Artist: Ludicra
Album: The Tenant
Released: March 2010
Label: Profound Lore Records
Genre: black metal
Purchase date: 31 Jan 2011
Format: mp3 files
Source: eMusic
I first heard of Ludica (and Agalloch, for that matter) on a "Viking's Choice" episode of NPR's All Songs Considered. In that episode, Lars Gotrich, NPR Music's resident fan of and expert on metal, hardcore, post-rock, and other polarizing music, shared his 2010 best-of. It contained a lot of music that I didn't like all that much, but Agalloch and Ludicra both stood out.
Ludicra is a black metal band from San Francisco with the unusual feature of a female lead vocalist. As is the custom with black metal vocals, Laurie Sue Shanaman howls, shrieks, and stage-whispers the lyrics over blistering guitar and bass with pneumatic percussion. However, it's not all power chords and trolls-under-bridges: Ludicra varies its tone and can suddenly shift into folk-metal moments with eerie tonal vocals in two-part harmony. The instrumentation is moving: powerful yet melodic with a strong sense of emotion. This is powerful stuff, and if you can move through the shrieking, a very rewarding listen. Recommended.
Rating: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment