I swear that the artists and albums I choose to review are getting harder and harder to research... I like to base my reviews on the facts I can find about out the artist but with this one I'm going in kind of blind. What I do know is that Lex Lüger is a musician from Spain, I'm not sure how long he has been recording/performing for, his YouTube videos go back about 3 or 4 years but his bandcamp page only has stuff on from 2020. I first heard about him a couple of months ago when I got obsessed with the first track on Rey Del Terror and asked to feature it on our Song of the Day facebook posts, since then I have not looked back and binged listened to all the Lex Lüger tracks I can find. (FYI his accoustic version of Blue Oyster Cults "Don't Fear The Reaper" is to die for).
Lex Lüger is a solo artist who plays a haunting mixture of synthwave and punk rock with a deep rooted horror theme running through every track. Rey Del Terror translates in English quite simply as King Of Terror so no prizes for guessing that this album is dedicated to the king of horror himself, Stephen King. If you were unsure of the theme beforehand then the artwork will also help you out depicting as it does a wonderful collage of some of Kings most recognized characters.
Rey Del Terror is eight tracks long and each track is a tribute to one of Kings horror novels that have also been immortalized in film. "Christine" kicks things off in epic style and Lüger really shows off his talent as he completely encapsulates John Carpenters (director of the 1983 film adaptation) style and vision with a wonderfully 80s synth line that instantly gets the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. He combines this with a killer guitar riff and some anthemic 90s punk rock. As I said, this was the first song I'd heard and I instantly had to nominate it as Song of the Day. If I could I would put this up on a daily basis as I still really love it! It took me a while to move on from this track but when I did the rest of the album did not disappoint. Musically it continues with the synthwave and punk rock combination interspersed with prominent and rocking guitar riffs. Lex Lügers vocals are distinctive, unique and highly addictive. He sings mostly in Spanish which is wonderful and does not detract from the music or theme, because he incorporates so many "woahs" and "ohs" in his lyrics it's really hard not to sing along. Even though much of the lyrics are in Spanish a couple of the tracks incorporate English in their chorus'. As mentioned, each track relates to a King novel or character, some of which are self explanatory; "Christine", "IT" and "Carrie". Some of the titles though required investigation... so with the help of Goggle translate, "La Tienda" translates as "The Store" which I am associating with Needful Things, "Habitacion 1408" is 1408 and "Aviador Nocturno" means "Night Flyer" which I am linking to Salems Lot. The two funniest translations, in my opinion, are "Los Chicos Del Maiz" which came up as "The Boys Of The Corn" or in King terms Children Of The Corn and "Cementerio De Animales" translated as "Animal Cemetery" which can only be Pet Sematary!! I had so much fun working out the links to these translations so even if I have got these completely wrong I had a blast!
Stand out tracks for me are most definitely "Christine", "IT" and "Cementerio De Animales" but the whole of Rey Del Terror is lively and energetic whilst also being dark and haunting. Much like a Stephen King novel it's very hard to put down (or switch off) once started. It is an album that needs to be played many times to fully appreciate all the individual parts but at the same time you get hooked on it from the first listen.
As far as I can tell Lex Lüger has done this all himself from the writing, the music, the recording and production, probably even the artwork too. The sound and quality of the recording is really professionally done. You can find Lex Lüger on Bandcamp and YouTube primarily. He is about on other platforms too but these are the places I have found most accessible for his music. Please check out his stuff as soon as you can. He is putting out exceptional new material quite regularly.
