the Lion's Daughter : " Skin Show"

 I am not sure what is going on here and I am not sure how this album passed me by when it came out back in April. There is angry sludge vocals and other metal aggression coming in a stomping over some retro synth wave. This works for me in many ways. 'Curtains" at first listen felt more rooted in the metal tropes ,but a second listen lets you hear some of the atmospheric layers. Perhaps the bellowing of the vocals do not lend for enough of a melodic touch despite the interesting layers of them shouting at you from different directions. There is more melody on "Neon Teeth" as he makes more of an attempt to  sing.  His voice is raspy and retains it's edge. It works for what they are trying to do here. 

There is an interesting juxtaposition of guitars on "Dead in Dreams" . It opens with a apocalyptic pounding that is more industrial before a thrashier riff kicks in. The bass line pounds along with the drums . The retro synths are still in place along with the bellow of the vocals. The drums get almost blasty in parts of  "Werewolf Hospital" which has a more feral attack to it. The thrashing guitar takes a more traditional metal approach, I do not find this song as interesting as the ones before it. The atmosphere and disco like beat to "Sex Trap" make it one of the more interesting songs thus far. Not sure the best as the vocals feel more obligatory. The hold more form and function with the snarl of "Snakeface".  They stay pretty straight forward on the pounding 'All Hell is Mine" until the synths come in. The vocals have begun to sound the same at this point, though it is still forgivable. 

The title track is more on the industrial side of what this project does, so layers with the organic synth wave sounds. Those same sounds play a much bigger role in the last song until the thrash riff come as the song progresses and takes over. Some of the shouted vocals have a more industrial feel to them as well. I will give this album a 9.  I like where they are going with this, in some ways the sound is just as important as the songs if not more, but they still are able to keep your attention.   

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2021/08/underdark-our-bodies-burned-bright-on.html