WHERE THE GROUPIES KILLED THE BLUES

Well well well ..... I knew this band from this album long time ago, dated back 1973. It was my brother, Henky, who bought the cassette of this band. Unfortunately, it was put at the B-side of URIAH HEEP's "Demons and Wizards" (Ooops .. it was not an official cassette as at that time we could not afford to buy an original LP. But don't worry, I have an original CD now at my hand, a Repertoire release). Being a B side of URIAH HEEP then I preconceived this band was a URIAH HEEP alike. I was wrong, LUCIFER's FRIEND music is much more complex and proggier.

This one is definitely a PROG album. Every single track in this album is a progressive rock track! In fact, this album has its own identity .If I look the whole content of this album, musically it's an original one. The music is hardly influenced by any band in the world. But of course the rock component is definitely influenced by its predecessors of rock'n'roll pioneers. But musically (composition-wise) this album is original.

Two reasons why I categorize this album as a prog one. First, the music composition has a blend of jazz, rock and blues crafted nicely to form a well structured music. You may notice this through, for example, the opening track "Hobo". The way drum is played at the intro part is not a typical rock drumming at all. When it enters in the body of the music, this track indicates a rock kind of music. It happens in other tracks as well, like "Rose on The Vine", "Mother", "..Where The Groupies .", "Prince of Darkness". There are nice inclusion of strings and brass arrangement by Peter Hecht (the group's keyboard player).

Second, the way vocal part is composed demonstrates the band's intention to challenge traditional singing style. The vocal by John Lawton that sings perfectly in this album does not seem to go along with the music. But interestingly, it even creates a great music. Indeed, it makes this album enjoyable. This is original.

I won't go over track by track as all tracks are wonderful and very rich in terms of composition. I just want to take one track "Mother" as an example. Opened nicely with piano and slow vocal part, the music then flows nicely to more upbeat tempo. The unique thing is on violin sound and orchestration in the middle of the track. It's an excellent composition here and it's a masterpiece! The lyric is rocking as well:

Pull down the blinds and turn on the music You gotta roll off - I'm gonna roll on Turn off your mind and roll to the music I'm gonna go pop before it's begun.

The musicianship of Peter Hesslein (gtr), Peter Hecht (keys), John Lawton (vox), Dieter Horns (bass) and Joachim Rietenbach (drums) are all excellent! Each contributes their part at their fullest, I think.

To conclude this album, it's not an exaggeration to give this album a FIVE STAR. I don't even feel naïve to give this rating. In fact, I'm ready to take any challenge if any of the readers who have listened to this album thoroughly think this album the other way around. This album is definitely 100% PROG and a MASTERPIECE! BUY IT!

What do you think? - Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia.