REVIEW: LUCIFER STAR MACHINE – DEVIL’S BREATH (2020)

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Reminders that I am getting older are all around. The greyness of the beard that I haven’t even attempted shaving in lockdown, the “classic vintage” football matches that I remember watching.

But this one, well this messed me up.

On Twitter the other day I saw that “Soul Destruction” by The Almighty was 29 years old. 29? Behave yourself, I still play that record once a month. Never.

There will be people reading this who react with “so what?” or worse “who? But that record, the way that band was, shaped my musical tastes in so many ways. Rock n roll bands, it seems to me, should look like the hardest gang in town, just like The Almighty did.

Enter Lucifer Star Machine.

They formed in 2002 in London, played with Peter Pan Speedrock and Nashville Pussy too (so hats off for both) I had their first single too, released back in 2004 and quite the thing in the record club I was in at the time (produced by Rat Scabies of The Damned if I recall correctly).

A lot has happened since, but the main thing at this point is that frontman Tor Abyss moved back to Germany and reformed the band in 2014 with an all German cast.

What we have in front of us here, is – as best as I can tell – their first full length album since that relocation, and let’s get it said from the get go, “Devil’s Breath” is absolutely brilliant.

If you are looking for a quick handle on things, then try this: Volbeat with none of the rough edges polished off. You will know instantly – and I mean seriously within the first thirty seconds – whether you will like this. The guitars of “The Void” screech, the drums pound, and Abyss comes in – not for nothing does he say that his contribution to the band is “throat” because he does have a raspy drawl.

But, well, the harmonies here are sweet. This is equal parts punk and hard rock, and that mix rather continues, “Dwell In Misery” and the even better “Cruel Hearts” all have choruses and hooks that you can not just remember, but which weld themselves into the consciousness.

Best of all, perhaps, is “Baby, When You Cry” which mixes everything that rock n roll has ever been about since Elvis marched into the recording studio that day, right to the present, and that record club I was in back at the turn of the century, when we all collected just about everything Nicke Andersson had ever so much as listened to, never mind played on? Well it would have gone nuts for “The Night Is Young”.

I am acutely aware that writing long reviews of albums like this is, sometimes, overthinking things. They exist on a visceral level. So that when you hear “Eat Dust” and they yell “motherfucker, eat dust, in rust we trust” its ok to enjoy it on the hedonistic level that you absolutely should, that all being said though, there are many different textures to this. From the discussion on Child abuse in the church to the suggestion elsewhere that “we are all evil in different ways” and the more country punk of “A Touch Of Death” and the surf rock flavours of “El Camino Real”.

“Pretender” for its part chugs along with more of a glam stomp, and credit must go to guitar pair of Mickey Necro and Marshall Speed for doing this stuff with as much conviction and skill as they do – this really is a record that takes the Wildhearts EP title of Riff after Riff as a starting point.

“Evil Blood” sounds like it’s a party in Satan’s clubhouse (and he could do worse than book LSM as the house band in fairness) and “Midnight Crawler” lives up to its metal name by actually considering a Maiden style romp at one point.

And if “Your Love Remains” does fire and fury, then the title track offers an acoustic, folky end. Without the Devil, where would the church be?” questions the start, and while you are considering that, they get on with something that wouldn’t have been out of place on the recent Me And That Man record.

All of which means I have just spent over 700 words explaining why an album is good when I could have just said: “because filthy sounding biker rock n roll rules and always has done” – it just doesn’t get much better than this.

Rating 9/10

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