Norma Jean 'The Anti Mother' album

NORMA JEAN have entered the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart at #29 by selling over 16,000 copies of their much-anticipated new album THE ANTI MOTHER in its first week of release. The CD also debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Christian Albums Chart and #4 on the Billboard Hard Music Chart.

“THE ANTI MOTHER is finally out, it's almost unreal to us. We worked so hard from AM to PM writing…and PM to AM recording,” says lead singer CORY BRANDAN. “We're ecstatic so many people bought the record, we’re already seeing a great response to these songs live and can’t wait till our fall headlining tour to play this album more. Buy records, support southern rock.”

THE ANTI MOTHER--the group's fourth full-length offering--marks the highest CD debut for NORMA JEAN as well as an artistic and creative high point for the Atlanta based five-piece.

In early radio news, THE ANTI MOTHER was #1 most added at FMQB last week. The buzz is now building at commercial radio for NORMA JEAN’s first single “Robots 3, Humans 0,” as well as the standout tracks “Birth of The Anti Mother” and “Vipers Snakes and Actors” with adds at: KDLD “Indie 103.1” (Los Angeles, CA), WZOR (WI), KHBZ (OK), WKGB (NY), KFLY (OR), KROX (TX), KJML (MO), KFTE (LA), WOBX (NC), KDJE (AR), WCPR (MS), WCHZ (GA) and WYBB (SC), as well as Sirius Satellite, XM Satellite and Music Choice. Check out some early reaction for THE ANTI MOTHER from radio programmers:

“This band is a perfect example of positive growth. They always manage to reinvent themselves while maintaining a sound that belongs entirely to them. They kick so much ass.”
--Kevin Manno, Q101, Chicago (Crash Test Radio)

”The Anti Mother is the ‘redeemer’ for Norma Jean. This album has an abundance of vocal and instrumental melodies which were previously unheard in the band's other works, while delivering the unrelenting beatings we've come to expect from metal's ‘Slam of the South’."
--Full Metal Jackie, KDLD Indie 103.1, Los Angeles

“With the evolving songwriting skills on their latest album, The Anti Mother, Norma Jean are poised to conquer an entire new audience."
--Lacey, WOBX (NC), Music Director

"Another refreshing dose of metal, Norma Jean is back with more infectious grooves that will have you screaming along from first listen!"
-- Scott Crynock, SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO

"Norma Jean takes a huge, brutal step forward with the release of The Anti Mother. The heaviness you love from Norma Jean with a new, melodic vocal direction. Let the neck breaking begin!"
--Scott Less, KXFX (Santa Rosa, CA)

"Norma Jean returns with a disc that promises to wake the neighbors. The Anti Mother is definitely their hardest record yet. The best is yet to come from this group."
--Troy Bradley, WCHZ (Augusta, GA)

"Every artist attempts to step up and push the boundaries with each new work... NJ is no exception... Sh*t is through the Roof!"
--Gary Susalis, MUSIC CHOICE

"It's been about two years in the waiting for the new Norma Jean release...and it was well worth the wait! These bros know how to smoke!"
--Mike Haze, WLZX (Northampton, MA)

NORMA JEAN just wrapped their mainstage run on this summer’s entire Vans Warped Tour this past Sunday, August 17 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. The group will announce a major nationwide headlining Fall U.S. tour soon.

THE ANTI MOTHER--the follow-up to their 2006 critically lauded Redeemer--is already garnering major critical praise:

press quotes
“The backstory surrounding Norma Jean’s latest album is fraught with domestic strife and great personal challenges. Not surprisingly, it’s also the best record of their career.”
--ALTERNATIVE PRESS, September 2008

“...amazing and potentially a standard-bearer for an entire genre, THE ANTI MOTHER is an unexpected record for Norma Jean: It’s heavy without being dense; melodic, but not basely so… “..the crunching “Opposite of Left and Wrong” (with Page Hamilton) and the lush (Chino) Moreno collaboration “Surrender Your Sons,” are not only musical firsts for the band but two signposts to their bright future...”
--Andrew Kelham, ALTERNATIVE PRESS (FEATURE), September 2008

“...heaping distortion, drums and panicked/pained screams together. …[The song ‘Robots 3, Humans 0’ employs] shifting rhythms featuring frantic drumbeats that sound like a frustrated writer banging on a typewriter."
--CMJ “Essential CDs”, Tiffany Kilfeather (8/11/08)

“[On] ’Self Employed Chemist,’ the Atlanta Christian crew unleash another scything blast of ragged guitars and melodic vitriol to get their fans salivating...”
--KERRANG! (7/26/08)

“’Death of the Anti Mother,’ ‘Self-Employed Chemist,’ and ‘Vipers Snakes and Actors’ have a swinging, furious urgency...”
--Tim Grierson, REVOLVER (FEATURE), (September 2008)

“...THE ANTI MOTHER offers up another batch of cathartic, pummeling metal. Although the bandmates still flaunt an ability to grind their audience's eardrums into powder, Norma Jean's hidden strength lies in their dedication to melody, which hides behind walls of sound and rears its head during key moments. ‘Self Employed Chemist’ and ‘Robots 3 Humans 0’ are prime examples, mixing distortion with melodic hooks and vocal harmonies. Norma Jean's members aren't softening in their old age; rather, they've learned to add variation to the metalcore pattern, injecting bursts of melody and offering cameo spots to members of the Deftones, Mighty Six Ninety, Saosin, Helmet, and others. THE ANTI MOTHER ultimately boasts the best of both worlds: heavy riffage with manic, tortured shrieking, and aggressive melodies sung with equal parts passion and grit.”
--Andrew Leahey, ALL MUSIC GUIDE (August, 2008)

“Neck-snapping guitar riffs signal false metal's day of reckoning on NORMA JEAN’s latest offering, The Anti Mother. Norma Jean have transcended the metalcore scene entirely with this epic monster…The album's cuts are raw, melodic and extremely angry…Rather than just mixing hardcore and metal according to the current formula, Norma Jean dissect both genres and re-fashion the elements into a style all their own…Each chord crunch rings like a shotgun, and the lyrics bleed passion…Reckoning is here, and you've been warned.”
--Rick Florino, ARTIST DIRECT, (8/6/08)

“Hyping this album based on the guest appearances alone would be easy. After all, Chino Moreno (Deftones) and Page Hamilton (Helmet) don’t just play on the record, they helped write parts of it. But there’s more to be excited about, namely the huge artistic strides Norma Jean have made. On THE ANTI MOTHER, vocalist Cory Brandan stretches his pipes to sing Thrice-style anthems (‘Robots 3, Humans 0’), but still manages one of noisy hardcore’s more convincing and dexterous screams for most of the album. ‘Discipline Your Daughters’ is the new gold standard for controlled vocal abuse. The rest of the band have stepped it up on THE ANTI MOTHER as well, fine-tuning an already ridiculously tight engine. Guitarist Scottie Henry has a knack for finding chords between the chords and producer Ross Robinson is the right hammer for getting more blood from this six-stringed stone.”
--Oakland L. Childers, ALTERNATIVE PRESS (FOUR-OUT-OF-FIVE STARS, CD REVIEW), September 2008

“A few tracks have leaked [from THE ANTI MOTHER] and they are devastating, including a collaboration with the Deftones’ Chino Moreno. They’re this year’s DEP as their shows are lively and wild and the band freakin brings it.”
--Brian Krasman, THE DAILY NEWS (McKeepsort, PA), (7/28/08)

meet the band
CORY BRANDAN (lead vocals, guitars)
SCOTTIE HENRY (guitars)
JAKE SCHULTZ (bass)
CHRIS DAY (guitars)
CHRIS RAINES (drums)

more information on "The Anti Mother"
The ANTI MOTHER is coming... NORMA JEAN--now in the studio with producer Ross Robinson (Slipknot, The Cure, Deftones, At The Drive In, Glassjaw) and engineer Ryan Boesch--will deliver their fourth album THE ANTI MOTHER late this summer on indie Solid State Records (exact release date TBA). For a few of the album’s songs, the band wrote in collaboration separately with Page Hamilton of Helmet and Chino Moreno of Deftones.

THE ANTI MOTHER marks the follow-up to the Atlanta-based post hardcore group’s critically lauded 2006 Redeemer album, hailed by Revolver magazine as "a menacingly brutal slab of noisecore with just the right hint of melody, while Kerrang! declared it to be “a cauterizing kaleidoscope of earth-clawing turmoil and brutalized sonic adventure...” Fans will get to experience THE ANTI MOTHER live this summer when NORMA JEAN-- CORY BRANDAN (vocals), SCOTTIE HENRY (guitars), JAKE SCHULTZ (bass), CHRIS DAY (guitars) and CHRIS RAINES (drums)--hit the road as one of the headlining main-stage acts on the Vans Warped Tour ‘08.

“The Anti Mother is a character we created which represents anything that is deceptive, and yet possesses an outwardly beautiful nature,” lead singer CORY BRANDAN says of the album title and theme. Musically, he points out “this record is the most melodic album we’ve ever created, but it’s definitely the heaviest record Norma Jean has done as well--and furious at that.”

The spirit of collaboration highlights THE ANTI MOTHER. “We were able to work with Page and Chino on two separate occasions, and as two of our biggest influences musically, it was definitely a moment having them here in the studio.” CORY notes, “Page came to our practice space and for the first hour he was just showing us cool guitar chords, teaching us new things technically. The song we wrote with him is heavy as crap and full of energy--you’ll notice his influence. For Chino, the writing was more impulsive. We were already in pre-production with Ross, but the song we wrote with Chino came out so diverse and anti-traditional. Chino ended up hanging out for a few days and we wrote two songs with him.” Adds CORY: “Many bands have guest vocalists on their records, but we were inspired by the idea of collaborative songwriting with some of our favorite musicians. In a collaboration, no one is beyond reproach, and there is always something we can learn and someone to learn it from.”

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Tracklisting

Norma Jean - The Anti Mother