Review: Lucyfire

Lucyfire
““This Dollar Saved My Life at Whitehorse””
(SPV GMBH)

What happens when the lead singer of a successful Swedish goth metal band gets a hankering for something a little bit different than…well…whatever it is that Swedish goth metal sounds like?  The answer, unfortunately, is Lucyfire (I don’t know if it’s supposed to be “lucky fire” or a play on “Lucifer”, but really the semantics of the band’s name aren’t at issue here), a side project gone way, way haywire.  Lucyfire combines the vocal stylings of Neil Diamond with the music of 1980s Depeche Mode (or 2000s Orgy, if your memory doesn’t go back that far).  When coupled with the liberal use of keyboards, lead singer Johann Edlund’s fully synthesized voice sounds eerily similar to the music played during that old SNL “Sprockets” skit with Mike Myers.  While that may indeed sound like a recipe for good-times and hilarity (especially when doing an ill-advised cover of ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man”), unless your name is Dieter and you live in Hamburg, you probably don’t give a rat’s hindquarters.  Moral of the story-let the Hessians be the Hessians and Neil Diamond sing in Vegas.