For the past five years, LUCIFUGE have been perfecting an addicting style of blackened speed metalpunk, all guided by the iron fist of mainman Equinox. Starting in 2018, the one-man wrecking crew released a demo, an EP, and the Ride the Beast debut album. The next year was no less busy, with two EPs and the second album Der AntiChrist. And just last year, the full-length The One Great Curse was released and then the digital single "Infernal Power." The latter single proved to be a teaser for LUCIFUGE's fourth album, also titled Infernal Power. Going from strength to strength and now expanded to a full quartet, here does Equinox take his signature sound - greasy 'n' galloping riffs, locomotive rhythmic (dis)charge, and twisted 'n' pissed vocals - and spit-shine them with the dirtiest motor oil known to man. It's all righteously party-hardy stuff, headbanging and boozy to the bitter end, but Infernal Power palatably exudes a startling professionalism usually elusive to those flying the metalpunk banner, no doubt a result of the lineup expansion. Likewise, the EVIL is ramped up here, cobwebs of haunting melodicism draped delicately across LUCIFUGE's no-less-crazed attack. And perhaps most interestingly, Equinox covers GISM's "As Good As It Is," from that legendary Japanese band's cult second album, M.A.N., an idiosyncratic blend of epic metal and noise. Which is all to underline the relatively unique ground LUCIFUGE are travelling with Infernal Power; names such as Inepsy, Blood Spit Nights, and Kriegshog are as easily evoked as those of Exciter, Razor, and English Dogs - and of course, the almighty Warfare and especially equally early Running Wild and Onslaught UK. The full moon is night, and all the witches are about to dance...prepare to feel LUCIFUGE's Infernal Power!
