There are few things more fun and rewarding as a music fan than coming across a great band who already have several albums under their belt, Because you’re not starting out with the first record and wondering what they’ll do next. Instead, You get to deep dive into a catalog and embark on a musical odyssey through a progression of albums. That’s how I got to experience Lucifer recently and man is this band great!
The best way I can describe their sound is elements of Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple mixed with a heavy dose of Black Sabbath, This band also features Nicke Andersson from The Hellacopters and you can hear his band’s style subtly in the sound of Lucifer as well.
Lucifer was formed by vocalist Johanna Andersson after the break up of her prior band The Oath which recorded one album before calling it a day, That band wasn’t as 70’s inspired as this one is and frankly the sound of this band fits her haunting vocal style perfectly.
V marks the fifth album by Lucifer and after taking a deep dive through their catalog I feel this is their best album yet, it really refines everything that is great about them, their doom metal meets hard rock and psychedelic rock sound is really refined to precision on this record.
Despite my above musical references the opening track “Fallen Angel” starts with a riff that Mötley Crüe might’ve done in their very early years and driving behind it is some excellent driving drumming, Johanna’s voice wails above the driving rhythms. A short but sweet avalanche of a song that starts the album off strong.
“At The Mortuary” starts out with doom laden riffs that Tony Iommi would’ve been proud of before going a bit more slower tempo hard rock with the sabbath influence and flourishes of southern rock, this was actually the song that got me into them. There’s a great melodic section later in the song that has some great organ playing in the background before ramping back up and leading into a great guitar solo. Heavy, grooving and catchy.
“Riding Reaper” starts off with some playing a bit reminiscent of Boston but with that heavy Black Sabbath backbone. As a fan of Nicke in The Hellacopters where he plays guitar and sings I would never have guessed that he’s a great drummer as well, But it turns out he’s phenomenal at it and his playing on this song is awesome! This song has a danceable groove to the riffs and drums that just knocks this song out of the park.
“Slow Dance In A Crypt” has a bit of a torch singer slow jazz element to it with piano playing along with the riffs and Johanna singing a sultry style during the verses before showing her vocal power in the chorus, There’s another great guitar solo on this track, but it’s really the subdued vocals in the verses and the piano that makes this song such a joy to dissect. It’s still got that fuzzy sabbath riff style throughout the song but it’s downplayed to let those other elements shine, absolutely stunning track.
Acoustic guitar playing starts out “Maculate Heart” before rolling drums kick off a song that really brings in the Iron Butterfly influence but much harder than that band ever was, This is one of the songs where you can hear more of Nicke’s playing style from The Hellacopters come into play. This could easily have been on their Eyes Of Oblivion album. Definitely one of my top favorites on this album.
“A Coffin Has No Silver Lining” starts off with a riff that reminds me a bit of Dave Lepard era Crashdiet and early Mötley Crüe, this song is certainly more hard rock than the rest of them are up to this point. I love that this band has so many musical elements going on that even though they have a specific sound those complexities keep the music interesting. Whoever produced and mixed this album did a fantastic job, All instruments shine for the most part except for maybe the bass which I feel is a bit buried in the mix even though its presence is still felt, The tone of the instruments are absolutely gorgeous.
“The Dead Don’t Speak” is another fantastic rocker with so much going on with its rhythms that it’s positively dizzying diving into. It’s complex, furious, and catchy as hell.
“Strange Sister” has southern rock elements but is more hard rock oriented, there’s an interesting piano breakdown with great drums and great riffs before progressing into an excellent guitar solo.
The album (with the exception of a couple of edited versions of two of the albums songs) ends with “Nothing Left To Lose But My Life” the song starts with a beautiful clean melody before bringing in the heavy sabbath riffs and slowing down in the verses for the rhythm section to shine, there’s a great guitar solo on this track as well.
For me, I feel like bands that have a heavy influence of Black Sabbath (and I love Black Sabbath) tend to be a bit dull in their songwriting but that is definitely not the case here. There is so much going on musically that the songs stay engaging, The playing by everyone involved is phenomenal and Johanna’s vocals are absolutely hypnotic. If you really take the time to listen to this and hear all the parts at work in these songs you’ll find an absolutely brilliant album with phenomenal musicianship, I highly recommend checking out Lucifer, their back catalog is really good but V just might be their best album yet.
9/10