Manchester electropunk agitators St Lucifer return with the Crucible EP
Well, that’s certainly one way to kick start a riot … Having teased a ‘big’ and ‘violent’ second LP for almost a year now, St Lucifer return – trailering the main event with not one, but two EPs – containing 8 new tracks across the two releases and showcasing the sheer range of sonic tricks and surprises now at their disposal.
Crucible kicks off proceedings – their most ‘pop’ moment since Junk Days – brash, confident and positively throbbing with synth driven energy – at least three anthemic choruses and a guitar line which starts off as a shimmering John McGeogh counter melody but ends up making the best case for the band’s self-styled (and formerly tongue-in-cheek) claim to make ‘blackmetalgaydisco’.
The rest of the first EP showcases three very different sides to St Lucifer – including two distinct, yet equally poignant farewells to departed band members …
The Ballad of Mickey Strangeways is an utterly bonkers Chap-hop/Drum’n’Bass/Cramps Acid-Bath – literally like nothing else St Lucifer (or anyone else) has ever recorded. Original drummer Charlie Bergmann was anything but shy and retiring – and (amongst other projects) now runs the hand-crafted retro-clothes label Mickey Strangeways. Hearing is believing.
An incendiary take on the Big Black classic Kerosene (is there any other way to cover it?) flips the tone back into full-frontal guitar assault mode – before giving way to the most radical/sprawling track of St Lucifer’s career to date.
Van Der Lubbe Must Die is anything but a ‘remix’ – literally tearing the basic components of their debut single (from back in 2016) down to sub-atomic level and then reassembling them. The result is a 15 plus minute evolving dronescape which begins like ‘Music for Haunted Airports’ and ends with clattering breakbeats and former vocalist Alex Lee original lead vocal ‘ghosting’ into the night.
The Crucible EP is released digitally on the 26th of October via AnalogueTrash. The follow up EP Raise the Dead is scheduled for release on the 2nd of November before their new album Music is Violence drops on the 23rd of November. Watch this space.
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