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Jucifer: Calling All Cars on the Vegas Strip

(CAPRICORN)

Athens, Georgia-based Jucifer's debut album Calling All Cars on the Vegas Strip, originally released a couple of years ago on a smaller label (Crack Rock), has now been picked up by the larger Capricorn label. It has been re-mastered just in time to capture a slice of the metal rock pie.

Unfortunately, it does not seem like anything has been done to make this one stand out from the rest of the metal acts currently dominating the charts (Korn, Metallica, Limp Bizkit, etc.).

The two-piece group, consisting of drummer Edgar Livengood and frontwoman Amber Valentine, produce a sound reminiscent of White Zombie or Black Sabbath - the difference being the vocals are resonated from the lips of a female.

Despite this, Jucifer fails to rise above the constraints of the metal genre, filling almost every song with the brutal assault of bloody howls, hard-driven guitars and monotonous metal riffs.

"Going down just to get my fill in hell," Valentine shrieks loudly in "Code Escovedo," fulfilling the "gratuitous use of the word 'hell'" requirement necessary to create a metal album. Other songs ("Long Live the King" and "Glamourpuss") follow suit, lacking creativity or ingenuity.

However, other songs on the album stand out, showing some promise for Jucifer's future. On the Pixies-esque song "Hero Worship," Valentine croons slyly "I wanna be like Tabitha Soren when I have my own show on MTV/I wanna be like Tabitha Soren 'cause I'm not happy with me." The song, along with a few others on Calling All Cars ... , shows Jucifer is capable of, but not secure with, producing more intelligent and melodic songs.

-Barry McGuire