22 Nov 2024
UsernamePassword

Remember Me? | Join | Recover
Click here to sign in via social networking
  • Articles »
  • Reviews »
  • Lucifer Gunne - EP Review: One Day You'll Be The Best Thing That's Ever Happened To Someone

Lucifer Gunne - EP Review: One Day You'll Be The Best Thing That's Ever Happened To Someone

30 Oct 2019 // A review by Callum Wagstaff

Lucifer Gunne come out with an EP of acoustic sessions showcasing the dark and pensive songwriting of lead man Rory McDonald. McDonald's unusual voice is an amalgam of influences including Marilyn Manson, Kurt Cobain and Mike Patton. One Day You'll Be The Best Thing That's Ever Happened To Someone is a chance to examine the pathos and core musicality of the alt rock outfit. The stripped back approach lets the goth and post punk influences take a more prominent place in the band's genre mix.

The EP hints at a band just starting to get a feel for the lengths they will be able to push themselves and their sound as they create more material. The song names are pieces of art in and of themselves; descriptive, original and detailed while remaining mysterious enough to create a frenzy in the mind of anyone trying to discern their trajectory. Heart Rate Monitor and The Brain Named Itself are the kind of attention piquing combinations of words in the arsenal. The incomparable A Pig on Antibiotics must be one of the best song names ever coined. Definitely the best pig related name and in the top ten of Antibiotic songs.

A Pig on Antibiotics has a consistent and even-handed progression with a smashing crescendo. The great open chords let the strings ring out nice and creepy. As my personal favourite song on the EP, I gravitated to what I heard as "The Symmetry never frightened me till I realized what it's doing to me." The real lyric may refer to a cemetery but I'm sold on my interpretation. Angel's Mark utilizes the beautiful treble sound of open acoustic strings against lofty octaves, and this approach of reinforcing fretted notes with open ones in tasty minor intervals continues to be used to great effect on later tracks like Coexistence and Orchids.

The band brings the melodic mood up a bit in the midway point of the track list with a cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Airplane Over the Sea. They manage to translate the song into the world of One Day You'll Be The Best Thing That's Ever Happened To Someone and relate a sense of levity in romanticism amidst the crushing weight of existential dread, punctuated by that final line, "how strange it is to be anything at all."

By the look of the way their output and activity have increased in the last year, Lucifer Gunne seem ready to burst into a solid stride across the musical universe. One Day You'll Be The Best Thing That's Ever Happened To Someone feels like the perfect deep cut to go back and visit for the keen fans that they collect over the near future. Listen to the EP, watch out for the band.

Rating: ( 5 / 5 )
 

About Lucifer Gunne

Lucifer Gunne is an alternative rock band formed in Wellington, New Zealand, founded by Rory McDonald 

Starting out solo, Rory, worked on the first EP, The Red King with the idea of a whole band sound, rather than a solo project in mind. A couple of months after the release debut EP, he met the guitarist (Don Mackenzie) and ex-drummer (Henry Thomas) in the crowd at a pixies concert. They played their first show at Valhalla on March 30th 2017 and have been playing, gigging, practicing and recording ever since. The current lineup consists of Rory McDonald (Lead vocals, Bass Guitar), Don Mackenzie (Rhythm Guitar), Steve Henwood (Lead Guitar) and Jackson Kidd (Drums)

Lucifer Gunne has now disbanded.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Lucifer Gunne

Releases

The Red King
Year: 2017
Type: EP

Other Reviews By Callum Wagstaff

SD-2100 - Album Review: Not Bred to Feel the Fat
29 Oct 2024 // by Callum Wagstaff
Sam Densem, better known as SD-2100 (a brand of metal detector but that's not what he's named after), is aggressively prolific. By the time this review is published he's already released two more EP's and a compilation.
Read More...
Saurian - EP Review: Bled Dry
09 Sep 2024 // by Callum Wagstaff
From Dunedin, New Zealand comes Saurian, a four-piece hard rock band with a new EP called Bled Dry which came out Friday the 13th of September. The 5 song EP includes the band's latest 3 singles, Devil Among Men, Down at the Crown, and Park Bench.
Read More...
Moider Mother - Album Review: Miracle Healing Crusade
28 Apr 2024 // by Callum Wagstaff
"Take a pinch of Raincoats, add a tablespoon of early Swans, sauté in the first Stooges album and add half a brick. Put it in a sock.
Read More...
Swamp Rat Collective - EP Review: Flash Sneakers
16 Apr 2024 // by Callum Wagstaff
The Swamp Rat Collective is a dirty, matted tangle of influences from the guitar music of the era between the late 80's and early 2000's. The project is a collaboration between Paul Cowsill (rhythm and bass guitar) and Adam Gatt (lead guitar) that crosses the ocean, comprising parties from Auckland, New Zealand as well as London, UK.
Read More...
Daniel Ashcroft - Album Review: Chica De La Bum
05 Feb 2024 // by Callum Wagstaff
Daniel Ashcroft is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer based in Feilding.His musical goals are simple: He wants to play every instrument he possibly can, explore every genre and collaborate with as many singers as possible.
Read More...
Dub Asylum - EP Review: Time & Space EP
19 Nov 2023 // by Callum Wagstaff
Dub Asylum is the musical alias for Peter McLennan, former member of 90's reggae-thrash-punk-ska mutants the Hallelujah Picassos. Now working solo, Peter McLennan's Dub Asylum is a musical mash-up of dub reggae, hip-hop and funk.
Read More...
Bad Jelly Collective - EP Review: WESTBOUND&DOWN
10 Oct 2023 // by Callum Wagstaff
Bad Jelly Collective is the brainchild of 'Bad Jelly' Ben. Tucked away in his Huia road Home Studio in the Waitakere Ranges, Ben weaves his psychedelic soundscapes together with the creative forces of his team of musical mates.
Read More...
Album Review: Cautionary Tales
16 Aug 2023 // by Callum Wagstaff
Cautionary Tales is an alt-rock band based in Aotearoa, via Berlin and New York. It's an art-rock outfit built around the type of myths and legends where somebody gets screwed over for riding a scorpion or not tipping an old lady.
Read More...
View All Articles By Callum Wagstaff

NZ Top 10 Singles

  • APT.
    ROSÉ And Bruno Mars
  • DIE WITH A SMILE
    Lady Gaga And Bruno Mars
  • BIRDS OF A FEATHER
    Billie Eilish
  • TASTE
    Sabrina Carpenter
  • I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY
    Gracie Abrams
  • ESPRESSO
    Sabrina Carpenter
  • SAILOR SONG
    Gigi Perez
  • LOSE CONTROL
    Teddy Swims
  • A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
    Shaboozey
  • GOOD LUCK, BABE!
    Chappell Roan
View the Full NZ Top 40...
muzic.net.nz Logo
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report a ProblemReport A Problem