Everyday life is the opposite of how it is for most of the world for the metal duo Jucifer.

For the last 10 years or so, Gazelle Amber Valentine and Edgar Livengood have lived as gypsies in their tour vehicle. Home is wherever they happen to be, and they don’t stay in one place for long. Basically, Jucifer has been on a never-ending tour for the last decade.

“Before we moved into our tour vehicle we felt way less grounded, ironically enough,” Valentine wrote in an email to The Question. “Everything was up in the air, trying to have a house and a shit job and still tour for months out of the year. It seemed like we were always half in and half out of all worlds.
“This way things seem more streamlined — and strange as it sounds, we have more of a routine.”

Instead of travelling, a vacation for Jucifer is to have a few days between shows when the pair can just stay put. Valentine said they get excited about having time to do laundry and clean up the “house.”

“I guess for most people a vacation is about going, and for us it’s about stopping,” she said. “It’s kind of a backwards reality.”

When it comes to Jucifer’s music, the duo is known for performing their sludge/death/black metal at insane volume levels. Depending on the size of the venue and how many electrical outlets are available, Valentine is often surrounded by a wall of 60 plus speakers onstage.

A sound guy once told Valentine that he saw an audience member fall over when her first guitar chord came blaring through the speakers, she said. Many people have reported they’ve experienced orgasms at Jucifer shows from the intense sound, she added.

Jucifer is bringing its “insane” live show to Garfinkel’s in Whistler on Sunday (Aug. 8). It will be the duo’s first-ever Whistler show, and Valentine promised “transmogrification, destruction, thrashing, trance, malevolence, creation, pain, joy, sorrow, worship and total exhaustion.”
At least that’s how it feels for the band, she added.

In case you’re wondering, both Valentine and Livengood wear earplugs on stage. Valentine said “people should always wear them at shows” — even concerts where volume levels are more “normal.”

Jucifer’s most recent release is Throned in Blood, released in April on the duo’s new record label. The album marked a watershed moment for fans who have been waiting years for a recording that captured the band’s aggressive, rage-filled live shows.

While a Jucifer concert is full of thrashing guitars, raging drums and screaming vocals, until Throned in Blood the duo’s recorded material was much more tame.

“The studio always felt like a good place to stretch out and be a different band,” Valentine said. “It’s nice to experiment with lavish production or mellow stuff when most of your time is spent on uber-amped hostility.”
Plus, she and Livengood enjoy playing other instruments than the guitar and drums they rock onstage, and they’ve consciously decided to explore a multitude of musical genres and ideas under the Jucifer umbrella. Still, with Throned in Blood it felt like the right time to “put the hammer down,” Valentine said.

After 17 years and seven albums, Jucifer is still going strong. In addition to constant touring, the duo is working on some videos and a compilation CD of all its early cassette demos.

Don’t forget to bring your earplugs to Jucifer’s Whistler debut on Sunday (July 8) at Garf’s. The first 150 tickets are $5 and can be purchased at Garf’s, Billabong, Katmandu and online at clubzone.com.