Almost exactly a year ago, Julie Christmas has offered up her first new song in over a decade, the soaring, sighing, shrieking "Not Enough." Now she's back, with the lead single, "Supernatural," off her first solo album in 14 years, the excellently titled Ridiculous and Full of Blood.
The song finds Christmas in fine form, purring and roaring over searing post-metal caterwaul conjured by a veritable all-star team of musicians: guitarist-vocalist Johannes Persson (Cult of Luna), guitarist John LaMacchia (Candiria), bassist-producer Andrew Schneider (Kenmode, Unsane) and keyboardist Tom Tierney, as well as Spotlights drummer and Revolver Brand Partnership Director Chris Enriquez.
"At 20 I said that I was going to be making noise until I opened my mouth and nothing came out but a croak and a thin trickle of blood" Christmas commented. "Right now I'm stronger and LOUDER than I have ever been. This song was written to sing with people who listen and come to hear. Time doesn't make you softer, it makes you harder. It also reminds you that you wouldn't be here without the people you sing with."
Christmas first made her name in the mid-2000s with the noise-rock band Made Out of Babies and the post-metal group Battle of Mice before releasing the solo record The Bad Wife in 2010. She's also guested on songs from Mouth of the Architect, Spylacopa and Pigs, and collaborated on an entire album with Cult of Luna, 2016's acclaimed Mariner.
Of her upcoming solo LP, she added: "I want people to hear the sad heroine, vile villains, dreamy characters at play, squalor, madness, longing, challenge, triumph, beauty and love. This story is a little different, it isn't all fairytale. It speaks to how human nature defies categorisation. The kindest person commits immeasurable acts of cruelty, the monster loves their friend. We are all like that."
Ridiculous and Full of Blood is due out June 14th via Red Crk Recordings, the label co-founded by Persson.
Ridiculous and Full of Blood tracklisting:
1. Not Enough
2. Supernatural
3. The Ash
4. Thin Skin
5. End of the World
6. Silver Dollars
7. Kids
8. The Lighthouse
9. Blast
10. Seven Days
