WHERE THE GROUPIES KILLED THE BLUES

Lucifer's Friend were an interesting band. They had cut their teeth in the 1960s, made tons of great exploito rock/psych albums before and after they'd formed, and created a uniquely Anglo/Teutonic brand of hard edged progressive rock on this masterpiece. John Lawton has such a great voice.... His ability to go from soothing to absolutely ripping your ears out and back again is astonishing and he and he alone can tackle the maze of mood, time, and bizarre chord changes that are this album. Starting off as a straight forward hard hitting band with a bit of prog and psych on their fantastic self titled debut, for this album Lucifer's Friend went more progressive, more psychedelic, more jazzy, and even heavier. The sound is unique here as it draws from extremely diverse musical styles with everything from jazz to classical to proto metal thrown into the mix. Dieter Horns gets my vote as THE BASS PLAYER, you can spend the whole album just listening to how good he is. Peter Hesslein's sometimes blazing Blackmore sometimes arcane Hackett/Fripp guitar is astonishing as are the songs that he writes. "Rose On The Vine" is a real epic, and a song that leaves you in shock after you hear it even about 8 or 10 times (and I have), but perhaps in progressive terms the highlight here is the Genesis inspired "Mother" which is one of the most complex tracks ever recorded in this era. The lyrics written by John O'Brien Docker remind me of a gone mad Keith Reid who wrote for Procol Harum and was already crazy enough. The title track is proof of this, but it does tell the story of the obnoxious Israeli invasion of Palestine and questions whose Holy Land it really is. The whole song attacks religion, war, and politics, without doing it in a pretentious manner. "Summerdream" has a bombastic string and brass segment written by keyboardist Peter Hecht called "Delirium" before reverting back to the doom ladened yet melodic track. "Prince Of Darkness" and "Hobo" are both scorching rockers with Lawton in top form, Hesslein and the band cooking, and some great harmony work. Queen come to mind often when I play this, as do Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, but I shouldn't be name dropping so much as Lucifer's are a unique band. "Burning Ships" is both beautiful and mind blowing when Lawton goes from his gentlest performance into high pitched raving at the end much like Stonehouse/Asgard. I have to admit this is my favourite era, a time when so much exploration was going on and there was no fear shown by the musicians who made these records. It isn't sad at all, in fact to listen to the bands and artists who took so many gambles and won back then is fun. Lucifer's Friend wouldn't reach the level of this album or the also great first again, but both albums are essential for a collection of not just hard prog rock, but German rock music in general, or rock in general for that matter. Lucifer's Friend hit their peak on this one, and Lawton would go on to make 3 fantastic albums with Uriah Heap. This is a fantastic album, strongly reccommended to anyone with an open mind.