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.

This second album is IMHO a bit more un-even than the debut but holds also a few more peaks of brilliance. Apart from the idiotic album name and poor artwork to fit it, the music developed here is a little more adventurous but stays between Wallenstein's first two albums and Uriah Heep

The first two tracks take off where the heaviest ones of the debut album had left off , but they are hardly my favorites. In general the album is representative of early hard rock with solid prog overtones that was so popular during those years! IMHO , Mother and Summerdream (the latter being a thre part suite containing Delerium and No Reason Or Rhyme) are the highlights!

Not really anymore essential than their debut album, it still deserves a few spins in your deck/turntable and if you are into this early hard-prog then this album can be for you!

Did Lucifer's Friend create Heavy Metal with their debut and Prog Metal with this follow-up?

Lucifer's Friend is a really interesting German/British band based in Germany. They basically created Heavy Metal pretty much simultaneously (and independently?) of the major bands based in Britain like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep (for which Lucifer's Friend vocalist John Lawton would later sing). And here, already with their second album they go on to a fully progressive approach. Indeed, this album is more sophisticated both musically and lyrically than anything Uriah Heep has ever done. Too bad they remain virtually unknown till this day.

The opening number, Hobo, is great but it is basically a clone of Ride The Sky from the debut. The second and third tracks are nothing short of brilliant, however. The piano intro to Rose On The Vine being particularly excellent as well as the fantastic acoustic guitar solo. The keyboards are very well played and varied. We find lots of piano, organ, electric piano, Moog synthesizer and Mellotron. Some of the piano-heavy passages remind me of early Queen (first two albums). We also find lots of acoustic guitars and even string arrangements. The guitarist is also very skilled and the electric and acoustic guitar solos are often very short and snappy. No long mindless jam sessions here!

The closer Burning Ships should have been a radio Prog Rock classic like Emerson Lake & Palmer's Lucky Man or Kansas' Dust In The Wind. It would have deserved that!

It should be pointed out that John Lawton is a native Brit and there is nothing of that horrible German accent (sorry all Germans! I have my own accent to tackle) in his vocals at all. And his vocals here are terrific - almost like a young Freddie Mercury at times! Also, there is no sign at all of the fact that this band is German; this music has nothing to do with the Krautrock genre. Lucifer's Friend could indeed have been a fully British band judging from the sound (perhaps they should have been a British band in order to get more attention?)

One sad thing, though, is that the sound quality of this album is not very good. It is decent, but not even slightly better than the debut album. Many Prog Rock fans might prefer to start with the album Banquet, but for Metal fans Where The Groupies Killed The Blues is the best and, in my opinion, Lucifer's Friend's masterpiece.

An extremely underrated masterpiece!

I quite liked their debut album (four stars) but this sophomore album is not on par, I 'm afraid.

The opening number is a funky piece of music with little flavor to my taste. Things change with 'Rose in the Vine' who is quite diversified: piano intro, heavy / bluesy part with strong vocals, dynamic but totally loose instrumental sections (almost eclectic and a bit noisy). It is very difficult to get into this track. Very complex indeed.

The same complex mood prevails during the excellent 'Mother'. Some sort of jewel made of symphonic prog (mellotron), powerful vocals, and heavy passages. It sounds as if it was a mini-opera on its own. Brilliant, really.

Keys are extensively used throughout this album (mainly piano), but during the title track there is even sweet and delicate fluting displayed. This is truly a great combination and again some eclectic accents are felt IMHHO. This is the second highlight from this album. Great rhythm changes, solid beat (great drumming by the way) are ingredients which are peppering this excellent track.

The other highlight is the long 'Summerdream'. It is a scary and dark track full of violin, macabre mood and musical maestria. It could have been named 'Summer Nightmare'! There are long instrumental passages, with piano again and some orchestrations as well. Another mini rock opera actually! Not as excellent as 'Mother', but still very good.

Two to three average songs prevent me to rate this album with four stars: 'Hobo', 'Prince Of Darkness' and 'Burning Ships'.

Still, this is quite a good album. Seven out of ten. It really deserves more reviews.

LUCIFER'S FRIEND were a five piece band from Germany including a British singer John Lawton who sings in that Blues style ala Robert Plant. This is album number two from 1972 and it follows in the style of the self titled debut but they do change stuff up some. What makes this band standout from the many hard and heavy bands from the late 60's and early 70's is just how sophisticated the compositions are. An incredible German band who impress big time with their play, then add those amazing vocals and man those first two albums are sensational and similar enough that they are by far my two favourite recordings by the band.

Their third album from 1973 called "I'm Just A Rock 'N' Roll Singer" is much more straightforward AOR type music while 1974's "Banquet" is probably the most adventerous and proggy but a step down from the first two in my opinion mainly because I feel there's things that just don't work like the blasting horns. Yes this band did not like to repeat themselves. Kind of cool that the bad dudes on the album cover of the debut are up in the top left corner of this cover art tying the two together.

Love the first two tracks, I mean just a great way to start the album with "Hobo" and the rebel yell to start from Lawton. This is heavy and catchy with those incredible vocals over top. A lot going on here. "Rose In The Vine" opens with haunting piano and I should have mentioned that the keyboardist plays organ, piano, mellotron and moog. When this kicks in before 2 minutes it's an "oh my"moment. Raw sounding guitar then a calm with bluesy vocals. Those vocals do get passionate followed by an innovative instrumental section.

We get strings and some cool vocal arrangements on "Mother". Check out the guitar tone just before 5 minutes. Some nice contrasts on the title track and I was reminded a little of Dio fronted BLACK SABBATH on "Prince Of Darkness". I like the samples on the closer "Burning Ships" a mellow tune until the final 1 1/2 minutes.

Two amazing albums from this band and many will point to "Banquet" as the third such album.