Lizzy Borden

An Appointment with Death (Metal Blade)
By Martin Popoff

Starwood was a departure, Deal With The Devil a halfways return calling card, but An Appointment with Death is a thick, layered, ambitious record that I’d have to class as my favorite of an often rockscrabble catalogue. Lizzy Borden is in fine L.A. shock rock form. You’d have to say that Blackie and Borden alone kind of own this decadent space between power and hair metal and strip mall junk while California burns. The result here is a seemingly impossible yet substantial meal of fiery guitar heroics within complicated songs, while holler-along anthemic choruses and loads of melody fall out of the mix. It’s like Ratt or the best of Dokken meets Brainstorm, Falconer, and Edguy. Lizzy then raises the ante even more through his best graphics ever, a new painted-up image for the band, a smart concept album about death, and then invitations sent out to the likes of Dave Meniketti, Erik Rutan, George Lynch, Cory Beaulieu, and Jack Frost. The production is a bit synthetic and ProTooly, and at times, the song structures are a little smothering – layered vocals, twin leads, a profusion of riffs and colorings give up so much ear candy, one comes away clutching one’s belly that Halloween is a year away again.
(www.metalblade.com)