Artist: Lucifer’s Child
Country: Greece
Label: Agonia Records
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2025
Reviewing music is, just as listening to music, by definition about opinions and overall subjectivity. Although you might try to be as objective as possible, everyone has their personal taste and frame of references. But these are not the only things that makes you like or dislike a certain piece of music. Without going all too much into the psychological backgrounds of this sort of hypotheses, a lot has to do with how you (choose) to approach music (or basically anything in life). Let’s call that unconscious expectation management. That’s basically the same if you are eating something but you expected it to be something else and to taste completely different, that might colour the way think about that certain type of food for a long time – if not forever.
Not too long ago I was rather annoyed by the latest record of Yoth Iria. That band started out as a great Black Metal band that honoured the earliest beginnings of the revered and influential Greek Black Metal scene. Yet, with the departure of The Magus, the intensity and power of the music disappeared as well. What was left of the band came up with what I called a “radio friendly” piece of Black Metal that is hardly worth the banner of “Black Metal”. Its all smooth and slick with, no guts, no balls… just soulless stuff not worth wasting your time on.
However, when George Emmanuel, a long-term live guitarist for Rotting Christ in the 10’s, started his own band to pursue his own goals and fame, nobody expected him to come up with something that would sound close to ‘His Majesty At The Swamp’ or ‘Thy Mighty Contract’. His way of doing the Greek-style Black Metal in a much more accessible fashion was a lot easier to accept – regardless of your personal opinion towards the music that was on offer.
The band’s first two albums and split LP with Mystifier indeed showed a sort of Black Metal that builds upon the more modern-sounding Rotting Christ from their ‘Κata Τon Daimona Εaytoy’ and ‘Rituals’-era. If your tastes have evolved with Rotting Christ and you can appreciate those somewhat later records as well, the previously released work of Lucifer’s Child was a fine addition to your collection. Emmanuel and co. have proven themselves excellent song writers who are easily able to capture the ghost of old Greek Black Metal in a modern guise, just like Rotting Christ also did during the years from roughly 2010 to 2020. That means you are treated with catchy melodies, rocking grooves and expertly written compositions that progresses from slower and more melodic to downright blisteringly blasting speed in dizzying dynamics.
Lucifer’s Child’s first album, ‘The Wiccan’ from 2015 was a bit more raw and rough around the edges, but especially on ‘The Order’, their second offering from 2018, the band showed its full potential. Although the little crude production of the first album certainly had its charm, this is one of the few exceptions that a more clean production works better. The subsequent split LP with Mystifier, released in 2022, was a masterful performance that not only carved their name into the Greek Black Metal annals for good, but also showed how painfully Mystifier has regressed.
Despite already having spent a lot of words, I haven’t even mentioned ‘The Illuminant’, Lucifer’s third full-length album – that finally saw the light of day after a long seven year wait. But, all the preceding text actually gives enough context to what we can expect from this latest album, because musically, Lucifer’s Child has by no means changed course. In fact, ‘The Illuminant’ is more than a logical progression from where the band had left off. The album doesn’t serve you with even the smallest surprise and it might sound even a bit more polished than before. But since that’s entirely in the line of expectation, that’s not much of a problem here. Radio-friendly? Perhaps. Although the band pushes the gas pedal more often and more viciously than their aforementioned compatriots, there is no denying that ‘The Illuminist’ has become an accessible and easily digestible album.
We are all but human creatures, unable to fully shake off our own subjectivities. So, basically, it all comes down to whatever is floating your boat: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For me personally, unlike that last dreary Yoth Iria album, ‘The Illuminist’ is one I am considering purchasing and adding to the others in the collection.
