Divine Feminine: Luna13’s Bass Metal and Burlesque

Here in Salt Lake City, we have a large population that likes to worship the darker side of things. If you like metal, bass, burlesque, theatrics and the darker, goth-type lifestyle, Luna13 is for you.  Tonight, they are opening up for Christian Death at Liquid Joe’s. Meanwhile, Luna13 spoke with me to discuss their darkness and how it began.

Doc Luna grew up loving metal and playing music, so it is only natural that he became a bass player in several black metal bands during his high school years. He was not the average garage-band musician, though. His talents led him to play with signed artists at a very young age, using a forged ID so that he could play age-gated venues. Doc was living the musician’s dream, but that came crashing to a halt as he was touring with Kill the Gods. Doc was diagnosed with congenital heart failure. The band was growing, and all the sudden he was fighting for his life, going to the hospital almost every day. The diagnosis gave him anxiety and panic attacks because he thought he was going to die in his sleep. To help cure his ailments, he sought out a hypnotherapist. While seeing this practitioner the opportunity came for Doc to travel to India—and that is when the real change began to take place.  

“I feel so blessed to be a part of art at all,” says Doc Luna.

During his time in India, Doc found an interest in Aghora and Kali, which is a religion to conquer the fear of many things, especially death, and he began practicing it. After a few trips to India, he went back to a different doctor in the States, and his condition was downgraded to Athlete’s Heart, which he still has today. Still, Doc found his true calling and path in India: he has since been to India over 30 times and is still a Kali devotee. However, one of the downfalls of going to India was that he could not bring his bass guitar. Instead, he brought a synthesizer. Over a series of trips, he became a full-blown electronica musician.

In 2008 Doc Luna was checking out bands and in a single week saw a black metal band and Prodigy nearly back-to-back. Comparing them, he felt that Prodigy was significantly heavier than the black metal band because of the way they used electronic music and bass. It was here that he founded his idea to create a black metal version of electronica. That dream came to fruition a few years later when Doc started Luna 13. He wanted to do something solo this time as his former projects did not go as far as he would have liked due to band members and their ideologies. He was quickly signed to Cleopatra Records where he put out an album and was given the opportunity to play at Bar Sinister. During that gig, he was discovered by a Burning Man talent scout in 2015. It was suggested by the person that booked him at the desert art festival to have a female front. This is where Lilith Bathory enters the act.

Before Luna13, Lilith was a traditional artist always drawing and painting. Her dad is a music teacher, so Lilith grew up learning how to play myriad classical instruments—like the clarinet, piano, oboe. She was one of the orchestra and marching band types. Lilith also liked to move, and while taking ballet classes she found out her grandmother was a belly dancer—that became her movement style study. Lilith is also a performance artist and loved working the local haunted houses. She was attracted to the horror side of art and saw Luna13 as a way for her to express and show her many talents, including burlesque. 

“It is a very real belief system, but it is not necessarily the main veins of Satanism,” says Lilith Bathory. 

Lilith was just finishing up her phlebotomy schooling and had a little time on her hands, so she sent Doc Luna an email and asked if she could audition for the female lead. Doc immediately knew Lilith was the person he had been looking for. In the beginning, Lilith was just theatrical. She supplied the visual arts and used her voice for the sound samples only, but she then progressed to vocals. Her first show was opening for Doyle Von Frankenstein, and after that, doors began to open for the duo, not just for their innovative, black metal bass music, but also as a connection to the horror punk community.

Lilith also worships the Divine Feminine Lilith. Some people may find their performance darker as it reflects the woman side of the darker entities—people are used to seeing the male represented, but not the female. Prepare yourselves to see something like you have never seen before.

If you are one of those that like your entertainment on the darker, heavier side, with a taste of burlesque, then check out Luna13 tonight as they open for Christian Death at Liquid Joe’s.

Read more by Mistress Nancy:
Transcending Into the Nether World: Remembering Dr. Zero Delorean
Reviews: Kevorkian Death Cycle – God Am I