We stopped in Sioux Falls, and.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: I remember going to Best Buy because I think I
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: ended up buying my laptop.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 4: Finally got my laptop.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: So I remember going to best Buy and I remember
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: like getting my laptop and I was like, you know,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: while I'm at best Buy, might as well, get the
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: New Normal Gen album because I knew it was coming
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: out or had just had just come out. So I
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: get the Norman the New Norman Gen album, Get to college,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: get moved in, start doing all the football stuff or whatever,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: and I remember, like in between practices at some point,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: remember like having some downtime and listening to it for
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: the first time, and again it kind of felt a
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: little bit like meridianal where it just like didn't hit
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: for me the right way, like it just it didn't
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: feel like old you know, normal like Redeemer or Oh God,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: the kind of that kind of Normagen, but unlike Meridinal,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: Wrongdoers has become one of my favorites. Just again, it
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: feels a lot like Antime either in the way that
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: it just feels like every song has its place, and
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: so for this this album, it feels like if there
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: is any filler, it only has one one song that might.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 4: Be a filler.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: But what like the reason why this album has it's
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 2: so by the way, Colin, it's number four for me.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: The reason why it probably jumps to number four over
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 2: even Oh God, The Aftermath is the closing track. I
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: always say that it's like something like Sun Moon, I
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: always forget how to what?
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 4: It's Sundies.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, by far my favorite Norman Jean song of all time.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 4: I will I will blow out.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: Speakers every time I listen to that song because that
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: crescendo just is unbelievable. I've never heard anything like it,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: and I do think from a production standpoint, you really
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: start to see Normal Gene production kind of going next
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: level this album and out and just to hear that song,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: Like if if that song would have come out during
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: like the O God years, it just wouldn't have hit
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: the same way because there's just something about the production
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: of that song that just makes this makes that song
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: in particular really stand out. So anyway, I think Wrongdoers
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: is one of their better ones. It's why it's in
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: my top half of Normal Gene albums.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 5: And you know what, ayson I would have to agree
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 5: because for me, it sits at number three, I think,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 5: And this is actually the album that I would recommend
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 5: for first time listeners because I feel like it's a
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 5: compilation of everything that they had done to that point.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 5: They've you've got the song like the more experimental, longer
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 5: songs like Hive Minds or Sun Dies, then you've got
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 5: like the cloud normagy and sounding songs like if you
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 5: got It at five, you got It at fifty. Potter
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 5: has no hands lash whistled like a singing wind. I
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 5: have the track of stick Care so cheating. But then
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 5: you've got like the more melodic songs like wrong Viewers
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 5: itself sort in Mouthfire Eyes is like a total like
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 5: perfect for active like modern active rock radio, you know.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 5: And then you've also got their first songs that actually
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 5: start talking about love in a romantic sense, which I
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 5: found pretty interesting, and because I always I feel like
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 5: it's pretty rare to find like something in metalcore that's
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 5: especially kind of more of that mathy stuff that actually
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 5: talks about romantic love. I mean, yeah, you've got your
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 5: kill switching gages and stuff like that, but like for
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 5: something that's a little bit more extreme and a little
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 5: bit more heady, I think it's it's definitely unique, and
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 5: and it's done in the classic you know, Corey style,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 5: you know, like lyrically, and it's it's it's great. And
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 5: I think that song's a funeral singer and I think
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 5: he dedicates that to his wife whenever they sing it live,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 5: and and I think it's awesome and but and that's
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 5: kind of what I mean by like a compilation where
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 5: it's just like, hey, you've got these handsful songs, like
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 5: if you want chaotic Norma Gene, you go here. If
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 5: you want melodic here, cinematic here, and it's all you
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 5: can find them all in one out.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: I can see that that's a that's a good point.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: I still think Redeemer is a better like intro of
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 2: normal Gene music, but for like for somebody who hasn't
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: heard it before. But I do think you're right in
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: the fact, like you obviously put Wrongdoers as like that's
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 2: like the best album to introduce somebody to to normal Gene.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 2: I would say it's Redeemer, but I would say for me,
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 2: number two would probably be Wrongdoers.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 5: And I would say the other way around two for
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 5: me for Redeemers, that would because that would would have
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 5: been the first one up until Wrongdoers came out.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 4: Fair enough, fair enough colin jj.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: JJ go ahead.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 6: Wrongdoers is actually at seven for me, And mostly it's
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 6: just because I I don't know like the the hits
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 6: on that record, like if you got it at five,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 6: like I love hearing them live. This is the first
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 6: record that Jeff was on, I believe, and Jeff is
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 6: playing with him again. So on the last couple of
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 6: tours that I saw them on, you know, they were
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 6: playing some songs off of Wrongdoers, so that, you know,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 6: that was fun for me, but I don't know like that.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 6: There's just something that didn't resonate with me with this record.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 6: And I won't get too much into this because you know,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 6: we have others to talk about, but I don't know
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 6: the artwork that came with this, the videos, like the
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 6: content or whatever that came with this record. I absolutely loved.
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 6: It was just the songs that really didn't like stick
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 6: with me. And I'm not gonna shit all over the
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 6: things that y'all just talked about. But you know, this
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 6: band is amazing, you know. I just because this is
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 6: at the lower lower end of my list doesn't mean
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 6: that it's not good. You know, I still recommend this
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 6: record to people, but it just wasn't my favorite.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 4: It's okay, be wrong.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 6: Whatever I do. I do want to point out that
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 6: I think it's very funny that you know, sitting here
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 6: and talking about Oh God, and then hearing your specific
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 6: favorites Mason, that you love anti mother and wrongdoers. It's
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 6: just so funny to see these at the very end
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 6: of my list while you're talking about them. But I
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 6: am glad that someone loves them.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 2: One thing before you go, Cullen, that I find I've
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: always found this interesting about wrongdoers. Sword and Mouth Fire
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: Eyes is consistently the top YEP song on Spotify for.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 4: Normally it is.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know, Colin, I know you don't use Spotify,
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: but yeah, I don't know if that's the case on
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 2: Apple Music or like YouTube music. On YouTube music too, Yeah,
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: I don't And I don't understand that, Like I don't
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: remember it being like some big single for them ever,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: So I've never understood, like they must it must have
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: got playlisted at some pointers, but I've never understood the
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 2: reason for that song being so like cause I mean,
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: even if they played it live, like I'm sure lots
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: of people will like it live. But like when I
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: think of like, like, if we were to do a
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: ranking of Norman Jeen songs, not just albums, but Norman
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: Jeens songs, and if we got, like especially a lot
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: of Norman Jeen fans, I can assure you that song
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: it probably is not even coming close to the top ten,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 2: if not even probably not even the top twenty five.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 4: So I just find it interesting.
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: That it it's consistently ranked as the number one song
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: on Spotify for them, and I bet they rarely play
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: it live, right.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 6: I was actually like gonna bring that up. It was
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 6: really weird when I went back, and you know, it
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 6: was quote unquote doing my homework because like it worked today.
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 6: I was like gonna put some of the records on,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 6: and you know, I'm an Apple music guy, So when
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 6: I pulled up their profile, I was like, why is
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 6: the song like in the top three. It didn't make
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 6: any sense to me. But also quick like little tidbit
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 6: so DJ in Idle Threat, he and I a few
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 6: years ago we were gonna start like a doom project,
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 6: me and him and our other friend Zan, and we
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 6: were gonna call it Funeral Singer, and we had their
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 6: old band in Nashville. We were gonna have their old
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 6: vocalists like play guitar for us and stuff, and we
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 6: had Ernie like step in and like kind of right
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 6: with us for a while, and then it was just like, ah,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 6: I know, we're not going to do this anymore, but
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 6: I always wanted to do like a doom project called
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 6: Funeral Singer, and yeah, dude, it's so good. And honestly,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 6: like I went back, you know, within the last year
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 6: or so and like looked and there's like fifty thousand
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 6: bands that are called Funeral Singer and really, you know,
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 6: shout out to Norma Jean for that one. But I
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 6: don't think anybody took off with it. So if anybody
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 6: wants to steal that and try to write, write a
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 6: couple of songs and start a band like good.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 3: Lue Go.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: Rock Doors is an interesting one. For me, It's the
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: one I have sat with the least. It's the one
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: that I think the songs are all great still, but
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: I don't think that they rise to the same level
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: as literally any other album. And so for me it
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: is ninth I when I think about Norma Jean, this
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: is this is the last record I'm gonna put on usually.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: But that being said, I don't hate it. I think,
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: you know, surprisingly, I think one of the things that
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: I don't like about this album though, is that when
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: I think about it, all I can think of is
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: curdled milk vomits because of the if you got out
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: of five you got out of fifty music video. That
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: music video is just burned into my brain to another
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: extent because not all of those pukes were fake. And yeah,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: so I think it just I think it actually put
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: like a very curdled kind of taste in my mouth.
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: But there are some really really good songs on this
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: record that I that I do love. And you guys
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: were talking about fire Eyes. That song in particular got
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of radio play. And I don't know if
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: it was pushed by the label or what, but I
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: was out in the Black Hills and they've got a
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: kind of a rock station out there, alternative rock station.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: They usually play stuff like shine Down and vol Beat
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But that song in particular was
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: getting some some radio play out there when when that
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: album came out. So that's nine for me. Maybe I
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: assume that's probably it. I think it. I think it
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: just got some some decent radio play that ended up
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: transferring over to people's playlists for streaming. Uh So that
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: ends up with a five point seven five score. Okay,
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: that is the third highest, all.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 4: Right, next one twenty sixteen polar similar Who wants to begin?
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 4: Where are we ranking this one.
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: I could begin. This is number two for me. I
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: absolutely adore Polar Similar. I think it is it's a
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: record that has capture my soul. It also caught me
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: out like the perfect time, especially with not being like
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: the most impressed with wrongdoers. Polar Similar was a pleasant surprise.
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: I feel like it took so many different directions and
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: it's so much more of a record that wants to
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: be I don't want to say artsy, but it kind
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: of is. I would agree. I would agree with myself.
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: It's a record that that feels so much darker and
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: so much more depressed than some of the other records.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: And I think part of that is, you know, recording
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: at Packing Durham Studios, which is absolutely a haunting place.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: In my opinion, this record really just it made me
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: feel something that I hadn't felt from Norman Gen before.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: And I still don't know if I can quite put
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: my finger on it, but part of it, like I
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: was saying, it kind of caught me at the right time.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: I'm a big David Bowie fan and I'm a big
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: Sound Garden fan. Twenty sixteen, I lost both David Bowie
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: and Chris Cornell like two of like my biggest musical heroes,
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: and I was just, like, you know, feeling kind of
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: down to the dumps. And I know it's weird to say,
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: like you feel down because some musical celebrity or musical
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: icon dies, But like those two individuals like really did
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: like change the way I thought about music, changed like
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: me as an individual personally, and for some reason, instead
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: of listening to all their music, I was oftentimes going
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: to Polar Similar and just listening to it over and
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: over again and kind of wallowing in my own in
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: my own thoughts with that. So I don't have a
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: whole lot else to say. I think that this is
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: just a really fantastic record all the way through. It's
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: the one I come back to probably more often than
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: any of these other records, and uh I I love
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: it for that. It's it's it's a it's a close
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: friend of mine. I'll say that.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 6: I So I have a lot to say about Polar Similar,
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 6: but I'll keep it concise, mostly because you know, we're
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 6: we're running at like what the two hour mark or
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 6: something now, but also because my dog is attacking me.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 6: So I am playing with my dog while I'm talking.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 4: But that's not with yourself.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 6: I didn't I will neither.
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: He didn't specify what kind of doubt or.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 6: Deny that I'm also playing with myself right now. And
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 6: I know that my lady is in the other room listening,
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 6: So honey, if you heard that, I'm joking so so uh.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 6: Polar Similar is actually at number three for me, And
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 6: just a quick little story. When they were recording Polar Similar,
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 6: Corey told me one time that they actually had The
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 6: Shining playing while they were recording, like continuously, and that's
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 6: my favorite movie ever, which maybe maybe that goes hand
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 6: in hand with what you were saying, Callin like they
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 6: kind of have that like cinematic like haunting like thing
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 6: going for them. Yeah, but this record is just fun,
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 6: like from beginning to end, like just the little tidbits
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 6: of like the y'all are using, like the phrase filler tracks,
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 6: like the sampling and stuff that they do in it.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 6: I think the guitar work is great. I believe that
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 6: it's the first record that Philly played on who I
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 6: just loved that man in general, but the guy fucking riffs.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 6: But Polar Similar was really special and for me, like
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 6: I remember when it first came out, like upon first listen,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 6: I just fell in love with it. And now that
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 6: I've seen a lot of those songs played live, like
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 6: it's just you know, it's it's a record that, like,
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 6: I just keep coming back to. I listen to it
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 6: all the time. Anytime I go to see them and
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 6: they play one of those songs, it's just like, oh
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 6: my god, Like you know, a polar Similar song, you know,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 6: but I don't know, like just think of the each individual,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 6: like you know, instrumentation too, is like so special. The
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 6: guitar riffs are great, the bass parts are great, the
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 6: drums are awesome. You know, Corey honestly might be at
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 6: his best on this record.
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 3: I don't.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 6: I don't. I'm not bold enough to say that like
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 6: here now, but I just this record's so so good,
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 6: and it's sitting at number three for me, so I'm
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 6: curious to see where you guys put it.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 2: So for polar Similar again, I have Runderers at number four,
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 2: Oh god, the Aftermath at five, So Polar Similar I'm
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 2: gonna have at six, which might make it seem like, oh,
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 2: it's kind of in that bottom half.
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 4: It is technically it is, but at least I want
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 4: to give.
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 2: The caveat that those three albums almost feel like a
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 2: toss up for me, like there even though Polar Similar
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna put at number six. Out of those three albums,
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 2: they all are kind of a toss up a little bit.
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 4: So to me, it's sort.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 2: Of it feels like more Polar Similar is kind of
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 2: in that like right in that middle range for me.
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 2: But here's what I will say about Polar Similar.
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: Again.
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 2: I know that I put Wrongdoers at number four. Wrongdoers
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 2: was a album that really grew on me, especially over
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 2: the last like I would say, five to seven years,
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 2: and that's why it's number four for me now. But
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 2: Polar Similar was kind of the first album since probably
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 2: honestly since Redeemer, so it had probably been a good
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 2: ten years where as soon as the album came out,
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 2: I was really really stoked on and for a normal gene.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 2: And so Polar Similar was that like that album that
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 2: came out where you know, again like I wasn't super
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 2: stoked about Wrongdoers when that came out, wasn't stoked about Meridional,
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 2: wasn't stoked about Anti Mother when it had first come out,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 2: and so this was like the first normal Gene album
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 2: that had come out, when probably the week or two
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 2: when it got released, I was like, oh, this this
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 2: is starting to feel a lot like Redeemer type of
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 2: Normal Gene again, Like it just has that riffage, It
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 2: has that heaviness that I had been looking for. And
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 2: so it was that it was Polar Similar that kind
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 2: of brought me back into normal Gene. Maybe the other
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 2: thing I'll just mention about Polar Similar was it is
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 2: you know, so there's been Polar Similar, there's All Hail,
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 2: which we'll.
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 4: Get to, and then obviously Death Rattle.
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 2: It feels like Polar similar, especially just from like a
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 2: production standpoint, these three, these like next three albums starting
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 2: with Polar Similar, they almost sound to me like there's
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 2: like a new era of Norman Gene and they almost
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 2: all could be like interchangeable.
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 4: Like they almost sound like, you know, you know.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 2: What we've talked about, like switch Foot before a lot
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 2: culin where they'll like record like a hundred songs or whatever,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 2: and then they just have like this like rotation of songs.
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 2: It seems like that for me, and I know that's
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 2: not the case for them, but it does seem like,
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 2: just from a production standpoint, they almost like each one
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 2: of these last three albums sound like they could have
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 2: all these songs could have been on each other's album
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 2: just because they just have the same kind of production quality,
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 2: so which I actually like. I don't see that as
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 2: like a downside, but it just does seem like we're
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 2: now in a new era of Norman gen because of that,
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 2: and it feels like Polar Similar was like the defining
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 2: mark of like now we're a new like era of
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 2: Norman Jeen.
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 4: So anyway, I really like Polar Similar.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 2: I know it's gonna be on the kind of the
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 2: bottom half for me at number six, but it is
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 2: an album I really want to like sing its praises.
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 5: And I would agree with that it's gonna be on
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 5: the bottom half for me too, but not because it's
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 5: not amazing.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 3: I just happened.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 5: I mean, they have such an extensive discography, so I'm
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 5: just like, fuck dude, Like so for me, man, it's
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 5: kind of funny, like I have quite a bit to
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 5: say about it, so I'll try to keep it as
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 5: concise as possible, But I completely agree with what you
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 5: were saying this and like it's the beginning I think.
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 3: Of their their what I call their Depression.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 5: Trilogy, and this is what I was talking to Corey
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 5: and Philly about where to me, it feels like three
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 5: different kind of like sects of depression, you know, like
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 5: the to me polar Similar is very kind of despondent removed,
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 5: and then we can kind of go into the next
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 5: ones a little bit later. But like this one to
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 5: me just feels i mean, even with a song like
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 5: a million watts, like it's it's you know, he's talking about,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 5: you know, like protecting his family, but it's.
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 3: Still very cold the way that he's.
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 5: You know, like talking about you know, like you're probably
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 5: gonna die, you know what I mean if you fuck
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 5: with me, you know, like and and it's just it's
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 5: very cold, but but I love it. And like the
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 5: creepiness factor is dialed up on this record.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 3: I mean you've got.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: Those Russian radio transmissions.
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying.
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's just like to me, that sounds like that
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 5: track or or there's that other track what I think
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 5: it's called, Yeah, the Nebula where it's like all just
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 5: you know, like like steel guitar and whatnot. Like those
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 5: two tracks sound like they would have been on True
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 5: Detective season one, like you know, and it's just kind
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 5: of like swampy like and it's just you know, and
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 5: and let's just talk about how and that's what I
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 5: meant by like meridional kind of like beginning, like the
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 5: event kind of thing, like this is where I feel
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 5: like it kind of picks up and now we really
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 5: enter the trilogy polish similar and and you know, to me,
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 5: it's yeah, it's it's funny, even though.
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 3: Now I'm kind of like thinking my ranking.
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 5: Because I'm like, fuck, dude, because it does mean a
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 5: lot to me. And let's just also say, like the
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 5: the first tracks on the next on this record, in
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 5: the next two are just like fucking monumental as fuck,
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 5: like like again, this is just these next three records
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 5: are like they're putting their fucking balls and their fucking
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 5: whole cock on the table and they're just saying, like, dude,
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 5: like this is is.
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 4: Light Worker Christian band anymore?
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, especially now, you know, like I watched The
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 5: Righteous Gemstones and I got very inspired and I was
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 5: like I.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 6: Could do that, dude. I'm I'm watching through that right now.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 6: Should we start a band together?
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 3: Let's go, dude.
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: I love Righteous Jempstones, I feel like I feel like, right, Gemstones,
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: what the what the writers did was they just listen
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: to Marriage of Heaven and Hell by Plea and they're like,
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: all right, this is a TV show.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely, dude, it's just or they just like read
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 5: up on the history.
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 3: Of Benny hint, Yeah exactly.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 5: But anyway, Yeah, so polar similar I think is it
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 5: is a masterpiece?
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: And where do you where do you rank it at? Joe?
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 5: Sorry, I thought I mentioned that missed it. I apologize.
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 5: Seven so at the bottom half. But again, like I
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 5: I do love it. And the first in in the
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 5: Depression trilogy?
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 4: Hell yeah, so where where is uh?
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: That puts it at four point five, which is slightly
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: better ranked than Bless the Martyr. Wow?
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 4: Who could have saw that coming? All right, well, good
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 4: to know.
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 2: All right, well let's move on to All hal twenty nineteen.
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 2: At the end of twenty nineteen, where do we have
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 2: all Hale?
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 4: Who wants to go first?
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 6: Oh it's a four for me, I'm cutting you off.
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 6: We just talked. Oh yeah, and I'll be quick, I promise,
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 6: But yeah, it's a four for me. I think it's
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 6: sitting at four honestly because like you know, not jerking
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 6: myself off here, but like you know, we did tour
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 6: with them like right after this record came out and
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 6: then when Death Rattle came out. But if I'm not mistaken,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 6: this is the first record that Matt drummed.
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 4: On, and then that's correct.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 6: Like I don't know, Like for me, this was a
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 6: very guitar heavy record, but also like lyrically, this was
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 6: a really heavy record to like sit through, and I
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 6: don't know, it's just a very special era of this band.
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 6: So I saw them live I think like four or
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 6: five times when they were touring this record, and then
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 6: I don't know, it's just like all the visuals and
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 6: stuff that went with it as well, like really stick
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 6: with me. It's kind of where I feel like this
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 6: band matured into something to where they were, like, hey,
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 6: we're a legacy band. Any Norman jen fan from the
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 6: beginning or a new norma Jen fan finds something in
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 6: this record to really latch onto. But yeah, like that
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 6: that should like you know, put a nice little circumference
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 6: around like what I feel with this record. But all
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 6: in all, like there's a lot of really special songs
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 6: front to back on this one. I would highly recommend
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 6: it to somebody to check out. But this is maybe
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 6: an unpopular opinion, but my favorite song from them on
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 6: that record is actually Anna So and that's the one
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 6: that has Garrett Russell on it, so big fan of that.
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 6: So it's kind of a crossroads moment of like you
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 6: have a legacy band and a band that's really like
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 6: just shooting to the top of like the whole you know,
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 6: underground Christ Corps whatever scene. So that was just one
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 6: of those moments for me where I was like, yeah,
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 6: this this band still has it. You know, they're they're
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 6: reconnecting the old with the news. So yeah, so passing
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 6: the torch on that one, that one's sitting it for
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 6: for me, Oh yeah, Joe, Oh for.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 3: Me, that's sitting at number two. Wow. I really loved.
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 5: The record, and yeah, the second Entry and the Depression Trilogy,
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 5: and that was the only reason why I was going
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 5: to go, just because I was like, ah, you know,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 5: just starting forward with no, no, you're good. But you know,
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 5: to me, I think this one is a little bit
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 5: more of an external kind of depression, like of like
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 5: a reaction to.
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 2: It.
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 5: To me, it's it's definitely it's kind of funny. Even
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 5: though reactions on Polar similar, this one's kind of more
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 5: of a reaction to the things that are are around you.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 5: And even Corey said this, you know, like the name
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 5: of this the album was inspired by the fans, you know,
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 5: all hail and yeah it's got I mean, dude, it's
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 5: got just like some of the most chaotic shit that
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 5: I've ever heard them do, and just like it's a
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 5: little bit more metal in some places too, you know,
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 5: like really quick risks. And I'm a total fucking metal head,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 5: so like, you know, and I think, uh, you know,
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 5: Grayson obviously helped out with that, you know, I know
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 5: he's a huge Pantera fan, so and yeah, so like
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 5: all in all, just uh, you know, again, it's just
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 5: all encompassing and and again smash, like just a smashing
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 5: opening and like epic closing, a fantastic installment in that
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 5: depression trilogy.
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that you call it a depression trilogy,
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: and I think it fits right in. I have it
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: at eight, but I that's I feel like this is
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: a very soft eight. I did not want to put
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: it eight. And the only reason I put it eight
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: the record snuck up on me. I was still even
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: three years later digesting Polar Similar, and I felt like
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: it was too much normal Gene for me too soon,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: which is very strange, but I think it's just because
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: Polar Similar had that much of an effect on me personally.
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: All Hail. I was really off put by the by
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: the album name. And I know that you know, they've
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: they've always said all Hail the mighty normal Gene, but
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: like it's really kind of been off putting to me,
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: like just the just the album name, but the song.
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: Holy shit, are they good.
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 6: They did record, dude, like it. They earned that, like
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 6: they did.
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: They absolutely did. Like you nailed that, You nailed that.
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: I've just always been like kind of like firmly against
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: like self reverential kind of kind of kind of stuff.
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: But I think that they were actually trying to like
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: turn that back at the fans and be like, hey,
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: all hail the fans, Like you guys have like stuck
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: with us and like, you know, been been through this
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: whole thing with us. But the songs on this record
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: are the most I don't want to say anthemic because
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: they're not necessarily anthemic, but man, they just hit the heaviest,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: like it makes you feel a lot of times like
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: you want to run through walls. Yeah, I don't have
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: much else to say. I really do love this album,
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: and I think it's I think this is actually a
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: really good spot. Like if there's someone who like does
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: listen to heavy music, this is a good album to
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: turn people on to to be like, hey, this is
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: kind of like what Norman Gene is if you want
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: some of that really really heavy stuff.
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I totally agree with you all.
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 2: Again, like kind of along the lines of what I
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 2: mentioned before of like you've got these there's kind of
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 2: this grouping of albums that almost kind of feel like
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 2: a toss up for each one of them. But what
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 2: I will say so I have All Hale at number seven,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 2: so again it's sort of in that bottom third. And
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 2: I'll say this again for Death Rattle. All Hale is
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 2: just it's the album. It came out five six years ago,
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 2: and I just like haven't been able to listen to
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 2: it long enough to really fully appreciate it. I think
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 2: now you all are you know talking about like JJ
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 2: you mentioned Anna, you know the open track is unbeliev
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 2: whyle I listen to opening track all the time. Landslide
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 2: Defeat I think is like one of the coolest Raegene
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 2: tracks absolutely, especially with that like knife on on the
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 2: guitar neck that's so sick. I mean, they're just a
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 2: number of songs on this album that are just amazing songs,
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 2: and and so I want to have it higher than seven.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 4: I just haven't been able to like fully appreciate it.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 4: I think in the way that it deserves to be
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 4: appreciated for it to be higher.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 2: But that also means, like, if I'm gonna rank it higher,
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 2: then there's gonna be other albums I really like that
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 2: are gonna they're gonna be rink lower.
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I have a number seven.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 2: But again, it's one of those things where I still
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 2: love it, Like I still like whenever they play any
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 2: of these songs live, I'm gonna freak out. But yeah,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 2: I just like I for whatever reason, it's just it's
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 2: gonna be at number seven for me.
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that puts it out a five point two five.
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: These these number these rankings are actually working out really
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: really nicely. We're gonna be able to sort them out
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: pretty easily. I think good last one on Death Rattle
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: Sing for Me.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 2: Two thousand and two or sorry, two thousand and two,
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, which is gosh, album's almost three years
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 2: old now, it's.
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 4: Just hard to believe.
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: That is hard to believe.
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 4: So yeah, where do we have this one? Guys?
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 6: I don't want to cut line again, but I'm gonna so.
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 6: Right when they released this record is when we Idle
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 6: Threat was going out on like a little tour with
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 6: him and my favorite show that I have ever played.
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 6: We were in Colorado Springs and you guys were there.
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: We were there with you, and.
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 6: So if I'm not mistaken, it was either the day
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 6: before the day after they released Death Rattle was the
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 6: show that we played with them, and that record, Like,
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 6: I don't know, like it's to preface really quickly. I
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 6: don't think there is a bad Norma Gene record, but
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 6: it is sitting at eight for me. But I fucking
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 6: love it, Like I listen to it all the time still.
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 6: You know, maybe that's recency bias or anything like that,
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 6: but like I I love it, and I've seen these
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 6: songs played live like a bunch, So I don't know,
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 6: there's just like a special I don't want to regurgitate
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 6: like things I've already said, but like There's there's something
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 6: special going on with like the era of this band
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 6: right now to where when they're touring on this record.
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 6: When I listen to it now, even you know, a
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 6: year or two pasts, it's like I'm picking up different
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 6: little things that I love, especially in songs like Spearmint
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 6: Revolts or like the opening track, or you know, even
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 6: getting into like the lineup they have now, which I
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 6: will go ahead and pitch that. I think the current
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 6: iteration of Norman Jean is my favorite I've ever seen.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: Wow, I'm not saying a lot chore on.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 6: Vocals, and then Clay playing bass, and then Grayson Philly
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 6: and Jeff on guitar. I just I love like they're.
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: Leave Matt out. Okay, I mean he's playing drums.
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 6: He's playing drums.
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: Come on, you're a drummer who doesn't think about the
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: drummer first with the are No, he.
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 4: He is my dog.
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: He is a dog.
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 6: Did I not say that? Like anyway? Whatever?
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: No, you didn't, you missed it.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 6: This is my favorite iteration of Norman Jean by far.
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 6: But I don't know, like I I this record like
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 6: it might be towards the bottom half, like you know,
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 6: seconds last for me, but it's still very very special.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 6: So yeah, like, where where do you guys have it?
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: I like how you're trying to braid your your your
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: your heir and to Grayson braids are right now?
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 6: Oh my god. Now I have so many stories. We'll
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 6: skip that for another time.
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 2: So so JJ you have at number eight you said yes,
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 2: so I do as well. And again, I think it's
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 2: similar to All Hail for Me, where I just haven't
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 2: been able to kind of sit on this album long
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 2: enough to really appreciate it in its entirety. With that said, though,
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 2: I do think Spearmint Revolt could for me go down
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 2: as like a top five norma Geen song of all
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 2: time for me?
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: Does does anyone else? Whenever you hear Spearmint Revolt, do
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: you want to say Spearmint Rhino?
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 4: No, that's never I've always thought it was like a rhino.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: Is a famous strip club.
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 2: I just I always thought like Spearmint Revolt was like, all.
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 6: Right, tell me more with visuals.
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you with visuals through the spoken word.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna google it real quick.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah you do that, I will say Spearmint. Spearmint Revolt sounds.
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 2: Like the like this what what like five or Stride
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 2: Gum would call their spearmints.
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 6: Oh my god, Okay, i'd.
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: Now you are actually playing with yourself, I can tell.
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 2: I think that song is an absolute killer of a
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 2: song again, just so well written, could go down as
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 2: like a top five normal Geen song of all time.
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 2: For me, it's just absolutely unbelievable. But yeah, I just
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 2: haven't been able to sit on this album long enough
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 2: to really fully appreciate it.
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 4: So that's why I have it at number eight.
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: I have it at number four. I am in love
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: with the songwriting, especially on this record. I think through
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: and through that this record is very very strong. I
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: feel like there's absolutely no kill, like, no filler, all
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: killer on this I think part of the reason I
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: like it the most, or I like it more than
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: than some of the other records as well, is because
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: I've seen Norma Jeene more touring on this record than
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: any other. Okay, get this, I hadn't seen I hadn't
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: seen Norma Gene until Polar Polar Similar came out. In
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: between Polar Polar Similar. In all hell, I just never
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: had the opportunity, and I feel like they they spread
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: their wings a little wider, a little farther, and I
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: had a lot more opportunities to see them more recently.
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: And I feel like I learned these songs like you know,
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: they get they get stuck in my head a lot
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: more than a lot of the other songs on the record.
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: And even like the verses and stuff like that. A
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: lot of times, you know, you just you remember the
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: choruses or like the big like chant vocals and stuff
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: like that. But like Death Rattle, like every single lyric,
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: I think I can, I can recite the whole album.
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that for you right now, but
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: I think again.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 6: Do that to me in private.
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: Actually I'll do it too, in private, to your privates.
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: And I don't know. I think this record it is
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: it does sum up the the Depression trilogy kind of
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: like you're talking about. And I feel like it's it's
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: it's a the part of the depression where you're like
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: looking back almost at the old days and being like
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: think about like how much better life was when we
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: were younger, and when when when there's less responsibilities and
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: there's less.
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's really what it is. Yeah, I agree, Yeah.
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: And I mean you got you got a John lenn
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: uh kind of reference in here and stuff like that
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: as well. You've got You've got some really really classy
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: and also witty kind of references all throughout the album
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: that I feel like are very culminating. I almost felt
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: when I was listening to it like it was kind
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: of like a farewell kind of record, and I was
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: getting worried that this might be the last one. But
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: I know it is not, and uh that makes me
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: at least a little bit happy.
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 5: So for me, it's set number four too.
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 3: I adored this record.
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 5: I think it's something that, like I said, you know,
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 5: with the Depression trilogy, to me, it's I think you
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 5: kind of hit the nail on the head. I think
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 5: it's a self reflective depression. It's you know, and it's
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 5: kind of coming to terms with how things might not
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 5: be the way that you want to be. And also
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 5: that hey, like I mean kind of like what Heartache says,
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 5: And I just love that for a title of a
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 5: Norma Jean song, you know, And it's just like and
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 5: it has nothing the fuck to do with romance, and
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 5: it has everything to do with like a self examination
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 5: of the human condition and also just feeling completely in
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 5: a way that I feel like kind of abandoned, you know,
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 5: by your peers or the people that you want to
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 5: associate with, whatever it is that you might you know,
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 5: I guess kind of correlate with with with that. But yeah,
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 5: I mean we've even got like, I think, the first
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 5: genuine guitar solo in Waves that they've ever done. Also,
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 5: you know, it's this record means a lot to me,
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 5: and it's in you know, and it's their newest one,
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 5: and uh, I feel like whatever they do next, I
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 5: think they're kinda I I'm curious to see where they
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 5: go next because I don't know if they're going to
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 5: keep exploring kind of that you know, like kind of
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 5: depression kind of thing. But like like I said, when
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 5: when Philly and Corey heard my theory about that, they're like, ah,
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 5: that kind of makes sense, you know, and and it's
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 5: going to be interesting, and I kind of you know, yeah,
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 5: it's it's it's it to me.
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 3: It's a beautiful record.
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 5: I think it's a piece of art, you know, honestly,
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 5: And uh yeah, I'll leave it at that.
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 6: I I real quick, I going off of what you said,
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 6: hot take without knowing literally anything. I think their next
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 6: record is going to be their best record.
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 5: I think, I think, to be honest with you, low
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 5: key I believe that too.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 6: It just feels like it like.
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 5: Something's ruined and you know they've got, you know, just
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 5: the lineup they've got. Jeff is you know, he's you
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 5: know back in a sense, you know, and it's just like,
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 5: you know, you've got some of their I don't know, dude,
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 5: like and that's what I mean by an event like
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 5: each especially the last three albums, just kind of like,
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 5: I mean, look how we're fan boying over this shit, right,
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 5: I mean it feels like a like I'm not really
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 5: a Marvel, you know, cinematic Universe guy, but it feels
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 5: like we're talking about something like that or like alien
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 5: or you know, like any of that stuff. And that's
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 5: what I love about this band. They've built their own
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 5: lore and that's why it was a real treat. When
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 5: you know, Corey gives us more than like a short
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 5: summary about each song, when he actually peels back the
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 5: curtain like he did about Cemetery, like stage, like you really,
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 5: I mean, those are little nuggets, like real moments where
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 5: you're just kind of like, wow, that's where he's coming from,
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 5: and because his lyrics are kind of not as chineto
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 5: moreno and like cryptic, but they're definitely cryptic to a
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 5: certain extent, and you're just kind of like, whoa, what
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 5: is this guy talking about? Absolute master at his craft?
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 4: Mm hmm, totally agreed.
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, are you ready for the definitive Black
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 2: Sheep Norma Gean album ranking.
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: Yes, we have one tiebreaker to make. Oh okay, so
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: number nine, number nine is for sure meridional.
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 4: So that's the lowest ranked one.
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: That is the lowest ranked one. Wow, we have a
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: tie between Anti Mother and Death Rattles sing for me, now, Mason,
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: Anti Mother was your number one?
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 4: Yep, no one.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: No one had Death Rattle at number one, not even
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: not even close to be honest. So for Death Rattle
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: it was four, eight, eight, and four. For Anti Mother
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: is one, eight, six and nine. Now to me, I
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: would say, due to that ranking, we've got no definitive
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: answer is what number? Which one is number eight? So, Mason,
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 1: since Anti Mother is your number one, let's see if
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: we can make a good argument as to why you
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: think that should be ranked higher or better than Death Rattle.
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 2: Well, again, and I think this all comes down to preference.
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 2: But I would say, you know, because I would imagine
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 2: the rest of the albums are going to be most
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 2: in most agreements of kind of where.
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 4: We think they should be.
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 2: Why I think at least Anti Mother should at least
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 2: not be you know, or it should be Is it
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 2: number seven, then it would be number seven.
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: You're you're arguing for number seven instead of number eight.
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 2: The reason for that then is again, Anti Mother is
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 2: the most unique sounding Norma Gene album, even if it's
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 2: not our favorite, I think we all can kind of
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 2: agree it just is its own sound, and I think
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 2: for that reason alone, just for the sort of risk
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 2: that that takes, I think we should at least give
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 2: it a little bit of an edge, especially if it's
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 2: tied with another album. So that would be my argument
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 2: for why it should be at least a number seven
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 2: in the ranking rather than number eight.
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, Mason, I'm gonna argue on your side. I had
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: at number six, which was the next best ranking for
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: Anti Mother, and I'm gonna say that I think that
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: this is where Normal Gene found their guitar tone, the
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: guitar tone that they have almost essentially stuck with now
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: they haven't stuck with the three guitars all the way
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: through per se. But I think that the song structures
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: for Anti Mother are slightly more, slightly more robust than
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: maybe Death Rattle is, and that's only by a hair.
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: I think Death Rattle has incredible song structure and everything
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: like that, and and the lyric lyrically Death Rattle, I
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: would argue, is on par with Anti Mother. What about
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: Joe and JJ, do you guys have an argument as
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: to why you think Death Rattle should be seven instead
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: of eight?
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 3: Better production? You know? I think.
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 5: I think, like I said, it's a masterclass at what
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 5: what Corey does? You know? And and it even this
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 5: far into their career, their still finding ways to make
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 5: first happen. And on top of that, with Anti Mother
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 5: also being kind of like that ethereal kind of sound
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 5: like or that's when they started to add I think
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 5: a little bit more of that into it. I mean,
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 5: you've got a ton of that in Death Rattle. But
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 5: but the argument for Anti Mother is that, I mean,
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 5: it's his legacy, you know, and you also have like
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 5: like some awesome guests on there. I mean you've got
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 5: you know, Co from saus and you've got Gina Morono,
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 5: You've got Paige Hamilton, you know, and and I know
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 5: that that's an album that they personally love a lot too.
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 3: So I'm down.
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 5: I'm down to just just for you know, to remove
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 5: my recency bias is to knock it down to number eight.
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 3: But know that it's painful, sure, sure noted.
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 6: It's so funny because I'm looking at this just you know,
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 6: strictly from my own bias, and these are my number
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 6: eight to nine records, right, So I do think Death
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 6: Rattle is a better record, and that is recency bias.
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 6: But I also own all of the Norman June records
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 6: except for the Anti Mother. So maybe I'm the one
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 6: that needs to go back and like, you know, fall
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 6: in love with this record or whatever. But I just
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 6: I don't know. I think maybe being you know, we're
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 6: sitting here in twenty twenty five, like I think Death
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 6: Rattle is just a better record across the board, I
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 6: don't know, Like, you know, if this is a hill
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna die on, then I don't know if I'm
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 6: willing to do that.
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 3: So yeah, all right, sick.
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: Well, I think it makes sense that Death Rattle stays
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: at eight. Then because there's two of them, there's two
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: of us that ranked at number eight, so it feels
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: more more justified. Okay, so yeah you nine is Meridinal,
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: eight is Death rattlesing for me, seven is anti Mother,
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: six is Wrongdoers. Five is Blessed the Martyr kiss a Child.
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: That's the biggest one that like really surprises.
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 6: That's what that's four exactly where I have it too.
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: That's nuts. It's just your it's just your list.
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 6: Or what go ahead.
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: Number four is all Hail, three is polar Similar, two
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: is oh God, and number one is Redeemed.
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 6: I was so close it was almost almost my exact list.
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 6: That's crazy.
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: That's pretty wild. That's pretty wild what it called.
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 2: Just say, like from a chronology standpoint, it is a
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 2: total mix, right, like, oh yeah, the Marter is right
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 2: in the middle. We've got their newest album, Death Rattle.
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 2: At the end, we have their more middle albums or
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 2: I guess maybe more recent albums as well.
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 4: At the at the very top, like it's just it's
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 4: kind of intermersed.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 2: But also you've got Polar Similar at what number three
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 2: you said, and so it's just it's kind of all
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 2: over the place. In terms of just like you know
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 2: their chronology, it's not like their best album was their
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 2: first one and has gotten worse sense or vice versa.
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 2: Like it's just all over the place, which I think
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 2: is kind of interesting.
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: And I think this is such a good cross section
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: of number Gene listeners too, because you're not going to
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: get a singular group of people that are gonna say, well,
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: obviously this is their best album, right, Like if you
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: were talking about under Oath, more than likely you're gonna sit.
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: You're gonna get people that say number one is obviously
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: define the great line. Number two is obviously chasing safety,
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: and then it's kind of a crapshoot from there. But like,
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: there's no obvious number one here. Even with Redeemer, we
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: weren't even close to an obvious number one, Like we
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: were percentage points away from Oh God, which was very
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: very small percentage points away from Polar Similar. It's it's
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: it is, like you said, all over the board throughout
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: the years, throughout the decades at this point, which I
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: think is an anomaly. That that has to be an anomaly.
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: There's so few bands that you could throw all their
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: records out there, put it on a list and have
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: everyone rank it who's a listener, and say, all right,
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: pick your best, and it be smattering a smattering of
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: their favorites all throughout the throughout the the years. It
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: is really an anomaly in my opinion.
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 2: They are such an interesting band in that way. And
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 2: again I think it's a testament of just how unbelievable
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 2: of musicians they are. I mean, I think we can
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 2: all obviously agree on that. Also, Joe's got to jump off.
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 2: But thanks for coming on, Joe. We'll finish this up.
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 4: But it's good to see your face.
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, No, absolutely love you guys.
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 5: Sorry, my nephew's here and I actually happen to be
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 5: in his room and he's two years old and it's
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 5: way past at time, so I.
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: Got well, sorry man, Hey have a good one.
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 2: Well JJ, Joe, thanks so much for ranking Norman Geen albums.
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah again, just a band that I think obviously has
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 2: been instrumental in all of our lives, whether you know,
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 2: for Joe especially, it sounds like, you know, lyrically he's
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 2: been really you know, influenced by by Corey and you know,
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 2: I would imagine for you JJ, you know, just from
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 2: the drums, whether it's Daniel Davidson or all their other drummers,
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 2: especially you know, like knowing that you've gotten really close
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 2: with Matt, like you've really been shaped by their drummers.
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 2: And then like for Colin and I, it's just you know,
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 2: these are this is a band that I think, like Colin,
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 2: for Colin and I, like they have been one of
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 2: our favorite like just as a friend group, like between
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 2: Colin and I, like they've been a core band like
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 2: them in the Chariot, right, Like just this core band
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 2: that every time Colin and I hang out, either Norman
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 2: Jean or The Chariot's going to be played. And they've
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 2: just been such a core band in our friendships. So
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 2: what a like core band for all of our lives.
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 2: And so it's always fun to just reminisce uh and
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 4: Duke it out a little bit too, to try to
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 4: figure out what what.
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 2: Are the best albums in the Norman Gene discography. So thanks,
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 2: thanks so much for hanging out.
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah, of course I always love you know, chatting with
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 6: you guys, y'all are all right? Just before we go, though,
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna plug Joe's band though, so make sure whoever's listening.
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 6: Make sure you listen to light Workers latest album, Have
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 6: the Beautiful Decay. It's great if you're into metalcore, please
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 6: please check it out. He and I are big fans
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 6: of each other's bands, and you know, I just want
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 6: to make sure that he gets his roses too, So
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 6: check out light Worker. Make sure you follow them.
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: You Workers. Also, they're also going on a great tour
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: with Meadows and who else?
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 3: Mason?
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: Do you remember who else is on tour?
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 6: Meadows, Confessions of a Trader and some other bands that.
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's gonna be a killer tour. We're gonna have
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: to go. We're gonna have to go to that, Mason
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: for sure. Maybe JJ can can join in on it
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: somewhere as well.
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 6: You'll flum me out hang out.
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 4: We'll do it all right, JJ. We'll see you whenever
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 4: we see you. But that's always fun to hang out.
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 6: Love you guys, Thank you, hang out, love on your people. Goodbye,