Swedish act Lucifer are a clever bunch; Tagging their music ‘occult rock’ and playing with a raft of scary imagery, they actually pack their songs with earworm hooks and feelgood, memory-taunting nostalgia. At one point, on theatrical closer Nothing Left To Lose But My Life, vocalist Johanna Platow Andersson even brings to mind the Saintly Olivia Newton John, forcing the album’s kitsch levels into the red and then some…

None of this is stated as a criticism, by the way; Lucifer’s compatriots Ghost have developed a tidy living harnessing pop sensibilities to the Devil’s yolk, and if Nicke Andersson and company aren’t quite operating at those levels yet you can see a direct kinship between Tobias Forge‘s songcraft and Lucifer on tracks like stately rocker The Dead Don’t Speak.

That’s not to say that Lucifer are trying to ape good ol’ Papa E and his merry ghouls; Merely it’s an observation that, five albums in, Lucifer have found their niche and they are going to mine it for all they are worth, whatever their perceived similarities to other acts. At it’s best, on heavier material like Sabbathy opener Fallen Angel, the striking Riding Reaper or the more whimsical Slow Dance In A Crypt, they more than hold their own as pretenders to the occult rock throne. At it’s least effective – the slightly cloying At The Mortuary – style still seems to be getting the edge over substance, at least in this reviewer’s opinion.

At the end of the day, this is music that’s impossible to actively dislike if you’ve grown up as a kid, like me, on a musical diet including names like Alice Cooper or Blue Öyster Cult; However – and this is a purely personal view – you do find yourself wishing the band would break the kitschy straitjacket’s bindings occasionally and just go for the throat with something well, more evil…

Occult rock is one of metal’s boom areas at the moment, and Lucifer’s longevity in the game suggests they are doing plenty right, whatever old carps like me think, so more power to them – I genuinely hope V does the business for all concerned.

V releases on January 26th.