LUCIFER's JOHANNA SADONIS: The Breakup Of THE OATH Was 'Shocking'

Jimmy Cabbs conducted an interview with Berlin, Germany-based heavy metal blues rockers LUCIFER before their July 31 performance at Echoplex in Los Angeles, California. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about the breakup of her previous band, THE OATH, and the formation of LUCIFER, singer Johanna Sadonis said: "For me, [the breakup of THE OATH] was shocking too. I loved THE OATH, and I actually had plans for THE OATH to be my long-term band. There were things that got canceled that people don't know about, that were supposed to happen, and so on. So it was quite devastating for me. So I thought it's a good survival tactic to just turn this whole negative thing around and move forward straight away. So I sat down and thought, 'Okay, I'm gonna make a new band, and I'm gonna make it even more so my thing.' And I managed to, within one year, go through this, and we just released an album and now we're here. So everything is happening that I thought would happen for THE OATH. And as much as I loved THE OATH, LUCIFER is even more so my thing. So I'm extremely happy about this."

Sadonis also talked about LUCIFER's musical direction. She said: "The original idea was to kind of take a bow towards the great bands of the '70s that are kind of the forefathers of heavy metal. And, I mean, all of us have been in many bands over many years and explored all the different extreme subgenres of metal. And things get more bottom-endy and heavier and heavier. But, I think, for music to be heavy, it doesn't necessarily have to be defined by the sound — being heavy. And I also think that, once you go through all these phases, and I think every heavy metal or rock fan, or whatever, can say this, you listen to all these different things and go through phases, and so on, but in the end, you always kind of, after filtering through it, realize that there's a reason why these great bands, like [BLACK] SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE and so on, they are timeless because they are just that good. And there's a reason why everything that came after is kind of based on that core, that original spirit of that music. I mean, by now I'm listening to the music my parents have listened to. I never thought that would be the case. I had a phase where I was listening to death metal and black metal for many years. But it always comes back to the classics, right?"

LUCIFER's debut album, "Lucifer I", was released on June 16 via Rise Above Records.

With the addition of Garry Jennings (ex-CATHEDRAL, DEATH PENALTY) as co-songwriter and studio guitarist, LUCIFER is still firmly rooted in the fertile soil first cultivated by BLACK SABBATH, DEEP PURPLE, LED ZEPPELIN and BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, but exists in a proudly liberated and limitless sonic realm, where the heaviest blues rock is a mere starting point for the band's skyward creative trajectory.

"Lucifer I" track listing:

01. Abracadbra
02. Purple Pyramid
03. Izrael
04. Sabbath
05. White Mountain
06. Morning Star
07. Total Eclipse
08. A Grave For Each One of Us

Interview:

Performance footage: