THE LION'S DAUGHTER are a band that doesn't do things by half measures. The St. Louis outfit have been blending Sludge and Black Metal with a liberal dose of musical progression for almost a decade, and the resulting cacophony they produce is taking both genres to new heights of extremity and vitriol. For evidence, look no further than their latest full length offering, "Existence is Horror".

"Phobetor", this albums opening track, is a short, instrumental piece that is seeping with atmosphere and suspense. With grim, eerie guitar sections acting as the main motif, it really sets the listener up for the rest of the record well. When "Mass Green Extinctus", the first full length song on the record, begins, we're treated to a heady mix of aggressive, jarring riffs, ferocious guttural roars and authoritative, juggernaut drumming. This is an incredibly violent piece of music which immediately grabs your attention, and more importantly, sustains it. "Nothing Lies Ahead", bursts into life in a blaze of dissonant, sludgy hooks, which act as the focal point of a track that is built around powerful, vicious drumming and vocals. At points, this song sounds, for lack of a better term, chaotic and intense. This is quickly followed by "Dog Shaped Man", a piece of music of an even more savage bent than its predecessor, if that's possible. it's clear by this point that the record is getting gradually darker and more monstrous in both tone and delivery, and this is making the album all the more enjoyable and interesting as a result. "Four Flies" takes a much more measured, approach, but don't think that because the band briefly stops going full throttle this is not a ferocious piece of music; it's still a potent and imposing song to listen to. "Midnight Glass", the song that follows, is a swaggering, grove-laden track that sounds amazing, dense and abrasive all at once. "The Fiction in the Dark" is a song that is relatively slower than the rest of the songs on the record, but what it lacks in speed, it makes up for in thick, powerful atmosphere. It's short but memorable, and leads into the next track, "A Cursed Black End", almost seamlessly; This is initially a mid-tempo, brooding track, but swiftly evolves into a raging, thick slab of potent, unearthly Sludge. The penultimate track, "They're Already Inside", with its genuinely creepy, droning opening moments, is easily the most ferocious track on the entire record. It's the aural equivalent of a beating, with some impressive, acidic vocals and caustic, punishing drumming and guitar hooks all intertwining to create something truly vicious and jarring. The final song on this opus, "The Horror of Existence", is an incredibly powerful, almost epic song that brings this album to a close in a great way, with imaginative guitar lines, impassioned vocals and inspired drumming.

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of most hideous and oppressively heavy records you will hear this year. It's so full on, so unrelentingly threatening in its sound and approach, that it makes many Grindcore bands seem tame and timid by comparison. This is a really cool record with a lot of good ideas on it, but it certainly isn't for the faint of heart.