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Blood Sisters of The Oath: Lucifer & Maggot Heart

July 16, 2018 by A.S. Van Dorston

Lucifer – Lucifer II (Century Media)
Maggot Heart – Dusk To Dusk (Teratology Sound & Vision)

Once upon a time in the early 2010s, guitarist Linnéa Olsson, after serving time in Stockholm heavy metal bands Sonic Ritual and Slingblade, moved to Berlin for fresh inspiration. There she met a sister from another mister, vocalist/DJ/promotor Johanna Sardonis, a longtime vet since the 90s of black and death metal bands Ferox, Cryogenic, Dies After. Together they formed The Oath in 2012, and it was potent and evil, combining their diverse interests from Sabbath, Trouble, Angel Witch, the Stooges, Poison Idea, to Mercyful Fate, Danzig, as well as poppier elements from Heart and Fleetwood Mac. Out of all that they created an incredibly cohesive debut album of psych noir, doom and traditional metal. Unfortunately before the album was even released, and before they could truly road test their band which included Simon Bouteloup (bass, Kadavar/ex-Aqua Nebula Oscillator) and Andrew Prestidge (Angel Witch/Winters), they broke up. It’s always a delicate and difficult balance to have two equally strong, fiery creative forces, and in this case it imploded before it could take flight. Those in the know mourned this event while the rest of the world blithely carried on, oblivious to the greatness they were to miss out on. Both artists are reluctant to talk about the breakup, let alone The Oath in interviews. A quintessentially bad breakup then, and understandable that it might drive them crazy to see their albums reviewed in the same piece. Well, they did release the albums nearly at the same time, so let the games begin!

Both artists carried on their visions in separate, successful projects. Olsson joined Finnish darkwave/post-punk band Beastmilk/Grave Pleasures. It’s a great band, and while she contributed her songwriting to Dreamcrash (2015) her talents were somewhat wasted, as they already had a sound down pat, and didn’t really evolve much to absorb what she could offer.  But it was another valuable experience for Olsson to add to her arsenal, and she began writing songs for the first Maggot Heart EP in 2015. It’s meant to be a solo project with a potentially fluid lineup of supporting players, somewhat like Josh Homme with Queens Of The Stone Age.

Meanwhile, Sardonis and Prestridge wasted no time in teaming up with Gaz Jennings from Cathedral to form Lucifer, releasing their debut in 2015. It was a very promising project, expanding The Oath’s psych noir approach to include obscure prog and proto-metal influences. Not every track on the album clicked, as it was a tad undercooked, but the band killed it onstange with their 2015 North American tour supporting High On Fire. Exit Prestridge and Gaz, enter another high-profile collaborator, Nicke Andersson of Swedish death metal pioneers Entombed and hard garage rockers Hellacopters. It makes sense that the band’s sound would evolve from psychedelic doom to hard rock, but with Sardonis’ increasingly tuneful songcraft. The result is her most satisfying batch of songs yet, with nice, thick sounding basslines (possibly provided by Andersson, as Alexander Mayr wasn’t on the album), and an assist in guitars from Robin Tidebrink of Swedish stoner rockers Saturn.

It leads off with the chooglin’ rocker “California Son,” a nice display of mastery of the kind of biker metal the likes of Graveyard and Kadavar excel in. “Dreamer” is a more introspective slow-burner that luxuriates in sub-bass tones contrasted with a wailing chorus and a couple sweet but brief solos that could have been worth big bucks in an 80s power ballad. “Phoenix” is a prime specimen for Sardonis’ ability to balance menace with a soaring vocal melody in the chorus, augmented by harmonies and killer hooks. Perhaps this should have been the lead single. They haven’t fully abandoned their doom psych roots, with “Eye In The Sky” offering a feast of psych prog twists and changes. The folky “Before The Sun” stands out not just because of its genre shift, but also thanks to Sardonis’ channeling of Karen Carpenter. Her vocals are seductive throughout the album, bit it holds especially true here. “Aton” is the jammiest track here, and to me a welcome opportunity to space out for a couple minutes, before engaging in the hardest parts of the pounding, final track, “Faux Pharaoh.”

Oh yeah, there’s also their cover of The Stones’ “Dancing With Mr. D.” I guess I have to talk about that. Covers are a tricky thing these days. Once upon a time, 50+ years ago, it was expected that new bands would cut their teeth on a ton of covers. But then mavericks like Jimi Hendrix changed the game by taking a song from one of the most revered songwriters of the day, barely a month after the original version of “All Along The Watchtower” was released, and completely wipe away the relevance of Dylan’s performance of his own song. It was Hendrix’s statement of purpose, showing how he could take a powerful but very low key song, and make it majestic, an anthem for a generation. Since then the advisable path was, if you couldn’t own a song like a boss and prove you’re no-one’s derivative bitch, then stay the fuck away from recording covers. Lucifer fails to improve on the original performance of this bog-standard song, which at least sounded dirty and nasty on Goat’s Head Soup (1973). Instead, Lucifer sounds slick and proficient. They sound like a cover band. This was a mistake, and a giant blemish on the album. Yet I really want to hear their cover of the Scorpions’ 1975 deep cut “Evening Wind.” It was a b-side of the “California Son” single, but is not available to buy or stream anywhere. It seems that would fit the feel of this album much better, but unless you have the single or Japanese import, you’re out of luck for now. Despite that misstep, Lucifer II has the band blasting riffs and writing sticky tunes at the peak of their powers, while retaining just enough evil.

Linnéa Olsson wisely took a much different direction than The Oath. Inspired by her stint with Grave Pleasures, Maggot Heart is a unique mix of hard rock, garage punk, and even some noise rock that could see them fitting snugly on a late 80s bill with  Scratch Acid, Come or Tragic Mulatto, but with their own unique sound. While her friends Uno Bruniusson and Gottfrid Åhman (both of whom played in In Solitude among other bands) helped out with recordings, Olivia Airey and Neta Shimoni have been supporting her on live shows, with Uno joining when available. City Girls EP was released in 2017, featuring a rough, raw production and vivid storytelling lyrics.  On the new full length Dusk To Dusk, the sound is fleshed out a bit with more heft on the low-end, but still a nasty, rusty razor guitar sound that can pierce through the brain at times (see their “Show Them Your Teeth” video). Olsson is not nearly as expressive a singer as Sardonis, but her experience with her former partner has clearly spooked her, as she iterates repeatedly in interviews, singers be crazy crackers. Her voice brings to mind Thalia Zedek (Live Skull, Come) somewhat flat and plaintive, but ultimately blends pretty well as just another one of the instruments rather than something shiny to show off up front.

It might be weird to consider Maggot Heart heavy after decades of bands striving for brutality and heaviness exclusive of everything else. Let’s just say they stand out from a lot of rock bands with their extra dose of seething venom that you don’t often hear from those whoring themselves out in the popularity contest of festival slots and unhealthy levels of obsession in social media. Olsson has other things on her mind, such as late nights in scuzzy whisky bars, dreading the apocalypse and plotting revenge on her enemies. This is all figurative, I’m not looking to get anyone in legal trouble. But songs like “Blood Envy” and “Scorpion Time” have a refreshingly honest edge, teetering the line of violence that make a lot of more polished, popular hard rock bands sound stupid and irrelevant. Yeah, to each their own, but a misanthropic secret club is alluring at times, especially when they offer up tunes as visceral and memorable as the title track. “Big Kross” is all stalking menace, with some great guitar lines and changes that would do The Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison proud.

“The Killing Hand,” “Medication,” “Strange Women” are pretty consistently all killer, until the last two tracks. The repetitive chorus on “Pinned Like A Butterfly” doesn’t sit well with me, and the moody “Buried Songs” seems to just deflate. Still, this is a first rate debut album, one that could possibly remain in my top 50 by the end of the year. Don’t be a dick, top 50 is awesome, if you remove your head from your ass long enough to realize there are hundreds of good albums to compete with. To the death!

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