Elvorian Spivey has been an instantly recognizable personality in the Los Angeles punk scene for years. From the anarcho punk band Anima Mundi to later enjoying a high profile in Penis Flytrap (a band featuring Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave on vocals) she has been a continuing positive role model for females and a Hell of a guitar player. With her dark, imposing stance, pointy ears and killers guitar riffs she made quite an impression on punks and death rockers alike. After working on a few post PF projects she has released a CD with her new band Elvorian and the Veins.

Expecting some gnarly, hard hitting death rock in the same vein as PF and 45 Grave, the first track is instead quite beautiful and melancholy with a gentle but steady guitar riff and a lovely vocal by Elvorian. That’s not to say there aren’t any gnarly guitar riffs here. “Mail Order Magician” has a CRUSHING guitar riff and goes hardcore at one point. The songs are equally heavy and melancholy but all are dark in nature. A song like “Fireworks” harkens back to the old days of Los Angeles punk when bands would make interesting new music drawing from several influences while not giving a fuck. It’s a perfect LA pop confection. The band also tears through a cover of PF’s song “Cemetery Girl”. Also notable is the song “Bella Donna” for its LA pogo first section with the organ shadowing the riff before going into the Germs’ “We Must Bleed” riff for the chorus.

The band is a quartet but sounds twice as big. Although Elvorian keeps her guitar tone clean on some songs and with just a touch of distortion on others the music here is perfectly rounded out with the tasteful keyboards of Steven Valencia. Landru Bandrowski on bass and Dee Evil Elliott provide a solid rhythm section and keep the moods light when needed and rocking when its time to get heavy. This is a highly enjoyable release that will surprise many and please everyone.