HIGH HOPES
From Stockholm via Berlin, a new 70s-inspired occult-rock force is on the rise!
RECENTLY ON TOUR in the US – where they played with Coven and Pentagram – it was fairly easy to deduce where Stockholm rockers Lucifer are coming from, stylistically and musically. “I was born in Berlin, behind the Iron Curtain, and I started my journey with heavy music 31 years ago,” says founder Johanna Sardonis.
“My first rock concert was Guns N’ Roses, I then saw Metallica. But it was at the age of 14 when I saw Danzig that was the root of all my evil!” laughs Sardonis. “I was so impressed with the black jackets and black hair. Like the Ramones, but demonic.”
Sardonis soon found literature on Aleister Crowley, a satanic encyclopedia and an internship at an occult bookshop where like-minded folk of a gothic persuasion could gather. Her hair dyed, her room “pitch black”, with the discovery of the goth club Dark Friday, Sardonis’ cultural die was cast, fostered by her home environment. “My parents loved Deep Purple and ZZ Top, my brother was a punk and I was into extreme metal, and a cemetery tourist. I began to realise the bands I liked were inspired by the sixties and seventies – that’s where my songwriting comes from.”
Learning on an acoustic guitar before going electric – thanks to her parents – Sardonis started performing in underground bands, ending up in doomy hard-rockers The Oath (formed in Berlin with Swedish guitarist Linnéa Olsson). The Oath was short-lived, and after dissolving in 2014, Sardonis’ own project Lucifer rose, prompting a move to Sweden.
