READER-SUGGESTED CHICK METAL, PART 1: LUDICRA

Last week I solicited suggestions for awesome bands with female members that we don’t routinely write about here at MS, and a bunch of you obliged. So now I’m gonna try and actually listen to some of these bands over the next few days.

Ludicra was the very first band suggested, but the reader known as “lo;” Arthur von Nagel of Cormorant and sometimes MetalSucks and then Ziltoid chimed in with their seal of approval, too. Then last night the band came up again when we got a press release announcing that Ludicra are “putting the finishing touches” on their fourth full-length album, The Tenant, which will be out on Profound Lore in March 2010.

So, yeah. Let’s start with Ludicra.

I’ve actually heard Ludicra before (when Cosmo Lee called them “metal’s most underrated band”), and have no idea why I never wrote about them. Shame on me.

So, how do I describe their music?It’s like this really awesome, really raw black metal that I imagine will appeal to the tr00est amoung you (e.g., not the Abigail Williams fans), and the singer, Laurie Shanaman, sounds like she’s taking the most painful shit ever. Like, if Regan from The Exorcist took a shit. Just… nasty.

One of the guitar players, Christy Canter, is also a woman, which seems like it’s worth mentioning given what got us started down this road. And while the other guitarist, John Cobbett, has a penis, he’s also in Slough Feg, which is a plus.

They have an album called Another Great Love Song, but don’t let that fool you: this band does not sound like an American band that sounds like a Swedish band, which is what that album title might lead you to believe.

In conclusion, I look forward to hearing The Tenant.

-AR