One of the newest female-fronted metal bands to emerge in Oklahoma, Siva Addiction, is missing a golden opportunity with its name. On the band's MySpace page, "Siva" is translated to "the auspicious one" via Sanskrit, but how metal would it be if the band instead referenced the Hindu version, which names a deity known as "The Destroyer?"
Just imagine the T-shirt implications.
The fiercer tone would certainly fit the group's growling guitars, pounding percussion and the embittered vocals of Bridgette Oliver, who soars throughout the debut album, "Artiface." She isn't just another droopy Goth princess, but a farm girl who shirked her country music background to work out some anger issues with her longtime friend and lead guitarist, Bryan "Bizzle" Jackson.
Oliver began singing country professionally as a young girl, but found the genre too limiting.
"The lyrics tend to be very literal. You sing about 'this happened, then this happened and then this happened,'" she said. "I started getting heavily influenced in the '90s by bands like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Nirvana, and their ability to speak ambiguously through lyrics. 'Black Hole Sun' was my turning point, trying to figure out what he is saying because it is not literal at all."
INVESTED METAL
Oliver said she's much more comfortable, having invested herself fully into metal, not only because of the music, but also the experience of being a part of a rock band.
"When I sang country, I found myself playing with a lot of studio musicians and touring musicians, but I didn't have an actual steadfast band," she said. "The guys I played with were extremely talented, but I didn't get to relate with them like I do with the guys I have in this band. We are a family and we sit down and write music together which I couldn't do in country."
Siva Addiction will open for Horse Called War and In This Moment 7 p.m. Thursday at the Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S. Eastern. Tickets are $12 in advance, $14 door, and can be purchased by calling 866-443-8849. "Charles Martin
