"Laudanum (laudanum liquidum simplex), also known as opium tincture or thebaic tincture is an alcoholic herbal preparation containing approximately 10% opium and 1% morphine (the equivalent of 100 mg of opium/10 mg of morphine per mL)." Heavy shit right? That's precisely what Judd and Betty Hawk have to offer with ‘The Coronation’. Their second-full length gives us plenty of noise to suffocate with. Since Runhild Gammaelsaeter and her Thorr's Hammer that I didn't heard a female vocalist with this amount of suffer. The big difference is that Runhild was more of deep guttural growls and Judd prefers the high-pitched shrieks. No problem with that!Musically speaking, you can't say that Laudanum are fresh, or new or innovative. They have a Nadja-based sound, with monolithical riffs and drones. When not droning, their down-tempo and evil music somehow resembles the one made by Corrupted. Only good references, right? But drone and doom are not the only genres you'll hear. Rotten stoner rock - Electric Wizard maybe? - can also be heard. But always pretty dense.
So there's density, suffocation and plenty of fucking heavy heaviness. And, must say, far more interesting than Aidan Baker's project Nadja - that sometimes lose themselves in pointless trips. One of the most positive things of Laudanum is undoubtedly the voice duality. Judd and Becky absolutely rule!! Oh, and they're married. Would you just imagine this: unhappily married with the woman of your dreams, making this great, evil, scary as shit with horror movie vibe music.
Listen to it before going to bed, on a dark alley, makes perfect sense.
A band to follow in the next years, proving that 20 Buck Spin only has good bands in their catalogue. (7.3/10)
António Matos Silva
Band info: www.myspace.com/laudanum18
Label info: www.20buckspin.com
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