Von Nacht, Ten Million Spiders and Mother Juno spread the dread on Mills Ave

THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Ten Million Spiders, Von Nacht and Mother Juno, Uncle Lou’s, Jan. 7

New Baltimore band Ten Million Spiders came to town and spread some dread on the Mills strip. While most deathrock acts like to keep their dirge on the funereal tip – what with the “death” part and all – this young act are more feral and dynamic. Though they’re raw, it’s with punk extremity and some surprising chemical heat.
Also playing were a couple Orlando acts that’ve been making both the rounds and some noise lately. To wit, Von Nacht specializes in black metal that, instead of simply sandblasting your face, can hang like a pall, writhe with palpable agony and drain your soul.
What began as a solo project by Autarx’s former singer has expanded to a trio of ladies whose wingspan even includes violin and a drum rack so sick that it practically demands drum solos, though thankfully there were none.
I’m not gonna say all the hardware was optimized or even necessary, but Von Nacht's intensity is a distinctly expressive kind whose heft comes as much from drama as it does volume and velocity.
Opening the night was Mother Juno. While industrial music is rising again in the underground, few of the new upcomers are working the supple side of electronic body music like this solo Orlando act, which is a little more Severed Heads than Front 242. Rather than noisy assault and pile-driving mechanics, Mother Juno’s songs are the kind of industrial that’s not afraid to show its synth DNA, get slinky and take up some room on the dance floor.
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