Singer/guitarist Gazelle Amber Valentine has rather pretty vocals – sweet, clear, high and dulcet-toned – but she sticks to harsher-edged shrieks and gut-clenching roars in Jucifer’s 2010 album,
Throned in Blood. Over the past several years, the two-piece (rounded out by drummer-husband Edgar Livengood) has been incorporating elements of hardcore punk, drone, doom and black metal in their sludgy sound, increasing the heaviness and taking the loud factor into eardrum-busting, wall-of-noise territories. This year marks Jucifer’s 20th anniversary. With Tickle, Servants and the Mist
— Leilani Polk