A very pleasant jazz-rock album
12/26/1998
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is Lucifer's Friend's best album. It will probably not appeal to fans of their first album, though; whereas that album was pure metal in the Zeppelin vein, _Banquet_ is an excursion into jazz fusion. The two best tracks here are conceptual pieces that feature a 30-piece backup jazz band and are both over 10 minutes in length: "Sorrow" and "Spanish Galleon". These tracks are surrounded by shorter pieces, the best of which is probably the radio-friendly "High Flying Lady - Goodbye", which has the feel of rockabilly with horns. Easily their most progressive album, and the one example of where this band's output actually matched their artistic intentions."
Great jazzy rock
B. E Jackson | Pennsylvania | 04/17/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Welp, Lucifer's Friend did it *again*. Banquet marks the fourth album in a ROW that sounds completely different from the previous three.
So, let's see here- their third album sounds completely different from the previous two, and the second album sounds completely different from the first!!
This means Lucifer's Friend deserves a TON of credit, if for nothing else, being one of the most diverse rock bands on the planet that never got any REAL recognition. Darn it people, not even David Bowie experimented this much.
Banquet is NOT a hard rock album like the debut, it's NOT a twisted experiment album like their second album, and it's NOT a straight forward commercial rock album like their third album. So what is it, you ask?
Banquet is an album that focuses on lengthy jazz pieces with keyboard swirls reminiscent of what Santana and Return to Forever were doing at the time, and in the case of "Spanish Galleon", some of the keyboard bits actually remind me of the Doors.
I definitely DON'T think this sounds anything like the rock band Chicago though. Some of the instrumental brass portions of the album might make you recall the mid 70's years of Chicago, but that's about all.
You see, Chicago used to jam for several minutes at a time over the course of an entire album with those brass instruments- on this Lucifer's Friend album, the inclusion of brass sounds is few and far between, so a comparison to Chicago isn't one I really understand.
Anyway, I agree with the other reviewers that "Spanish Galleon" and "Sorrow" are the most memorable songs on the album since these two songs alone take up half of the album. These are definitely the kind of jams that fall under the category of half-jazz and half-rock, and they are both really good.
The vocal melody in "Spanish Galleon" is perhaps a bit dated, but what the heck, it's memorable despite that.
Overall, Lucifer's Friend is one band I don't believe will ever get the credit they deserve. By this point, too much time has gone by and they are now in the same category as Black Widow, Jade Warrior, and even Slade for that matter- bands people don't wanna give the time of day in favor of something else. What a shame. This music is too good to pass up."
Is This The Same Band?
Fred Rayworth | Las Vegas, NV United States | 02/05/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is the album that makes you wonder if some other band has stolen the Lucifer's Friend name. Nope. After looking at the cover, it's the original guys all right. The band totally shifted direction. What was creeping into the mix on Groupies Killed The Blues is full force here, with not even a hint of their original sound from the first album. Is this a bad thing? Not really. Taken by itself, without thinking of their previous sound, this is very good jazz rock. Their epic song style comes in, full force and a jazzy rock sound has taken over from the original dark heavy rock. This could have been a awful album if the songs and musicianship were not so good. They pulled it off. Recommended."
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1