JUCIFER

An orange: firm and appetizing. You slowly peel the rind, exposing the flesh beneath. Its fragrant aroma dances pungently through your nasal cavity, triggering the saliva glands, and that odd alkaline taste stabs the back of your tongue. Your mouth opens, drawing the orange into the kill zone. Your teeth sink into the flesh. Your tongue searches, slug-like, for nectar that is as rich and thick as honey. Savoring the sweetness and citrus sting, your spine tingles and your heart races. Your eyes roll back into your skull and the white flashes of severe intoxication mark the way past the point of no return. Then the sugar rush hits. It hits you like a drunken stepfather after a shitty day at a dead end job, rattling your every molecule. Sit down before you fall. You’ve just tasted Jucifer. This Athens, Georgia-based duo-- (That’s right, I said “duo.”) make all of this beautiful noise. Amber Valentine takes us from a caressing whisper to demonic screams, all while playing melody and rhythm on a McGuyvered guitar rig. Ed Livengood provides the measured percussion and relentless thunder. Layered with hypnotic voices and unconventional instruments, each song comes as a surprise of complexity, grit and originality. These combined forces are a shitstorm of artistic, intense groove that should not go unheard. Defying category and niche, Jucifer achieve the mantle of mad scientist, hunchback, monster, and damsel in distress. Definitely check them out if they ever roll into town.