Australia’s traditionally-minded boogie-doom bros Lucifer’s Fall formed only two years ago to preach the frayed denim gospel, and this week they unleash their debut album through Hammerheart Records. Of course the duo follows in the grand tradition of grand traditions, sharing their band name with both the album and one of its songs, but they do Sabbath one better by also including a pair of songs (“Deceiver” and “Unknown Unnamed”) that double as the members’ stage names. Their theatrical sloth and piercing screams extol the virtues of Reverend Bizarre and Mercyful Fate. Old school moths, meet flame. Come forth and warm yourselves. It’s safe. We promise…
Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Deceiver pulls back the curtain a bit on these songs with some track commentary below the music player. Be sure to hit up Hammerheart’s shop to order the Lucifer’s Fall album, which the label will release on CD and on transparent red, yellow splatter, and black vinyl. Also, go check out the band’s Facebook page. Doom on.
“The Suffering Wizard” was the first song written but it was originally intended for a different project, not Lucifer’s Fall. The intro was written with Cirith Ungol in mind to work in a similar way to the intro for “King of the Dead.” The song is basically a critique directed at a Wizard who sits alone in his tower hating on everyone and everything whilst believing himself superior. He wants to destroy and bring doom to everything and everyone around him. Originally he is powerful and worshipped by those around him but eventually his cult dies away and he is left a sad and lonely old man. Originally the song had an extended outro but at the recording stage that was cut.
“Lucifer’s Fall” was the second song written overall but in reality the first song written specifically for Lucifer’s Fall. The Gustave Doré artwork was the inspiration for both the band name and song title. The song was written very quickly and was exactly the sound and feel that I was looking for, for the direction of the band. Obviously it is about Lucifer falling from the heavens and setting up his domain upon earth. I guess I was looking for a kind of meeting between Reverend Bizarre and Mercyful Fate.
“The Summoning,” in its original form, had lyrics before I decided to make it pretty much instrumental. The lyrics were actually political in that they described the summoning of a beast through election by the masses. Again during recording this song was cut back in length with a slow outro and intro being removed. I like the fact that the song is punchy and driving. Removing the original intro and outro helped achieve this. This is the more traditional metal side of the band as opposed to its doom aspect.
“Unknown Unnamed” is my attempt to write a punkish version of an Arkham Witch/Lamp Of Thoth type track. Once again this song was composed very quickly both lyrically and musically. The lyrics describe the rising of a zombie king of the dead from an unmarked grave. With his resurrection he brings an army of the dead to spread doom across the land. There is a reference to Cirith Ungol in the lines “Crown of gold upon his head, King of doom king of the dead.”
“A Sinner’s Fate” was the last song written and was one that I struggled over a little bit. Not so much musically but lyrics and vocals took a while to come to me. I wanted to write one really slow heavy long doom track to finish the album with. The song is about witch burning but it is written from the perspective of the victim. The victim who, because they are different in some way, ends up being vilified and burnt at the stake.
“Deceiver” [is] another song that was written extremely quickly. It’s a very simple song. With Deceiver i was trying to write a catchy simple heavy song with a Reverend Bizarre/Saint Vitus feel. Vocally I am very happy with this track. It just fell into place and feels extremely natural to my ears. Lyrically it is about Satan and how he uses his skills of temptation to trap the souls who are greedy for more.
“Death March” [is] another track that was written at the last stage. This ended up exactly as intended. An atmospheric instrumental outro to the album. Placed at the end so that you can skip it if moody instrumentals are not your thing.
