Less than sixteen months after their full-length debut, Paraguay traditional doom metal band LUCIFER'S CHILDREN released their second full-length album "Signs of Saturn" on September 2^nd, 2021. Principle songwriter, guitarist R. Doom has been creating music since 2012 but wasn't able to gain any stability in a band until he was able to form LUCIFER'S CHILDREN. Previously he had played with black/death metal band NIDAROS DESECRATION and it seems there may still be activity in that project, but LC appears to be his main gig now. Officially, the group got started in 2017 with Edu Centurion joining quickly on drums and vocalist Lidi Ramirez coming onboard soon after. R. Doom would occasionally still need to play bass as that role seemed to be temporary for most of their career, but Bernie Marecos came onboard after the recoding of "Signs of Saturn" and seems in a stable bassist position in the lineup for now.

They were able to record a demo tape titled "Dawning of a New Aeon" in 2019 that got them a lot of attention, but it was actually their second demo overall, simply the one that got the most attention. They started receiving much more positive feedback because of it from all over the world from countries close by like Brazil and Chile to European countries like France and Germany. In that year, they had stated in interviews that they initially decided to be a studio band, making music for the love of old school heavy and doom metal from the 70s and 80s but were able to play a couple of live gigs as well so that may have changed. They were finally able to release their full-length debut "Devil Worship" in May on tape and October on CD in 2020 but was hard to distribute due to shipping issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, the lockdowns were unsuccessful in keep a so-called studio band down and they have returned with their second full-length, quickly.

It's unfortunate that the uniqueness of a band can come down to one very obvious element when it otherwise would simply seem derivative and overtrodden. LUCIFER'S CHILDREN suffer from this and you can probably already guess what that unique element is. Lidi Ramirez is an absolutely vital vocalist for this band and their possible key to international stardom thanks to her mix of Janis Joplin warble and power and Stevie Nick's melodious ferocity. The distinctions of what are proto-doom and traditional doom are interesting in that while the band mostly steeps in traditional doom, the opening track "The Blessed Harvest" is more BLACK SABBATH proto-doom than the rest of the tracks. "Exiled Angels" is a bit more traditional doom, having more gothic elements, slower and more sinister. "Bloodust to the Moon" is even slower and begins to make the album feel like a bit of a slog and where I started to feel the album lacked any real originality or fascinating riffs to chew on. They pick up the tempo a bit on title track "Signs of Saturn", helping the album to have at least a semblance of dynamic value. But it doesn't save the album overall and while I will praise Ramirez and her beguiling use of grit and power to her advantage, the album overall just feels like old SABBATH and CANDLEMASS riffs without the latter's grandiose, operatic style to carry it along.