Look Right Penny Singer Fighting Cancer, Band Over

One of metal’s awesome voices belongs to Mariel Diaz-Carrion of Look Right Penny. The Florida pop-prog-metal quintet authored one of those albums that kinda takes over your life, 2012’s Sugar Lane. It’s awesome as an album — and mind-blowing as the debut of a quintet that’s just out of their teens. And when we collared Diaz-Carrion and guitarist Cotee Embry for an interview, we discovered that the people of Look Right Penny are as sweetly chill as their skills are estimable. Nice.

But, after a rad new jam 14 months ago, Look Right Penny has been quiet. Now a MS reader has tipped us to a possible reason: Diaz-Carrion is experiencing a serious health problem. It started as a disorder called hypothyroidism, but has worsened. From a statement:

[In 2013, Diaz-Carrion] was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease, which means her thyroid [alternates] from over- to under-activity, and her immune system is attacking her thyroid. [After] the symptoms came back a few months later, she had another … biopsy to further investigate suspicious cells. In February 2014, Mariel was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma.

Diaz-Carrion told us via email that she “feel[s] normal everyday,” but has experienced fatigue, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath. In our exchanges, she seemed undeterred. What’s next is a procedure scheduled for May 15 to remove her thyroid, next radiation treatments, then a lifetime of hormone pills. I can’t be alone in my fear for her voice — that thyroid is neighbor to her golden larynx — and for her future as a mega-singer for Look Right Penny. So Diaz-Carrion explained:

The band started fading a year ago. We didn’t have our hearts in it anymore. It was starting to get depressing playing shows out of state for five people. We did have plans to make a new album with a completely different sound starting in August last year but things changed, things came up, and it was kind of out on the back burner, and then fell apart completely.

Aw nuts. Sure, bands in their early 20s like to re-activate in their 30s, but that’ll be like 2023. For now, Diaz-Carrion needs to raise $2300 to cover the part of her costs. Throw in here.