The Lion’s Daughter is releasing an album in 2021 that has got to be one of the easy stand out’s as of late. It’s kind of Hardcore and kind of Black Metal (Think Satyricon). It’s also a lot ’80’s and a lot synth-heavy. It’s actually a lot of all around Heavy in general. Skin Show, the third album from the St. Louis-based trio, is weird and wonderful with a melding of sounds that shouldn’t work but emphatically do in a grand and mesmerizing fashion on an album that creates an atmosphere…scratch that, a whole new world…that’s a huge heaping helping of cerebral Metal.
“Become the Night” immediately puts listeners in the shoes of the protagonist in some unmade John Carpenter flick traipsing through the wilderness gleefully unaware of an evil slowly creeping onto their path as this sinister soundtrack devolves into something more steadily pummeling with the revelation of the great antagonist and that traipsing becomes an anxiety-fueled sprint to safety. Talk about a mood-setter, amirite?
Rick Giordano’s gruff bark is commanding throughout Skin Show and is particularly vicious during “Curtains”, pretty much the only straightforward shredder on the record. It’s an outlier for sure with the Synth-inspired tracks that surround it but still manages to fit in with the uneasiness it inspires from the frenetic pace as Giordano’s epic riffage and Erik Ramsier’s relentless pounding bring a fast and menacing Doom.
“Neon Teeth” gets back to the synthetic orchestra and is, quite frankly, just the bee’s knees. If the Phantasm theme made love to The Exorcist score and then had a Dillinger Escape Plan baby that talked like Bile’s main monster Krztoff then you’d get a little idea of what’s at the core of this ditty.
Skin Show gets more dense and delivers outstanding cut after cut, slicing a path of sonic destruction as we get further in with the harrowing haunt of “Dead In Dreams” arriving next and Fogelbach’s monstrous growl barking out biting commentary as a stark contrast to Giordano’s synths and coming off like a heavier Coliseum at times. “Werewolf Hospital” is the long lost sequel to “Bark At The Moon” that you never knew you needed with punctuated pummeling from Ramsier while “Snakeface” is a sinister, spacey stomper.
“All Hell is Mine” is a quirky, mesmerizing track that’s either Devo doing Black Metal or Al Jourgensen deciding to revisit and re-record Twitch in 2021 and then the title track is futuristic and fancy-free, traveling into the stratosphere to explore alien territories before “The Chemist” lurches in with one last blast of all that’s made Skin Show so enjoyable: spooky Electro, beastly Metal, and gargantuan vocals topping an all around mammoth-sized sound.
Skin Show arrives via Season Of Mist on April 9th. Pre-orders are up now and can be purchased by heading here or here. For more on The Lion’s Daughter, follow the media that leads to the socializing by clicking here, here, or here.