Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Nora
Label: Trustkill Records
Release: 2007
Four years have gone by before the guys finally coughed up their third studio album. Why so long? Hell if I know, but there are two facts that might get us closer to the real answer. Drummer Chris Ross lost a daughter in a horrific accident during that time, the band found itself on the brink of splitting up, and there was a big question mark over whether Nora would carry on with their career at all. The other thing is that singer Carl Severson has been buried up to his neck in work at Ferret Records the whole time. Over those four years Nora also swapped out no fewer than two members, which could be a third factor behind the very long gestation of the new album. The new additions are bassist Mike Olander and guitarist Stephen Chladnicek, who sports a fascinating proto-Slavic surname (Štefan Hladniček).
And the result? Still hot as fuck. They win you over right from the start of the record with a trio of venomous, high-voltage metalcore attacks: Somebody Of Somebody, Scum and Broken. But let’s take it from the top. The main bone Nora are still gnawing on is the typical thrash metal riffing, boldly flirting with the legacy of Pantera. The new album is far more varied in motifs and mood than “Dreamers And Deadmen” (2003). It’s got more melody (you can feel it even in the most straight-ahead tracks). But nothing scary, don’t worry. You can hear a bit more twitchy picking over the riffs and a few whispers of post-hardcore that, if anything, wittily build on the basic shape of the songs. If “Dreamers And Deadmen” was played entirely under the baton of devastatingly high-tension frequency revs, the kind the empire of metalcore is capable of, i.e. in the spirit of the purest balls-out chopping from the first second to the last, this time the band brings in more atmosphere, strings together more gloomy imagery, and you can detect touches of subtlety. It comes alive most in the mid-tempo The Moment, The Sound, The Fury, a track that leads the way in building a mighty atmosphere loaded with disappointment and despair. The closing The Ending is very close to that atmosphere. The compositions have more transitions where the brutal neighing of avalanche-like riffs isn’t necessarily in the dominant spot (Nora still cling to those riffs first and foremost, loyal as ever, on the new album too), and it can even happen that this time Nora carry some passages through the introduction of dead simple single-voice harmonies. In quite a few cases they resort to single-string picking, which stands out in Broken.
This is an extremely personal album, one that leaves both of the band’s previous records far behind when it comes to that kind of confession. Carl Severson hasn’t lost a speck of his high potency in four years, and whenever he opens his mouth he still unleashes earth-shaking jolts of extreme, brutal vocal aggression. He’s snarling like a rabid dog again, the vocals schizophrenically insane, just the way the whole chaotic face of the metalcore this band cultivates demands.
Nora keep that charm that earned them critical acclaim with “Dreamers And Deadmen”! The guys once again captivate the listener with a quality offering of compact compositions that brilliantly combine directness and complexity, which keeps the listener constantly thrilled and busy as the record rolls through dynamic waves across a colorful palette of shifting moods and atmospheres. The production stays unblemished, and Nora are once again extremely noisy and relentlessly snarling, and the feeling you get from listening to the record carries you straight onto a battlefield, a fight with no reason and no winner, strewn only with heaps of rotting corpses. So the band has kept its winning formula. Nora remain the epitome of top-notch metalcore. “Save Yourself” is the new metalcore bible: a chaotic, extremely jittery, arrogant and damn relentless album that kicks with zealous devotion, straight and deafeningly, right into your inner ear.
So “Save Yourself” is more varied than its predecessor. Nora don’t go nuts at full tilt the whole time, you can even feel the seeds of sludge (the title track), and the album brings a bit more melody too. It’s a mature step up from the predecessor, one that metalcore fans will get right away, rate highly and welcome with open arms. Nora are still going nuts with it! Let’s just hope the next album doesn’t take another long four years.
Lineup
Carl Severson – vocals
Matthew Hay (Portland) – guitar
Stephen Chladnicek – guitar
Tim Cuccolo – bass, backing vocals
Christopher Ross – drums
Production
Eric Rachel
Tracklist
01. Somebody Call Somebody
02. Scum
03. Broken
04. Save Yourself
05. Famous Last Words
06. Have You Ever Had A Really Bad Day?
07. Just Like Johnny
08. The Moment, The Sound, The Fury
09. Chances Aren’t
10. The Ending
Running time: 36.04
