"I EXPERIENCE very few moments in life which allow me to feel totally free of the limitations of physical existence. I feel these moments each time I'm lucky enough to lock eyes with a wild animal, and when I'm playing music."

Jex Thoth, vocalist and primary songwriter for the band that shares her name, has a spiritual connection with the music she writes. It's crystal clear when you first listen to the band's recordings. "All the music I release is personal, but created of spirit and imagination," she says. "If I've made a recording or come to play a concert, it's because I feel I have something of value I wish to share."

Jex Thoth, the band, has been firmly entrenched in the metal underground since 2007, doing a majority of their touring and record sales in Europe. They've released a handful of EPs, two full-length albums, and a split with the legendary Pagan Altar; Jex Thoth's most recent long-player, Blood Moon Rise, was released last year.

It's easy to hang the hard rock, doom, and throwback labels on Jex Thoth, but they don't speak completely to the band's sound. Blood Moon Rise certainly has heavy moments, but there are also breathy, light, and psychedelic qualities that can't be ignored. Thoth's vocals twist and coil through each track like the gentle billow of smoke from the end of a lit cigarette. Her smooth and mesmerizing style guides the listener through the weighted, haunting, spooky riffs, providing a fluffy cloud to float on during the hypnotizing stretches of the record.

The cohesiveness of Rise—and everything that Jex Thoth has released, for that matter—shines through. "Unfortunately, like so many things now, much of music has become disposable. Yet there remain those of us out there who desire something more substantial," she says. "I wanted to give each song the chance to develop into its own breathing entity, while keeping in mind the way each was meant to serve as part of the whole. I wanted [Blood Moon Rise] to stretch out wide and form a clear arc over the course of the album."

By all accounts, Thoth gives her entire being to the songwriting process, and hopes that it allows others to reach existential heights while listening. "My hope is that my albums might do for others what so many great albums have done for me: paint a landscape and create an environment where the ears, mind, and heart are free to roam new places with every listen."