Lucifers Friend - Awakening

  by Paul Waller

published: 12 / 8 / 2015

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A couple of years ago I discovered the first wave of early underground heavy rock when the documentary ‘Such Hawks, Such Hounds’ directed me towards the massively influential highs of Pentagram, Sir Lord Baltimore, Captain Beyond and Mountain. The German/London hybrid that is Lucifer’s Friend clearly belongs amongst these greats but because they weren’t mentioned in the film I didn’t discover them until now. And I am truly blown away by the music here. It’s an incredible find for me. ‘Awakening’ is a two disc CD set, the first disc being a ‘best of’ compilation of the band's recorded work between 1970 and 1981 which is the main draw for me. From the Deep Purple flavours found in album opener ‘Ride the Sky’ to the final bars of the last track ‘Hey Driver’ which carries a more Heavy Metal influence, the compilation is a complete delight. There isn't a bad track and nothing average contained within it at all which begs me to ask why they weren’t completely massive in their day. Seasoned veteran fans of the band though will be all over these greasy riffs on disc two like burger sauce on a late night kebab. Ther are four brand new tracks which take nothing away from their legacy. The surprise here is simply that the music is as strong as anything on disc one. I mean let’s not kid ourselves here, yeah, all the new songs fit within the blueprint Dio created back in 1983 on ‘Holy Diver’ and modern production techniques have hindered the band from capturing the spark those early cuts contained but not every band can reinvent the wheel. The only negative here is that this record contains such wonderful music and yet the thing is wrapped in a package of artwork that completely stinks. It’s super awful to the point where if the font they chose was Comic Sans then it may actually improve it. It’s such a shame too because if I saw this in a shop I would completely flick past it and not give it a second thought because of the artwork. It’s so so bad. The music is stunning though which in today’s increasingly MP3 driven musical landscape is all that really matters. They hope.

Track Listing:-

1 Ride the Sky
2 In the Time of Job
3 Keep Going
4 Toxic Shadows
5 Burning Ships
6 Fugitive
7 Moonshine Rider
8 Dirty Old Town
9 Fire and Rain
10 Hey Driver
11 Pray
12 Riding High
13 Did You Ever
14 This Road

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/LucifersFriendOfficial

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