Album Review: NORRIS - "The Great White North"

Album Review by Ian Keane

I guess the first thing I could say about "The Great White North" by NORRIS is that its production value is amazing and intense, right from the opening riff it sounds awesome and doesn't let up at all through the entire 32 minutes of hard hitting math / trash metal . I mention this first for the simple reason that once I downloaded the album (which came with some bonus band photos and logos) and did the usual Google search of the band to find out a little more about them, what I found gave me the impression that theses guys had their shit together and a quick click of the play button instantly confirmed to the ears what the eyes had already come to conclude.

Now lets get down to the tunes. Its sucks sometimes when you have to find words to describe the sounds and genre of a band. Any good band will take influences from other bands and genres, but to be truly good, you need to be original and not easily pegged down into a certain genre. Before I go any further with that thought let me say that NORRIS is not the most original band I've ever heard, not by a long shot, however I do think they bring a little more to the table than recycled metal riffage and the same old half time break downs.

The stand out track in my opinion is the track "Chump Change". It has a certain jumpy kind of rhythm in the main parts that's sure to get heads banging and by the time the crazy tapping guitar parts come in its hard not to imagine whole bars of people going climbing over each other moshing their brain out.


Another note worthy track on this record is the track "The Dregs" with its slower intro part and extreme vocal attacks without the half talking vocal parts found on other tracks like "Food for Thought" and "De Evolution of Music".  I can't really say that I'm a fan of this style of vocal and mostly wish the vocals stuck with the intensity conveyed with the full on screaming. The end of the song is slow, heavy and crushing and fades out nicely in to a purely piano track Called "Peasant"

All in all "The Great White North" is defiantly a good listen for fans of the hardcore metal scene looking to hear a quality sounding record full of aggression, skill and wicked guitar tapping

http://yearofthesun.bandcamp.com/album/norris-the-great-white-north