Jucifer

Surrounded by mountains of amps stacked and cranked to unhealthy heights, Jucifer can shatter half of generic modern metal's fibulas with feedback alone. The co-ed Atlanta duo literally rattles plaster loose. Drummer Edgar Livengood pounds the skins so hard, he's broken bones of his own midset. The smash/riff/bash stoner rockers' third LP sees them abandon the borderline pop that sweetened their 1999 debut and ditch the hardcore outbursts that gave 2003's I Name You Destroyer a haymaker wallop. If Thine Enemy Hunger starts with the seven-minute slow grind "She Tides the Deep" and picks up the pace little by little, song by song. In "Lucky Ones Burn," a lonely stretch of feedback creaks like a psychedelic experience that's taking a terrible turn, and the tune recovers just as quickly, with breathy reassurances from go-go siren Amber Valentine. And the big, rough "Antietam" could be the sexiest nervous freakout ever caught on tape.