After two decades of living on the fringes of ‘the big time’ – whatever that actually means in the music industry in 2023 – just one listen to Lucifer Star Machine‘s new album Satanic Age suggests that exciting times might be ahead for the band…

…Repeated listens confirm that yes, indeed, something special is brewing here. Although the band aren’t making any revolutionary breaks with the past stylistically on Satanic Age, everything they do here is just… more. And better. Tracks like Naked City are shot through with pure rock n’roll class, from the timeless (but rooted in the seventies) delivery of throat Tor Abyss, through the low slung, axes-set-to-Scandi-stun guitar glory of Mickey Necro and Mighty Ramon, to the thundering, no-holds barred mayhem of rhythm section Benny Zin and Captain Fettsau, Satanic Age is the sound of a band whose gears have finally clicked into position perfectly – and now the sky would appear to be the limit.

The Life You Dread is probably the band at it’s most mature – and certainly the best representation of what I was jabbering on about in my previous paragraph – but as we know maturity isn’t always the key for successful rock n’roll. But that’s okay, because the band still have roughneck anthems for your delectation with names like Cunt of Destruction. But even here the songwriting levels are operating at pretty high altitude, synthesising the last fifty years of the best of American, British and Scandinavian speedball psychosis with deathless precision and hugely enjoyable joie de vivre. The best rock n’roll always, no matter now nihilistic it seems, increases the listener’s lust for life – and if you ain’t got a spring in your step after treating your ears to fabulous closing track ‘Til Death then well – there may be no hope for you, I’m afraid…

If we are indeed entering the Satanic Age – and who am I to argue with such an assertion? – then I can’t think of a better soundtrack to our destruction…

Satanic Age releases on April 14th.