Album review: Lucifer – Lucifer IV

For Lucifer, spooky is for life, not just for Halloween. Six years since emerging from the ashes of similarly-minded but short-lived outfit The Oath, band leader Johanna Sadonis remains as dedicated to ’60s flair and Hammer Horror scares as ever, classily mixing classic rock’n’roll with Sabbathian darkness to brilliant effect on this fourth outing.

Indeed, IV is probably the best thing Lucifer have conjured up to date. There’s initially not that much to set it apart from its three predecessors – retro riffs played through retro amps, witchy vibes, the expectation that at any moment some lad with big sideys is going to pull up on a motorcycle and later turn out to be a weirdly cool vampire – but quickly it establishes itself as being head and shoulders above what’s come before.

Opener Archangel Of Death grooves and swings on an elastic riff, pulsing with evil energy and a wicked chorus, while the thrusting Bring Me His Head has a touch of ’70s Alice Cooper. Later, the funeral party of Cold As A Tombstone has an irresistible morbid stomp, while towards the end, thing take a slightly psychedelic turn as Lucifer mellow out on the warm Orion. And when it comes to Wild Hearses, its incredible pun title is equalled by the sultry doom to which it gives its name.

What IV is is Lucifer delivering more of the same, but better. And in a field like this, where the aesthetics are so easy to get right – an occult symbol here, an old movie freeze-frame there, and a trip to the second-hand shop for some old clothes with big collars – to find such a strong, confident personality is actually rather rare. As are tunes this good. Delightfully devilish.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Black Sabbath, Coven, Ghost

IV is out now via Century Media

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