Fun AOR Record!
ThrEaD NUGENT | Newport Beach, CA United States | 02/06/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Lucifer's Friend, throughout their career, has always embraced variation in style in their recordings...Sumogrip carries on that proud tradition. If you have a problem with Melodic rock, Funk, metal, disco, or AOR this cd may not be for you. I love Sumogrip which shows a group of musicians later in their careers having fun..and why not...the writing, playing and priduction are excellent. Stand out tracks incl. One Way Ticket to Hell, Cadillac, Any Day Now, Step by Step and the re-done versions of Ride the Sky and Free Me....some proggy hints here and there..I'd classify this recording overall as melodic rock....an excellent cd, the obnoxiously underrated Lawton is in top form!!"
Lucifer's Friend (Sumo Grip)
Jeffery Wetsch | Bismarck, ND, US | 02/08/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The last release from this group fronted by John Lawton (Uriah Heep) is very diverse and an excellent listen. It ranges from hard rock to solid ballads but is very enjoyable. Great service from Amazon."
As always...not quite what you expect
Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 11/12/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"During a hiatus from Uriah Heep, vocalist John Lawton briefly returned to sing for Lucifer's Friend on the 1994 album Sumo Grip, the band's first release since 1981's Mean Machine. At this point the band was well known for their constantly shifting style - metal to prog to jazz and back again - but an album like Sumo Grip has to come as something of a shock to longtime fans of the band. This is essentially Lucifer's Friend releasing an Asia album. There are some minor progressive elements, but for the most part Sumo Grip is an AOR album with plenty of pop sensibilities written for mainstream radio...from a decade earlier. It's hard to understand what the band was thinking releasing an album like this in 1994.
This album is very uneven, but there are some excellent melodic rock songs present, specifically Heartbreaker, One Way Ticket to Hell, Don't Look Back, and Ride the Sky. There are also some throwaway tracks like the four short instrumental pieces and the wannabe Earth Wind and Fire song Cadillac. The rest is 80's style, keyboard-heavy AOR material, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your own point of view. I still like that sound, so I found plenty of songs on this album to enjoy. Others, particularly longtime Lucifer's Friend fans, might not be so lucky."
