Review Summary: Gary Jennings and Johanna Sadonis prove they can go through the motions without placing one wrong step forward, but they bring little else to the table.
When Johanna Sadonis announced her exit from The Oath, nobody but the band's cult fanbase seemed to bat an eyelid. Sure, the mainstream press made out that this particular band had the "excellence" and "vigour" to make Occult-themed doom metal the next big thing in metal, but in all reality what The Oath were doing was no different to what the likes of Blood Ceremony and The Devil's Blood had done almost a decade before. So, strike number two for the ex-The Oath singer has come in the form of a band called Lucifer, incidentally completed by one of doom metal's most revered guitarists (namely for his work with Cathedral more than anything else), Garry Jennings, who really excelled himself on that band's latest release,
The Last Spire and who serves as co-songwriter as well as performing his instrumental techniques.
I guess the real question here is, has the co-operative talents of Jennings and Sadonis culminated in something original and unique? Well,
not really. Sure, Lucifer's debut album,
I has all the retro vibes and Gothic atmosphere to make for a decent doom metal release with complete focus on making things sound like they were fresh out of the early 70s, but there's little else to take in. I mean, for one thing, Sadonis sounds bored with herself most of the time. Jennings is literally the only thing keeping Lucifer's debut album from going stale, but sometimes you get the impression that it's hard to do so. Because throughout the entirety of this 40-minute plus album, the musicianship and vocal delivery often seems forgettable for all but the select few who lust for anything which emanates from this sub-genre. From a positive standpoint, there's nothing bad about this release. All instruments are crisp, clear and never seem to make a bad step in terms of technical delivery. The same can be said for Sadonis' vocal effects, which really do the job they were supposed to do, but with so little vigour and energy that you feel she's simply going through the motions for the sake of it. The same can be said for Jennings' enigmatic guitar work, which is rarely excellent when considering the energetic solo section of "Morning Star" and the strikingly heavy intro of "Izrael", and is so good that it fails to deviate from the boring rhythms of the drum and bass interplay.
Sadonis' vocal delivery is sometimes really nice to listen to as well, but this is somewhat brief when regarding the album as a whole. She goes beyond the monotone one-note performance in songs like "Purple Pyramid" and "Total Eclipse", where her voice almost reaches a high pitch, before the instrumentation drags it back down to an almost lower, sombre tone. See, there are glimpses of brilliance here, and in your mind you could probably imagine a more engaging vocal delivery, but as it is, this is simply Sadonis doing the job with little to no passion most of the time. It's even more disappointing when you realize that there's never a moment where the vocals and instrumental performance work together to create an overall impressive tune-That is, except for stand-out highlight "White Mountain", where everything seems to come together. On this song, you can almost believe that Lucifer are finally going somewhere, where the musicianship isn't actually forgettable and the vocal delivery has some kick to it. But for the rest of the album, things are slightly above average at best.
This final sentence is exactly why Lucifer's debut release will only appeal to the cult fanbase left from the fallout of The Oath, and perhaps fans of Gary Jennings' guitar work. It's a good album to sit down with and listen to during a fairly lazy Sunday evening (with a glass of red wine to boost your spirits), but it doesn't warrant any further listens when you know that the combination of Jennings' and Sadonis' talents could have culminated in something more memorable and effective. Really, if every song on here was as great as "White Mountain", I would be writing this review with a little more enthusiasm.
