Lucifer Over London

Durtrohoho 019CD, 1994, Running time: 27:18

Lucifer Over London
  1. Lucifer Over London - 07:50
  2. Sad Go Round - 05:46
  3. The Seven Seals Are Revealed at the End of Time as Seven Bows: The Bloodbow, the Pissbow, the Painbow, the Faminebow, the Deathbow, the Angerbow, and the Hohohobow. - 13:40

Lucifer Over London is a mid-length EP, containing three songs that can be only described as brilliant.  It may be somewhat of a difficult album to find, but in my opinion, it’s a must-have.  If you see this EP, buy it! Happily, lyrics are included in the liner.

The first track, LUCIFER OVER LONDON, begins with rather humorously with the opening riff from Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” and shifts into a fast-paced, rock-ish sound with David Tibet’s wailing vocals and excellent lyrics.  The second half of the song is a little slower, with a manic swirl of bells in the background, vaguely reminiscent of GREAT BLACK TIME (from Dawn).  The lyrics in this part are rather interesting, mostly centering around the line “we are sicksicksick of 666.” An indication of Tibet’s shifting religious concepts, perhaps?  The song, according to the liner notes, was inspired by “The Tower of Moab” by Leslie Allin Lewis (although Tibet states that the ideas and images are mostly his own).

SAD GO ROUND is a cover of a song by the Groundhogs.  It’s pretty much a straight-ahead rock song, though Tibet’s wonderful vocals shine through as always. Perhaps not the greatest Current 93 song, but it’s a nice cover. It’s dedicated to Rosemary Pardoe, who edits Tibet’s favorite magazine, “Ghosts and Scholars.”

The final track is the epic-titled THE SEVEN SEALS ARE REVEALED AT THE END OF TIME AS SEVEN BOWS: THE BLOODBOW, THE PISSBOW, THE PAINBOW, THE FAMINEBOW, THE DEATHBOW, THE ANGERBOW AND THE HOHOHOBOW, and the piece definitely lives up to it’s name. It’s very slowly building, starting with quiet music and fairly subdued vocals by Tibet, but later building intensity and a lot of musical delicacy. This is really an epic song, dealing with armageddon and the events thereof; lots of amazing lyrics and images. Incredibly beautiful, chilling, and sad, it was written as a sequel to the introduction to Coil’s “Horse Rotorvator” album (highly recommended, incidentally). In my opinion, the album would be worth getting just for this song alone (the fact that the other two pieces are also great only adds to the value, eh?).

Epilogue: (David Tibet) The tower of Moab. My God, it does reach to heaven.