Band:	Lucifer's Child
Album:	The Order
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	November 2018

01. Viva Morte
02. The Order
03. Fall Of The Rebel Angels
04. Through Fire We Burn
05. El Dragón
06. Black Heart
07. Haraya
08. Siste Farvel

The Order is a dish of Hellenic black metal cooked both raw and well done by veteran Athenians and served straight-up.

A year after having joined Rotting Christ in 2012, guitarist George Emmanuel recruited three other members of the Athens metal scene to explore ideas outside of, according to him, the "path that's already etched" by the Greek household name. Two years later, Lucifer's Child released their debut album The Wiccan on Dark Essence Records and returned in 2018, releasing The Order on Agonia Records.

All right everybody, please have a look under your chair and you should find an envelope coloured blue and white with the words "Greek black metal checklist" on it. No? I must have forgot; you will have to use your imagination (I have misplaced my own list, so this is what I do). Mid-paced melodic riffing: check. Run-of-the-mill lyrics about Satan: check. Ritualistic atmospheres: check. So, what is the fuss about? Let me add two more checkboxes. Masterful song writing: check. Convincing performance: check.

The Order takes no prisoners from the start. A raspy shriek calls out "Viva Morte!" and a blast-fest supported by a three-chord riff is soon under way. There is quite a bit of the start-stop riffing Rotting Christ were known for back in the days (when they actually wrote new riffs) but as a whole the song has more in common with Nordic metal than the Greek scene, featuring little in the way of melody or atmosphere and coming off as more of a thrash-infused mid-era Watain affair.

The title track slows down the pace and goes all-in on the Greek style of black metal. Carried by a mid-paced riff with somewhat of an oddball melody, "The Order" is completed by a ritualistic chorus repeating the words "Invictus Maximus Satanas Lucifer" and we are definitely in Rotting Christ-land until the next couple of tracks bring us back to Scandinavia with, among other touches, d-beats reminiscent of Impaled Nazarene and rhythmic Bathory-esque strumming.

I have a confession to make. I sometimes get really fed up with extreme metal, to the point where I listen to none of it for many months. Every time this happens, eventually an album turns up where all the pieces fit together just so that I am reminded of everything there is to love about this kind of music. Thrawsunblat - Metachthonia was such an album, and Lucifer's Child - The Order is the latest one.

There is not really anything on here that we have not all heard before, and the lyrics are honestly beyond banal, but it makes no difference. Spin me the unrelenting Bølzer-style pummelling of "El Drago-Un" or the melodic doom outro "Siste Farvel" (Norwegian for "Last Farewell") and I will set any doubts aside, grab a beer and enjoy the ride each and every time. This is expertly executed black metal with just enough power and melody to tick all the boxes on my "awesome music" checklist.



Recommended tracks: "Fall Of The Rebel Angels", "El Drago-Un", "Siste Farvel".