There are some great recorded moments in Jucifer's 13-year career, but the truth is, the Atlanta co-ed duo has never really put out a great album. Never mind that singer-guitarist Amber Valentine and drummer Edgar Livengood are just too cool-looking to be properly contained on record; like other crushingly loud underground-rock duos—godheadSilo, Lightning Bolt—Jucifer needs the energy, acoustics, and raw human stink of a live venue to get its point across.
If Thine Enemy Hunger, Jucifer's Relapse Records debut and first full-length since 2002's I Name You Destroyer, suffers from the same glass-half-full quality as its predecessors. But to be fair, these songs have a stronger sense of urgency. No doubt that's got something to do with Hunger's relatively short conception: Where Destroyer came together over the course of two years (and had the bloated running time and superfluous studio trickery to prove it), Jucifer's latest evolved between 2005 tour stops. At 56 minutes (including a nearly eight-minute opening dirge, "She Tides The Deep"), Hunger is still way too long. Stylistically, however, it finds Jucifer getting back to its single-minded essence: Livengood's thundering beats echoing beneath Valentine's honeyed little-girl vocals and lugubrious, hyper-distorted riffage.
People typically complain that albums like If Thine Enemy Hunger would work better at EP length, and looking at Jucifer's impressive string of EPs—1995's "Superman" single, 2001's Lambs, 2004's War Bird—it's hard to argue otherwise. Live bands as electrifyingly great as this one don't need 15 tracks to convince people of their power. They could just slap one or two good tunes on a disc, get the word out, and earn their keep through nightly guarantees and merch sales.