The husband-and-wife duo of drummer Edgar Livengood and guitarist/vocalist Gazelle Amber Valentine have been making and releasing music as Jucifer for over two decades. Formed in 1993 and initially based in Athens, Georgia, the band is allegedly named after the “The Juice is Lucifer” statement made during the O.J. Simpson murder trails. Jucifer was, over its first few years of activity, marketed by various labels as a more “indie” or “alternative” offering, and their sound during the second half of the ’90s occasionally danced with this blanket assessment, albeit in a loud, abrasive, and metallic fashion. Having developed into something that, more often than not, truly defies classification on the whole, Jucifer is nonetheless tagged as sludge or doom metal to avoid unpacking the complex reality of the duo’s stylistic mastery and invention within the context of all that is heavy, perpetually intense, and inventive, not to mention unpredictably melodic and catchy.
Jucifer
The succinct and, it’s assumed, band-generated wrap-up of what to expect on record and live goes like this: “23 years of annihilating ears and insides. Genre = Obliterate. Sludge, doom, grind, thrash, death, crust, black, combined. Notoriously nomadic, live in their tour bus. ALWAYS ON TOUR.” The duo has seen its seven full-lengths, five EPs, and two DVD titles released by Relapse Records, Alternative Tentacles, and, at one time, major-label subsidiary Capricorn Records (via that imprint’s relaunch around Y2K). Additionally, the band’s own Nomadic Fortress Records handles certain release formats. Jucifer has only gotten better at everything they do since the release of their 2006 debut for Relapse Records, If Thine Enemy Hunger (album No. 3 overall). Especially recommended are recent albums like 2010’s Throned in Blood, and the 2014 record District of Dystopia.
Jucifer at the Hi-Tone, Saturday, Febraury 13th at the Hi-Tone,8 p.m. $10-$12.