And that's no lie.įirst of all, production-wise the album does not fail. Its artwork sucks, the hair cuts, the makeup and the entire band picture sucks, but the music. But due to whatever reason, the details cannot be clarified anymore, I possess the vinyl of "Visual Lies". I was outraged when I saw that these posers released a double live album with a ridiculous back catalogue of just one EP and one album. I bought the debut of Lizzy Borden and I sold it again some weeks later, because it housed cheesy, light songs (remember "we all need American metal", a painful experience!) that failed to meet my expectations. It holds up well to the metal of its era and certainly undeserving of the noxious "poodle rock" label. Elsewhere, Lord of the Flies is chock full of dynamite solos, and musical twists and turns, and closer Visions rides a more midtempo, grinding set of riffs with more great solos.Ī few of the tracks such as Eyes of a Stranger fail to catch fire, and the production style does sort of threaten to anonymize the band at points, but overall this is a surprisingly sturdy set, the whole thing is fairly uptempo and heavy, with nary a ballad in sight. The title track may be the closest thing to a ballad here. The speed metal of Den of Thieves, maybe my personal favorite here, rides a great singalong chorus from Lizzy and the dual guitar work of Holmes and Allen. I've always been partial to opener Me Against The World which despite its sleeve-worn teenage rebellion lyrical themes, wins over with great hooks and riffs. Borden himself tames some of the Geoff Tate/Rob Halford-like wail found on prior LP Menace To Society and compared to that record things feel a little more conservative here in general. Visual Lies operates in more of a traditional, borderline glam-metal framework, presented with a boomy, big-league knob job from Max Norman to smooth out some of the rough edges. Sure, there's some truth to the accusations, the band making a hopeful movement towards radio and bigger paychecks not unlike what Dokken did between Tooth and Nail and Under Lock and Key. Guitarist Gene Allan and future Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Joe Holmes are a big part of that, kicking up quite a storm of riffs and shred. Lizzy Borden's third LP Visual Lies, often decried as a sellout album, is actually a bit of an underrated gem.
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