Lately on excursion in the United States – the place they performed with Coven and Pentagram – it was once relatively simple to infer the place Stockholm rockers Lucifer are coming from, stylistically and musically. “I used to be born in Berlin, at the back of the Iron Curtain, and I began my adventure with heavy track 31 years in the past,” says founder Johanna Sardonis.
“My first rock live performance was once Weapons N’ Roses, I then noticed Metallica. But it surely was once on the age of 14 once I noticed Danzig that was once the basis of all my evil!” laughs Sardonis. “I used to be so inspired with the black jackets and black hair. Just like the Ramones, however demonic.”
Sardonis quickly discovered literature on Aleister Crowley, a satanic encyclopedia and an internship at an occult bookstall the place like-minded people of a gothic persuasion may acquire. Her hair dyed, her room “pitch black”, with the invention of the goth membership Darkish Friday, Sardonis’ cultural die was once solid, fostered via her house atmosphere.
“My folks cherished Deep Red and ZZ Best, my brother was once a punk and I used to be into excessive steel, and a cemetery vacationer. I started to understand the bands I preferred had been impressed via the sixties and seventies – that’s the place my songwriting comes from.”
Finding out on an acoustic guitar earlier than going electrical – due to her folks – Sardonis began appearing in underground bands, finishing up in doomy hard-rockers The Oath (shaped in Berlin with Swedish guitarist Linnéa Olsson). The Oath was once short-lived, and after dissolving in 2014, Sardonis’ personal challenge Lucifer rose, prompting a transfer to Sweden.
Celebrating 10 years of life in 2024 with a Satanic Panic UK excursion – co-headlined with the mythical Angel Witch – Lucifer’s set-list will draw from their five-album catalogue, the newest liberate named V.
V’s issues are lovely descriptive via identify (Fallen Angel, A Coffin Has No Silver Lining, Gradual Dance In A Crypt…), comprising a mixture of Sabbathy constructions and black-humoured lyrics created via Sardonis together with her husband, and Lucifer drummer, Nicke Andersson. Guitarist Linus Bjorkland additionally contributes as a result of “we didn’t need to be like Sonny and Cher, it’s higher for the track,” Sardonis laughs.
Sardonis’ glance is in a similar way placing; a horror vamp, her blonde hair and crimson lips spark off via black, caped clothes. “I used to be an excessively frail, scared and shy kid,” she says. “It’s taken till I’m 44 – and I licked a large number of blood, ha ha – however I will in any case say, ‘That is me.’”
We spotted the priest’s canine collar for your outfit…
“I’ve been coping with a large number of sexism,” Sardonis notes, “I am getting remarks. However I need to say, ‘Fuck you, I’ll do what I would like’ and display that simply because I seem like this, I will nonetheless write track. At the closing album I used to be on a life-sized move that I had made. My circle of relatives had been pastors and a large number of injustice was once taught to me as just a little lady. Now it’s my time to place at the collar and pontificate.”
Lucifer’s V is out now by means of Nuclear Blast.
