The Lion's Daughter

Hailing from Missouri, the inventive trio The Lion's Daughter blends the gore-soaked intensity of extreme metal with the ghostly electronic horror sounds pioneered by John Carpenter and Goblin. The group first surfaced in 2011, grounding its initial output in blackened sludge metal before pivoting with Future Cult in 2018, an album that kept the crushing sonic heft of earlier material while weaving in unsettling synth textures and sci-fi/horror moods, a direction the band sharpened further on the cinematic Skin Show in 2021.

Rick Giordano (vocals, guitar, synths), Erik Ramsier (drums), and Scott Fogelbach (bass, vocals) formed the band in St. Louis in 2007. In 2011 they issued two EPs, The Forgotten Masters and Hemimetabolous, along with a split 7" alongside fellow Missouri metallers Fister. Their debut full-length, the sludgy Shame on Us All, followed in 2012, with Black Sea arriving the next year as a collaboration with Midwestern dark-folk outfit Indian Blanket. Ahead of 2016's uncompromising Existence Is Horror, the group signed with Season of Mist. Two years later came the bold and experimental Future Cult, an effort whose sound aligned more closely with a Dario Argento film score than with the blackened thrum of previous releases. The band continued refining its synth-laden metal style on the unnerving Skin Show in 2021.