Life after death: Local extreme metal pioneer Lucifer’s Hammer rediscovered

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“They played three songs. The guitarist broke a string, threw his guitar in the air and stormed off stage. It was the most metal thing I had ever seen. This band ripped it up, said, “Fuck it” and just left. I thought, ‘Holy shit, this is crazy.’”

That’s Sean Peters’ earliest recollection of Lucifer’s Hammer, a pulverizing death metal band he performed with that is being rediscovered by new generations of fans and veteran record collectors alike. Lucifer’s Hammer was well ahead of its time and was contemporaries with several legendary groups. Normally a band like this would hail from a cultural mecca à la New York City, Los Angeles or perhaps somewhere in Europe. Lucifer’s Hammer hails from the basements of Lansing and Jackson. 

Formed in 1987 by brothers Todd and Rob Cushman, Lucifer’s Hammer was a vital band in Michigan’s underground metal scene. Throughout its lifespan, the band performed chaotic gigs with infamous acts like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Incantation, Autopsy and countless others that have since reached the status of metal royalty. Lucifer’s Hammer was a constant fixture of Michigan Death Fest, an annual music festival throughout the early-’90s that hosted lineups that now read like a veritable death metal hall of fame. This musical movement was stitched together by a tight contingency of brutal independent bands, and while it has been imitated several times over, it can never be replicated. But at least its now receiving some well deserved recognition.

 “The Burning Church,” a wicked self-released tape originally recorded in 1994 that marks Lucifer’s Hammer at its most intense peak, has been unearthed by the popular San Francisco-based metal label Nuclear War Now Productions and is receiving the proper re-release treatment as a high quality 12-inch vinyl record. Similar reissues are expected for “Tales of the Midnight Hour,” “Descent into Beyond” and “Hymns to the Moon,” which were initially recorded and self-released as far back as 1987.

“I didn’t think anybody gave a shit about this stuff,” Sean Peters, guitarist of Lucifer’s Hammer from 1992 to 1994, said. “It’s cool to get recognition for being there at the infancy of the death metal explosion.”

Death metal — the bane of baby boomer suburbanite parents and priests alike — is an extreme genre of music that takes classic rock in the vein of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Led Zeppelin and cranks up the speed and intensity into near oblivion. Hallmarks of any classic death metal band include guttural screamed vocals and pounding breakneck-paced drums with equally fast and foreboding guitar riffs to match. And, of course, you can’t forget the lyrical themes that are intentionally blasphemous and lovingly ripped straight from the best occult horror novels and blood-soaked slasher films. 

Though this mutation of metal would receive its mainstream moment in the sun by the mid-’90s — MTV’s “Headbangers Ball” would frequently play videos by bands like Obituary and Cannibal Corpse had a prominent cameo in “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” — Lucifer’s Hammer was well ahead of the curve and was performing songs that featured the signature death growl vocal sound several years before it became a metal standard. 

“You can say death metal now and everybody knows what you’re talking about, but back then it was just starting to become its own thing. People would say, ‘What the hell is death metal?’” Peters said. 

Andy Smith, bassist from the recording of Lucifer’s Hammer’s first demo in 1988 all the way until the band called it quits in 2004, remembers when he was first asked to join the group by its original guitarist, Jeff Elrod. Elrod, the Cushman brothers and original bassist Carl Simons were churning out intense metal songs and their practice sessions often turned into wild, thrashing house parties. Smith was already in a band called Headhunter — intense and fast in its own right, but not quite as ferocious or innovative as Lucifer’s Hammer. 

“He asked me to instead join a band he was in, which was Lucifer’s Hammer,” Smith said. “Lucifer’s Hammer was when things got real heavy.”

Smith replaced Simons, rounding out the original core lineup, which also consisted of Elrod on guitar, Todd Cushman on vocals and Rob Cushman on drums. 

As they developed the sound of Lucifer’s Hammer through relentless practice sessions, Smith, Elrod and the Cushman brothers bonded over a shared fanatical devotion to bands like Bathory, Venom, Celtic Frost and Slayer — outfits that bridge the gap between early heavy metal bands and the more extreme acts that would create the death metal sound. 

“I put on ‘Hell Awaits,’ by Slayer, and I didn’t know what to think of it,” Smith said. “But I put it on again and I was like, ‘Holy fuck!’”

While Slayer and Venom aren’t exactly Top 40 bands, they were commonplace in most metal head’s record collections. And without the instant gratification and vast content pool of the Internet and social media to turn to, the members of Lucifer’s Hammer had to rely on a vast network of DIY mail order tape trading to discover the most exciting underground death metal acts. 

“I was addicted to it,” Smith said. “I’d send tapes to as many people as I could and then I would hear back. Mortician sent us their demo, and bands like Cannibal Corpse. This was before CDs and the Internet.” 

“You had to know somebody who had a copy of an album. You’d go to Meijer, buy a 12-pack of cassette tapes and record everything they had. I still have some of those tapes to this day,” Peters said. 

Sandra Newton, concert promoter, radio DJ and mother of the Cushman brothers, vividly remembers her boys’ watching the “Ultimate Revenge” concert tape, which featured Slayer, Venom and Exodus. The brothers had just started to learn their respective instruments, and Newton points to the moment that the family experienced that legendary concert via VHS as instrumental to kickstarting her and her sons’ love of extreme metal. 

“They came home with the ‘Ultimate Revenge’ and that’s what started the whole thing. They were determined to be in a band like one of those groups,” Newton said. 

The early era of Lucifer’s Hammer consisted of gigs at clubs like Blondie’s in Detroit and Society’s in Lansing, a venue that would eventually become the Fahrenheit Ultra Lounge before its ultimate closure. The band also provided the entertainment for numerous wild keg parties. Elrod was known to have the largest personality of the band, becoming the subject of several local urban myths and metal tall tales due to rumors of his violent antics and misanthropic tendencies. 

“He was a good dude. But he was a short fuse, you never knew what was coming next,” Smith said. “He was outside with some friends drinking beer, and I was inside taking a piss. Out of nowhere he puts his fist right through the bathroom’s window and it passes right by my nose. I just yelled, ‘Holy shit, you crazy son of a bitch!’”

Though Todd Cushman and Smith would be constants through the remainder of the band’s history, the guitar and drum positions would see several members. Rob Cushman was out of Lucifer’s Hammer by the time the group recorded its 1989 tape, “Descent into Beyond,” and Elrod followed suit in 1992. 

Despite quitting the band, Elrod left an indelible mark on the members of Lucifer’s Hammer. His guitar playing was highly influential to Smith and his replacement, Sean Peters. The later songs of Lucifer’s Hammer all carry a trace of Elrod’s musical DNA. Elrod would continue to play in death metal bands including Masochist and Wind of the Black Mountains before his death in 2006. 

“He wanted to be seen as a Satan worshipper. He hated people. That was his style. He was like somebody from Mayhem (an ‘80s Norwegian black metal band),” Smith said. “Elrod was something else.”

“There weren’t a lot of people into extreme metal  we’re talking about 1990. We were instantly friends,” Peters said.

Peters was only a teenager when he joined Lucifer’s Hammer but was accustomed to hanging out with an older crowd thanks to his other passion, tattooing. He was already a fan of Lucifer’s Hammer after hearing the band on Thee Hourz O’ Power radio show on The Impact college radio station and seeing the group perform at one of the first Michigan Death Fest concerts. His first gig with the band was at Blondie’s, opening for death metal heavy weights Suffocation. 

“It was all through Lucifer’s Hammer how I got exposed to the underground scene and underground extreme music. I was a young, bright-eyed kid and I said, ‘Hey, I can do something,’” Peters said. “It was a fun time.”

Michigan Death Fest was an annual event through the early-’90s that was put together by Newton herself. Her reputation as a concert promoter and writer for zines like Rot and Epitaph led to the nickname by which she is still known, Metal Mom. Newton was interviewed as part of a 1990 local Jackson news report on Christian groups protesting the first Michigan Death Fest. The footage, which is available on YouTube, is a great time capsule of the dying days of the satanic panic era. 

“I had a blast. The protesters just didn’t get it, we were just playing music and having a good time. They were chanting, ‘J-E-S-U-S’ at the kids in line, and a kid in the back chanted back to them ‘S-A-T-A-N.’ They asked for that one.” Newton said. 

Newton was an adamant support of Lucifer’s Hammer and booked countless gigs for the band. Though she has since retired from promoting concerts, she stills hosts a metal radio show. 

“We’d say, ‘Tell us what to do Mom,’ and she’d say, ‘You’re going to play with these guys in Chicago,’” Peters said. “She was kind of the promoter for us.”

The lineup of Peters, Smith, Todd Cushman and drummer John Caldwell would produce Lucifer Hammer’s most infamous recording, “The Burning Church,” in 1994. Its brutal songs were primarily composed using guitar riffs formulated by Smith and Peters. Upon its initial release, the tape would increase awareness of the band through reviews in international metal zines. Nuclear War Now Productions reissued “The Burning Church” on vinyl in December 2020, and the record is on its third pressing thanks to an enthusiastic response from devoted metal heads around the globe.

“That was us being influenced by the extremism of the European bands. We wanted to be as extreme as we can and go for it,” Peters said. 

Though Lucifer’s Hammer built a devoted local following and frequently playing out of town gigs with bands that had serious record deals with labels that are still popular today like Metal Blade and Earache, its own record deal would never materialize. 

“A lot of it comes down to being at the right place at the right time. We couldn’t click with any of the labels at the time, which is weird because now they’re starting to pick this stuff up. I wonder, ‘Where the hell were you 30 years ago?’” Peters said. 

After Peters left Lucifer’s Hammer to join up with Elrod in Masochist, Mike Seabrook, a seasoned Michigan death metal musician himself, took up the guitar mantle. He would maintain the role for the rest of the band’s tenure. Seabrook helped fund studio time and was a productive songwriter. Seabrook was instrumental in developing the sound of Lucifer’s Hammer later recordings, 1997’s “The Mists of Time,” featuring drummer Mike Hirzel, and 2001’s “Ghosts of Fall,” which were notably more grandiose and symphonic when compared to the lo-fi style of “The Burning Church.” 

Though the band continued to work on new material and discussed recording another album, “Ghosts of Fall” proved to be the last original Lucifer’s Hammer recording. By 2004, Lucifer’s Hammer was beginning to feel severe symptoms of burnout. The members were getting older, partying less and were taking on other demanding responsibilities that put the band on the backburner — in Smith’s case, raising children. “It wasn’t fun anymore. I used to not be able to wait for practice, and then I started dreading it. Something just wasn’t right,” Smith said.

Peters would continue to play in several other local metal groups, including Summon, Wastelander, Dark Psychosis and Cavalcade. Todd Cushman lives a secluded lifestyle and no longer discusses his time in Lucifer’s Hammer. Rob Cushman, Caldwell, Seabrook, Hirzel and Smith are no longer active musicians.

Forgotten for many years before the renewed interest, the case of Lucifer’s Hammer is yet another example of a band receiving a second wind and fans finding great unheard music by revisiting the past. 

“I had this stuff sitting around for years, wondering why I kept it. And, boom, here I am,” Peters said. 

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  • maskimummu

    Thank you very much for the article.

    Tuesday, August 24, 2021 Report this




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