Jucifer

ChroniclesOfChaos.com.


Jucifer - _L'Autrichienne_

(Relapse, 2008)

by: Daniel Cairns (9 out of 10)


In an interview recently, Matt Pike said that Jucifer were the loudest
band he'd ever toured with. Considering the man played in Sleep and now
makes an unholy apocalypse of a racket in High on Fire, it'd be folly
to question the fact.Forget
the White Stripes. Jucifer are easily the best two-piece band around,
and _L'Autrichienne_ is ample proof of their supremacy. In the course
of its sixty plus minutes, we're treated to more genres than a Mr
Bungle album. When you listen to the record, you'll be subjected to a
heady dose of grunge, pop, indie, sludge, doom, folk and (I shit you
not) power-violence. It's initially an overwhelming, difficult listen.
However, stick with it, and you'll slowly find that you've got one of
the most compulsive albums of the year. It also helps that singer Amber
Valentine has the sultriest, most seductive voice since Jennifer
Charles purred her way through the Nathaniel Merriweather record (look
it up, it's basically aural Viagra)._L'Autrichienne_ is also a
concept album about Marie Antoinette, and Valentine graciously provides
pig-ignorant thickies with extensive liner notes about the lady and her
plight. If you're familiar with your history, you'll know she met with
a somewhat messy end. As such, the record, even in its sprightliest
moments, has an overbearing air of gloomy inevitability about it. It's
even bleaker than a My Dying Bride record, which is truly saying
something. My Dying Bride is also an apt comparison, as this record is
equally steeped in good old-fashioned romanticism. _L'Autrichienne_ is
essentially a love story, albeit one where the love interest gets
brutally decapitated at the end. Eli Roth would be getting a boner
about now.However, even without the concept, this record would
comfortably hold its own; such is the strength of its tunes.
"Blackpowder" is the catchiest song Kurt Cobain never wrote. The title
track sounds like Radiohead, before they took a ten year long journey
up their duodenum. The sludgy misery of _The Mountain_ meanwhile,
recalls prime Eyehategod. Radiohead and Eyehategod? On the same record?
Why yes, but through sheer excellence, the album melds these influences
seamlessly, and the whole thing becomes unmistakably Jucifer.There's
a gloriously raw production here as well. The record has the best
organic drum sound this side of a Steve Albini record, and the guitars
sound heavier than all hell. It sounds like ten people are playing
these songs, let alone two.In an age where we're inundated with
bands that proclaim abject brutality without brain cells, Jucifer are a
bright, shining iconoclast. Brave, intelligent, engaging, challenging
and at times heartbreaking, _L'Autrichienne_ is easily one of the best
of 2008, and immediately worthy of investigation. Also, Amber Valentine
sometimes sings in French, and there is nothing sexier than an
attractive hippie singing in French. Je t'aime!
- ChroniclesOfChaos.com

Review of L'Autrichienne from MetalSucks
1. Jucifer – L’Autrichienne (Relapse)
Probably not what many of you expected from me or MetalSucks, but everything about this record screams brilliance. This two-person, female-fronted noise machine wrote an impossible concept record about Marie Antoinette that feels nothing at all like a concept record. Thank God, because I fucking hate concept records. The best way to describe Jucifer is to imagine having the coolest extreme music radio station on the planet where you can hear an amalgam of the heaviest, punchiest, punkiest, thrashiest, blackest, noisiest, gaziest songs all in one hour without ever having to switch the station or listen to a damn commercial. This record will thrill you, rile you up, and upset you all within the space of one song. Occasionally, you will think the entire machine will implode under its own manic diversity, however, somehow it is salvaged by a brutal feminine scream that doesn’t try to sound manly, or a by a lilting passage of pain and despair that you not only feel in your gut but in your prostate and/or clitoris. Inexplicably, the behemoth manages to rise again, kill the pigs, and warn the world of an impending Helter Skelter. Imagine P.J. Harvey fronting Cryptic Slaughter headlining in the back alley of Austin, Texas’s retired metal venue of choice, The Backroom, with Sunn O))) and Harry Connick, Jr. on the bill and maybe then and only then will you begin to get the gist of what Jucifer is all about. Easily, the best record of the year for this Old Fart. - MetalSucks.com

Jucifer Review from The Bay Bridged


Jucifer is the loudest band I've ever seen, which is no mean feat. Despite having only two members and no permanent home base (instead proudly proclaiming themselves "nomadic"), the husband-and-wife team truck around a veritable wall of amplifiers, girding the back of the stage in wattage at every gig. Amber Valentine handles guitar and vocals, while skinsman Edgar Livengood plays drums that look more like cauldrons or industrial cable spools, the better to cut through the fuzz. Underscoring Valentine's elastic, screaming-to-crooning vocals with explosive, digressive doom metal, the pair run roughshod over a dozen genres - the only constant is furious, cacophonous creativity. Their most recent album, L'Autrichienne (Relapse), boasts 20 tracks of the duo's multifarious brand of mayhem - it's so good I can spell the title without looking it up. - The Bay Bridged

Rolling Stone report on Jucifer at SXSW
Jucifer @ Emo’s Annex

Under a tent playing a solid wall of sludgy pop, everything about
longtime duo Jucifer’s SXSW set can be said in the presentation: A wall
of speakers approximately six feet high and 10 feet long, enormous
Lucite drums, an unholy torrent of smoke, and lots of sweaty hair — and
all of it as loud as it looked.


- Rolling Stone

If you know me, you know that Halloween mostly means one thing: free Chipotle. Unfortunately, it means the same thing to most of Bloomington, so I missed the first two bands waiting in line for a burrito. From what I've come to understand, this was no big loss. I arrived at Rhino's and shortly afterwards Push-Pull began playing their brand of indie punk nonsense. It was alright. Then there was Jucifer.

Ho-ly shit.

On paper, what I just saw was experimental metal duo Jucifer performing songs that were presumably from their last two records, If Thine Enemy Hunger and L'autrichienne, for about an hour. In reality, what I saw was perhaps the most emotionally raw performance I have ever witnessed.

In reality, I saw a man dressed as Jesus Christ punch his cymbals and drums with bleeding knuckles. I saw him break a drumstick in two and launch it skyward with a maniacal scream. I saw him scream and spit at his wife, pointing his drumsticks at her like weapons meant to kill. I saw him pretend to commit suicide by no fewer than three methods (hanging, throat-cutting, and gunshot to the mouth). I saw in his eyes a combination of evil and anger I'll never be able to forget.

In reality, I saw a woman dressed as Cleopatra perform incantations to the devil with a guitar and a microphone. I saw her slam her body against the floor, against the amplifiers. I saw her crawl around on her hands and knees, unintelligibly humming and yelping, summoning demons with her words. I saw her abuse her instrument and her body simultaneously. Hell, I probably saw God.

In reality, I heard an hour-long ruckus of alternating doom metal dirges and breakneck grindcore passages. I heard two people make more noise than it would seem an army should be capable of making. I heard drums and cymbals crashing into heavily distorted chords from a guitar covered in duct tape. I heard the simplest symphony I'll ever hear, and I won't hear much else for the next few days.

In reality, I witnessed pure sonic evil and beautifully raw human emotion in an hour of unbelievable metal performances put on by a married couple that are either absolutely perfect for each other or will end up in the newspapers as a murder-suicide.

But on paper, I guess it's kind of hard to explain.

Posted by Brad Sanders at 1:00 AM
- Tr00 Media Metal Blog