Forgotten Metal: Lucifer's Friend

When examining the origins of heavy metal there is generally a consensus that the genre came into being somewhere between 1968 and 1970. There will always be the debate that Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath were the first metal band, while others will argue that you have to go back a bit further in time, with Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Mountain, Blue Cheer, etc. as the other contestants, or at the very least laying the groundwork. Anthropologist and film maker Sam Dunn, perhaps the most eminent authority on the subject, gives Black Sabbath full credit as the first true metal band, with their debut recordings altering the musical landscape of early 1970. The rest of the contenders are fairly well known, with most of them being mentioned above. A recent discovery, however, challenges all that I thought I knew about the early history of heavy metal.

While watching an old episode of the German television series Beat-Club (1965-72), a 1970 performance from an English/German group called Lucifer's Friend grabbed my attention. While the performance may not appear particularly notable at first glance, here was a band doing things that would become essential elements of heavy metal in the coming decade... in 1970. It was like watching early Judas Priest fronted by Ronnie James Dio. Why had I never heard of them? It didn't make sense. It was truly a revelation to discover a band incorporating what I viewed as yet-to-be-conceived essential features of heavy metal this early in the timeline. It was a bit like finding evidence of anatomically modern homo sapien in the era of the neanderthal.





A little research revealed that Lucifer's Friend, based in Germany and fronted by English vocalist John Lawton, had released several albums between 1970 and the early 1980s, none of which seemed to have ever earned them much recognition, aside perhaps from in parts of Europe. Ride the Sky, the opening track from their 1970 self-titled debut, perhaps best exemplifies my assertion that Lucifer's Friend's early work was as groundbreaking as it was overlooked. There's even a major resemblance (listen for the french horn) to Zeppelin's classic Immigrant Song. Released at roughly the same time as Led Zeppelin III, we'll never know who ripped off who. Nonetheless, it's quite interesting to discover a band, wiped from the pages of history, who were doing things arguably as "metal" as Sabbath back in 1970.