While working on a recent review by an artist that starts with “L” we kept finding that, following the conclusion of that album, we were getting reintroduced to the majesty of The Lion’s Daughter and their 2021 classic Skin Show. Being the curious type, we had an “Oh! We haven’t heard from them in a bit…” moment and, upon a quick interwebs search, found they had not one, but TWO recent releases that we missed. Obviously we’re not the best fans of The Lion’s Daughter. But we’re making up for it now!
Firstly, we’d be doing you a disservice by not also mentioning that additionally in 2021 the Missouri outfit dropped a killer EP called Turbo Covers and while we’re not going to get into all of that here right now we’d just like to say it rules. And that you should get it. Or at least listen to it. A lot. Anyway, Bandcamp’s got you covered here on the release featuring blistering takes on Nirvana, Judas Priest, GG Allin, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, and Mr. Bungle classics. As a child of the ’80’s/’90’s, we can’t recommend it enough.
But our main event for y’all today comes in the form of a new full-length which, as luck would have it, fairly recently released (October). And it owns.
The title track which opens this beast is a driving shredder that’s a spooky and scary, headbanging delight with Rick Giordano’s familiar pipes operating as the tantalizing ringleader standing at the pulpit welcoming everyone to The Lion’s Daughter’s next devilishly delightful sonic adventure. “Maximize Terror” screams out of that and gets even faster as Giordano’s super shreds coupled with his haunting keyboard elements and Erik Ramsier’s own shredding behind the kit with Scott Fogelbach’s bass booming along creates some serious Metal that’s beyond any of the heaviness their previous releases brought.
“Your Pets Died on TV” is a brutal primal rumbler throughout with Ramsier and Fogelbach’s rhythmic resolve adding to the overarching ominous aura while “Liminal Blue” starts like some creepier Survive (Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, of course!) jam thanks to Giordano’s synths and then “Rerouted” crushes all for this straight up Metal anthem.
“12-31-89” reignited our obsession with the Terrifier 2 soundtrack and we can only describe the sound here as what a pairing between The Lion’s Daughter and Boy Harsher (Author of “Pain” from the T2 soundtrack) might produce with the track being both brutal and beautiful at the same time. “Crawler Night” highlights both the axe and the accompanying synths for another massive sounding scorcher which reminds us of Tombs’ more recent Black Metally (Not a word) offerings followed by “She Does Not Exist” which captures that John Carpenter vibe from Skin Show but then Giordano’s guitars come in, meet up with Ramsier’s drums and the track takes off to a whole other stratosphere of calculated crazy.
“End Credits” fittingly rounds out the new release with a sprawling thinkpiece that spirals as it circles the drain for one last blast of Metal menace highlighted by Fogelbach’s hypnotic bass drone, Ramsier’s bombastic bashing of the skins and some out of this world clean singing out of Giordano (Don’t worry, those gruff growls are here too).
Bath House is out now and you can grab your very own copy to have and to hold or just to listen to when you visit here. For more from The Lion’s Daughter, follow them across the information superhighway by clicking here, here, or here.
One Response