Lucifer's Friend
Lucifer's Friend


3.5
great

Review

by HenchmanOfSanta USER (32 Reviews)
June 1st, 2014 | 25 replies


Release Date: 1970 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Germany takes its first steps into the realm of heavy music, with mostly positive results.

Every week for the foreseeable future (or until I get bored of the project), I will be reviewing a handful of albums from a given year. They may be albums that I feel are overlooked; that are in need of a review; or are just something that I want to write about. This week: 1970

In 1970, heavy rock was making the transition into heavy metal, marked most famously by the debut of Black Sabbath. In the future, Germany would be a big name in metal, from Running Wild and Helloween to Kreator and Destruction. But before the Teutonic hotbed warmed up, there was a five-piece from Hamburg called Lucifer's Friend, and they were determined to kick ass.

Lucifer's Friend were:

John Lawton - vocals
Peter Hesslein - guitars, percussion, backing vocals
Dieter Horns - bass
Peter Hecht - keyboards, piano
Joachim Rietenbach - drums


Lucifer's Friend opens with a scream, a guitar riff and some elephantine horns that sound almost exactly like Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" (released in the same year). But Lucifer's Friend don't sound all that much like Zep. They do however, sound of a hell of a lot like Deep Purple. They had the keyboard tone; the jammy instrumental sessions; the singer that wasn't afraid to go high (although John Lawton is no Ian Gillan). It would be forgivable to hear this album and assume it's some Mk. II-and-a-half line-up of Deep Purple that did an album between In Rock and Fireball.

The nice thing is that Deep Purple were a great band to emulate. Lucifer's Friend is chock full of strong riffs and fluid basslines (courtesy of Dieter Horns, who is the one member that I will say is better than his English counterpart). They also differentiated themselves by being a bit stranger and darker. They didn't consistently go for devilish imagery that their name implies, but the eponymous closing track details a visit from some kind of demon not unlike the one in Black Sabbath's self-titled song. Then there's the bizarre hard rocking biblical track, "In the Time of Job When Mammon was a Yippie." That mouthful contains the lyric "Screw me I'm a tuba/Free as a beanstalk/Coogan flipped for, get down on your knees and love/Love the man." Maybe this has to do with English being their second language, psychedelic drug use. Regardless, you won't find much like that in their British or American contemporaries.

Overall, Lucifer's Friend is not the most essential proto-metal album, but it's worth looking into for anyone that has an interest in metal's origins. The band has a great groove and instrumentation that should satisfy any fan of the era's hard rock bands. This is the album that put German heavy rock on the map, two years before Scorpions debuted and right as Krautrock was about to hit its peak. Come take the hand of Lucifer's Friend.



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user ratings (73)
4
excellent

Comments:Add a Comment 
Inveigh
June 1st 2014


26902 Comments


really cool review dude, looking forward to this series you're doing. going to have to check this one out, I love all 4 of the albums in the "recommended by reviewer" section



demigod!
June 1st 2014


49631 Comments


this sounds very cool indeed

nice review

manosg
Emeritus
June 2nd 2014


12710 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Props for reviewing this one man, have a pos. Will you go for Banquet as well?

HenchmanOfSanta
June 2nd 2014


1994 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Probably not. This is the only album of theirs that I've heard.

BenMorrison
June 4th 2014


310 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Banquet is like a drug for me. I bought the American print from 1975 on amazon and it was still in it's package. Clearly a magical moment! Give a listen to "Where the Groupies Killed the Blues" too.



Awesome review! Please continue.



Egarran
February 26th 2015


35544 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

This is so nice.

With German efficiency, Purple, Zep and Sabbath was compressed into Lucifer's Friend.

wham49
May 29th 2015


6352 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Love most of LF's albums, have not heard Banquet though, I love this LF album, the first side is killer, everybodies clown, toxic shadows; fantastic

MrSirLordGentleman
August 12th 2016


15343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

TONIGHT I'LL BE RIDIN' DA SKYYYYYYY





*EPIC HORNS*

wasteofspace
October 28th 2016


92 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

god damn what a hidden gem.. and under 50 votes, people need to hear this magic

MrSirLordGentleman
October 28th 2016


15343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Wait 'til u check Banquet

wasteofspace
October 28th 2016


92 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Yea banquet is proggy but this is more rock n roll..

wham49
October 28th 2016


6352 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

total difference between the 2, both spectacular, this is hard rock/early metal, banquet is prog,



everybodies clown and toxic shadows are killer on this

MrSirLordGentleman
October 28th 2016


15343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Dude

The opener

wham49
October 28th 2016


6352 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

RIIIIIIIIIIIDe the sky



lets face it, side one in whole is a killer, absolute classic

wham49
April 12th 2017


6352 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Just got this on CD and listened to it in that format for the first time, it does not do this justice, the quad version on Billingsgate vinyl is so fantastic sounding compared

JoeTex
November 7th 2018


1184 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

a rocker

necropig
April 5th 2019


7441 Comments


Stan

Casavir
May 26th 2019


5653 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Second half of this is underrated af

MrSirLordGentleman
May 26th 2019


15343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I admit I listen way more to the first half

wham49
May 26th 2019


6352 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Besides In the Time of Job



Side 2 is great



PleaseTake my hand, I’m Lucifer’s Friend



kraut rock at its finest IMO



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