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UNDERGROUND AND BEYOND

Lucifer Was

Eclectic Prog


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Lucifer Was Underground and Beyond album cover
3.34 | 51 ratings | 5 reviews | 27% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 1997

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Teddy's Sorrow (3:10)
2. Scrubby Maid (2:42)
3. Song for Rings (2:14)
4. Out of the Blue (2:29)
5. The Green Pearl (6:18) :
- a) The Mountain King
- b) Fairy Dance
- c) Belongs to the Sky
- d) Pearlhall
6. Tarabas (2:49)
7. Fandango (3:28)
8. The Meaning of Life (3:59)
9. Light My Cigarette (2:59)
10. In the Park (3:14)
11. Asterix (3:27)

Total Time 36:49

Bonus tracks from 2005 reissue:
12. Tumbling Down (2:52)
13. Mystic (3:55)

Line-up / Musicians

- Thore Engen / guitars, vocals
- Dag Stenseng / flute, vocals
- Anders Sevaldson / flute, backing vocals
- Einar Bruu / bass
- Kai Frilseth / drums

Releases information

CD Record Heaven RHCD 5 (Sweden)

re-released in 2005 by Transubstans Records TRANS006 (Sweden)

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
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LUCIFER WAS Underground and Beyond ratings distribution


3.34
(51 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(27%)
27%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(35%)
35%
Good, but non-essential (31%)
31%
Collectors/fans only (6%)
6%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

LUCIFER WAS Underground and Beyond reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by erik neuteboom
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Lucifer was is an interesting Norwegian band, often described as a blend of Jethro Tull (prog) and Black Sabbath (hardrock) from the Seventies. Listening to Lucifer Was I also hear echoes from Atomic Rooster, especially the vocals and the heavy, propulsive atmospheres. Perhaps you could say ''Black Sabbath with organ'! A remarkable track is the epic The Green Pearl featuring a harder-edged rendition of Grieg's composition The Mountain King. And the Spanish inspired Fandangos sounds sultry with catchy flute work. This album is not similar to the sound of another album entitled Blues From Hellah, I prefer Underground And Beyound but thas has to do with the fact that I like Black Sabbath and Atomic Rooster.

Review by snobb
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars This Norwegian band was founded in 1970 and Underground and Beyond is their debut album after 27 years of musicianship!Compositions included are solely songs from their 1970-72 repertoire.

Album sounds as great evidence of early 70-s era, end for those who isn't familiar with band's story this music is almost original sound from that time. Even sound mixing and producing is in the fashion of that time.

Stylistically music on this album is blues-rock based hard rock with strong prog-folk influences (flutes are pure Jethro Tull). Arrangements are quite progressive though, and in whole compositions sound (as many reviewers noticed yet) as crossover between Jethro Tull and dark and quite heavy hard rock. Songs are melodic and quite catchy, musicianship is competent,vocals are good enough. Really interesting album for fans of vintage prog rock, for all others possibly far not so interesting though: when in nostalgic moments it always better to listen to original great releases from early 70-s.

Positive moment is band are not a copy cat actually - they play their own music they wrote in early 70-s and got the possibility to release this debut only now!

Review by apps79
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Some dead holes in the history of this Norwegian group, as the sleeves of their debut refer to Thore Engen (guitar), Einar Bruu (bass), Dag Stenseng (vocals, flute), Anders Sevaldson (flute) and Kai Frilseth (drums) as the original crew.Sure thing is the band came from Klemetsrud near Oslo and was formed in 1969/1970 as Ezra West.However among the first members seem to be guitarist Tor Langbråten, bassist Arild Larsen and later keyboardist Jan Odegaard.Anyway, the band unfolded around 1974 after many concerts but no recordings and was reformed 20 years later with the first refered line-up.Their debut ''Underground and beyond'' was recorded in just 18 hours, just for fun, but it was good enough to earn them a contract with Swedish Record Heaven.27 years after their original formation, Lucifer Was eventually made their discography debut.

The album contains 11 tracks, that come from the 1970-72 period, now reworked by the group in the studio, however both the length and the production of the album recall the early-70's.Their sound was a powerful and very energetic blend of Hard Rock and JETHRO TULL-esque flute-led Heavy Prog with excellent English vocals and frenetic rhythmic parts, not to mention the hard driving guitar solos.The production of the album is clear, but the technology used maintains a true vintage feeling throughout.At moments the scratching guitars have a strong Proto-Metal vibe, but noone knows if this was the actual style the group performed back in the 70's.All tracks are memorable with a dominant sound, some superb choruses, fantastic flute work and series of tremendous guitar moves.A decent number of breaks and shifting tempos keeps up the progressive value of the album.The same album was re-released on Transubstans with two bonus tracks, performed by a slightly different line-up, but the sound remains more or less the same: Dynamic Hard Prog with angular guitar riffs and folky flute grooves all the way.

I am really pleased for this comeback.Lucifer Was' style seems sometime lost in the 70's, offering some really passionate Heavy/Hard Prog of high quality, respecting all the values of the old school.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

Latest members reviews

2 stars Although, in principle, I fully welcome the 're-discovery' of bands playing in that classic 70s Hard Rock style - which is surely one of the greatest but least appreciated contributions to popoular music of that decade - I can't help thinking that there were surely many other bands better dese ... (read more)

Report this review (#252656) | Posted by Kiwi1 | Wednesday, November 25, 2009 | Review Permanlink

4 stars The first album of Lucifer Was is great. This is probably the best mixture of Black Sabbarth- meets-Jethro Tull album of all time. Although the band didn't release a regular album in 70's, this re-recording shows, that it's a pity. Opening track brings us wonderful heavy sound of Sabbath combi ... (read more)

Report this review (#81134) | Posted by Hejkal | Wednesday, June 14, 2006 | Review Permanlink

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