Archive for Lizzy Borden

Satan’s Plan to Take Over Rock Heaven

Posted in Death, Heavy Metal, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 10, 2024 by 80smetalman

In case you missed it over at Mike Ladano’s blog, I am putting on my latest story. Satan plans to take over Rock Heaven and sets his plan in motion. Will he succeed? Read on and find out.

Takeover of Rock Heaven

Part 1- The Plan

Somewhere in Hell:

Satan walked into the room waiting to address the assembled gathering, when he was distracted by a commotion. His security was holding back Adolph Hitler and Saddam Hussein, who were demanding to be let into the meeting. Calmly, he walked over to where the commotion was coming from. “Look,” he said sternly, “I said clearly that you two aren’t coming in here.”

“You need us,” Hitler argued.

“No we don’t ,” Satan returned. “This isn’t a military operation, otherwise Julius Caesar would be here. Even it if it was I still wouldn’t have you two in here. You both demonstrated your military incompetence while you were on Earth.”

“But you have Vlad the Impaler here,” Hitler protested.

“He’s here for a different reason,” Satan explained. “Besides, if we have to kill any prisoners, we have your man Werner Poetsche. Now go before I go back to shoving pineapples up both your asses. “

With that, Hitler and Saddam were marched away and the door was closed. Satan let out an exasperated sigh before sitting at the head of the long table. As he sat down, Vlad questioned, “Why is he here?” pointing to Dave Holland.

“Because I should be in Rock Heaven,” Dave snarled back. “I’m only in Hell because of a bollocks conviction. Fucking Elvis used that to not allow me in, damn him.”

“Enough!” Satan boomed, his thunderous voice shaking the room. It achieved its goal in silencing all. “Mr. Holland is here at my request. He will help us in rounding up all the key members of Rock Heaven and he can get some revenge.”

That’s right,” Dave affirmed. “They’re all a bunch of assholes. They wouldn’t let me in but I bet when that woman beater Tony Iommi dies , they’ll let him in.”

Satan sighed again. “They probably will. Some religions look favourably on men hitting women. That’s another reason why I plan to take over and have summoned all of you here. There should be no Rock Heaven, most of those rock stars should be with us here in Hell. You are all going to help plan my takeover. I have had a mole there since 2003 and he’s been feeding me information whenever he can.”

“A mole, that’s a brilliant idea!” Al Capone complented. “Who is he?”

“You’d be very surprised,” was Satan’s reply. “My mole did get me into Rock Heaven when some mortal went back in time to try to wipe out heavy metal. So, now it’s the perfect time to act.”

“Couldn’t we take our legions and just storm the place?” Vlad suggested.

“It’s not that simple,” Satan explained. “The other side has a fail safe. If we simply invade, we risk all out war with Heaven, I mean the real Heaven. We don’t need that, so we have to be more cunning.”

“Is that why Julius isn’t here?” Caligula inquired.

“Exacty why!” Satan affirmed. “And why we can’t risk an all out war with Heaven. The last time that happened, Heaven’s forces were commanded by George S. Patton who studied Caesar’s strategies and thwarted him at every turn. We got our asses kicked.”

“So tell me exactly how we are going to take over Rock Heaven?” Charles Manson probed.

“Yeah, you know once we act, those two Canadian super-heroes and their companions will try to stop you,” Dave Holland pointed out.

“I know,” Satan conceded. “But I have a plan. Those two super-heroes will be on a wild goose chase and while they’re distracted elsewhere, we will make our move. Besides, once we take over Rock Heaven, I think the town of Thunder Bay will thank us. They’re not happy with those super-heroes or the musicians in Rock Heaven for putting on that concert which nearly destroyed their town.”

Somewhere in Rock Heaven:

Martin Suplee’s head was pounding once again. He hoped he might have had a reprieve this time around. After all, Rory Gallagher and Jeff Beck were more blues guitarists, likewise with Dusty Hill on bass. Even with Razzle on drums, he thought it might not have been the metal he was constantly being bombared with. However, he couldn’t have been more wrong. They turned up the amp and bombarded him with power chords and blistering guitar solos. His head was throbbing by the time the session finished.

The throbbing began to ease as he was escorted back to his cell. In one way, he was lucky. Most of the time, he was subjected to sessions involving Lemmy, Jeff Hannemann and Cliff Burton. Those sessions left him with the feeling his head was going to explode in scanners fashion. “I guess I should be grateful,” he thought to himself as he entered his cell.

He needed no force to go into the cell, it gave him respite from the constant jamming of decesased musicians from the genre he tried to erase from history. Had it not been for this time alone, he would have gone mad ages ago. Several of his hench-persons who had travelled back in time with him urged him to admit that he was wrong in trying to erase metal from history. He stubbornly refused. If anything, constantly being bombarded with heavy metal from dead metal musicians only strenghtened his belief that his cause was right.

Suplee was still thinking this over, at least when he could because even in his cell, he was still able to hear those musicans playing. At that moment, it was Warrell Dane, Eddie Van Halen, Lorne Black and A.J. Pero who were assaulting his eardrums. Suddenly, he was distracted by shuffling at his cell door. Suplee turned and saw a singer, who didn’t sing heavy metal and he admired somewhat, standing at his cell’s entrance.

Before he could say anything, the singer put his finger to his lips and whispered, “I’ve come to get you out.” With that, the singer beckoned and Martin Suplee followed. Stealthily, the pair tiptoed through Rock Heaven and somehow, nobody noticed them. They carried on until they came to a huge door.

“This is the way out,” the singer directed.

“Where will I go?” asked a rather perplexed Mr. Suplee.

“Why, to Hell of course,” the singer responded, trying to keep down the volume of his voice. “Why, if anyone leaves Rock Heaven, the only place they can go is Hell. My boss is expecting you. He will assist you in ridding the world of heavy metal.”

Suplee opened his mouth to ask for more details but the singer had mysteriously vanished from sight, leaving him on his own. Not knowing what else to do, he thought to himself, “It’s worth a try” and pushed the door open and stepped through. As he entered a strange void, all he could think was “Maybe there was still a chance that he could wipe heavy metal from ever existing.”

Back in Hell

Satan waited along with those he assembled as the figure materialised before them. “When it did, he addressed the confused new arrival, “Welcome to Hell, Mr. Suplee.”

Bewildered, Mr. Suplee looked around the room. Why he actually was in Hell! He recognized Satan as he was responsible for him being in Rock Heaven. If that wasn’t enough, he recognized some of those with him, chiefly Al Capone and Charles Manson. Plus the were two other men and a woman, who he assumed was Lizzy Borden, due to her clothing. One man was in medieval dress, the other in a Roman toga. However, the remaining man bothered him. He was dressed in heavy metal attire. Therefore, he sensed a trap.

“Who’s he?” Suplee asked pointing to the metal clad Dave Holland.

“Why, he’s part of my plan to take over Rock Heaven!” Satan laughed louldy sending vibrations around the room. “All those metal musicians should be suffering here in Hell. Don’t you agree?”

Mr. Suplee nodded, “What do you want me to do?”

Satan explained, “What you didn’t know when you went back in time to destroy heavy metal from existence is that when those in Rock Heaven created heavy metal, one of the blueprints they used was Nazereth’s “Hair of the Dog” album. What you need to do is go to this Metalman’s house and steal his copy. You can get your revenge on him as well for his assistance in Tee-Bone Man and Superdekes defeating you. When you steal that album, Metalman will call for the super-heroes and they will come to stop you and you can defeat them.

“How can I defeat them? Last time, I had a special device but they neutralized it. Now I’m just an ordinary human.”

“That’s where I come in!” Satan boomed. “I can give you powers that will help you defeat them.

“Then give me those powers,” Suplee demanded. “And I shall defeat those meddlesome super-heroes and wipe heavy metal from history!” His laughed resembled those from cartoon villians.

“Very well,” Satan chortled. He pointed his trident at Mr. Suplee and the transformation began taking place. Suplee let out a long blood-curtling scream as large black wings began growing from the middle of his back. However, he took the pain as a new aura overcame him. When the wings had fully grown out, his clothing mysteriously changed to black robes. A few seconds later, the transformation was complete and Suplee felt different.

“Arise,” Satan commanded.

Mr. Suplee stood tall. He spread out his new wings fully, nearly knocking into Al Capone.

“Your transformation is now complete,” Satan informed. “You can know go and destroy Tee-Bone Man and Superdekes.

“Yes, I will have my vengeance on those two,” Suplee snarled before he mysteriously vanished.

Once Suplee had gone, Caligula asked, “Do you think he’ll succeed?”

Satan mischievously replied, “He doesn’t need to. All we need is for him to keep the super-heroes busy long enough so we can make our move on Rock Heaven.”

I hope you enjoyed. Once again, I’ve been covering a lot of colleague sickness at work so I haven’t been able to post as usual. Hopefully, that will change soon.

Great Metal Albums of 1989: Lizzy Borden- Master of Disguise

Posted in 1980s, Death, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and the 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 17, 2024 by 80smetalman

It’s a good thing I now go back and read posts from bands’ albums which came out previous to the band I’m writing about. In the case of Lizzy Borden’s “Master of Disguise,” if I hadn’t done so, then this post might have gone a different direction. When I first listened to the album, I thought that Lizzy was heading in a more progressive metal direction, which the album is. However, after re-reading my post on their previous album, “Visual Lies,” they were heading in that way on the last few tracks of that one.

The only remaining members of the band on the album were Lizzy himself and drummer Joey Scott Harges as long term guitarist and songwriter, Gene Allen, departed the band. Therefore, other musicians were brought in for the guitar, bass and keyboard parts, although Steve Lukather wasn’t one of them. Now and it’s probably me thinking too much, I wonder if there is any relation to Gene’s departure and the new progressive metal direction.

“Master of Disguise’s” progressive sound comes through on the opening title track. A theatrical keyboard introduction welcomes the album in but it’s not long before Lizzy Borden remind you they’re a metal band. The track gets and holds your attention. More evidence of the progressive comes in the form of the ballad like “One False Move.” It’s an acoustic number, less that three minutes but it would fit in nicely on a concept album. After that, we get the intended single, at least there’s a video to it, “Love is a Crime.” Once again, Lizzy Borden have a song which is totally suited for commercial radio play but never got picked up. Further proof that commercial radio has sucked since 1985.

For me personally, the middle part is my favourite part of the album. Tracks four through nine really make this album what it is and could be why it is Lizzy Borden’s highest charting album. Starting the party is the charging straight forward melodic metal tune, “Sins of the Flesh.” This one has me head banging away even through the more prog rock sounding guitar solo. It would have been my choice for hidden gem had it not been for the next track, “Phantoms.”

“Phantoms,” is the song which completely defines the album. Like the opener, it starts off with a scene setting keyboard influenced intro and then going into an acoustic instrumental after which transforms into a cool metal tune. I really love the guitar solo on this and I would love to know which of the contributing guitarists on the album plays it. Furthermore, Lizzy is at his vocal best with both the lead and backing vocals.

The next four tracks don’t disappoint either, “Never Too Young” has a piano intro before going metal, which would have gotten a thumbs up from Jon Oliva or so I’d like to think. The guitar solo and vocals are really good on it. The coolest intro comes on “Be One of Us.” It is none other than Bach’s “Toccata in D Minor,” which for movie buffs is also the theme song for the 1975 film, “Rollerball.” Again, the rest of the song is pure metal. I would be repeating myself in regards to “Psychodrama” and “Waiting in the Wings,” but who cares? They are both cool tunes.

Penultimate track, “Under the Rose,” is similar to the second track, an acoustic, ballad like number. Closer, “We Got the Power,” sounds like it’s recorded live and the way it’s done, it’s the best way to close the album.

Track Listing:

  1. Master of Disugise
  2. One False Move
  3. Love is a Crime
  4. Sins of the Flesh
  5. Phantoms
  6. Never Too Young
  7. Be One of Us
  8. Psychodrama
  9. Waiting in the Wings
  10. Roll Over and Play Dead
  11. Under the Rose
  12. We Got Power
Lizzy Borden
Joey Scott Harges

Lizzy Borden- lead and backing vocals

Joey Scott Harges- drums

Additional Musicians:

Ronnie Jude, David Michael Phillips, Mike Razzatti- guitar

Mike Davis, Joey Vera, Brian Perry- bass

Elliot Solomon, William Kidd- keyboards

Tim Stithem- additional percussion

Brian Coyle, Jacques Voymont, Jerry Moore, John Chuboda, TJ Santos, Tim Taylor- horns

Black, White and Brown Orchestra- backing vocals on track 12

As stated previously, “Master of Disguise” is Lizzy Borden’s most commercially successful album. Could it be the more progressive metal direction? Possibly or maybe it’s because it’s just a good album. This album puts Lizzy Borden firmly on my list of American artists not to have cracked the UK.

It is now my sad duty to announce the passing of former Cockney Rebel frontman, Steve Harley, who quietly passed away at his home age 73. Rest in Peace Steve.

Next post: Bitch- A Rose By Any Other Name

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com

To sign the petition for a knighthood for Bruce Dickinson, click the link: https://www.change.org/p/special-honours-committees-for-knighthoods-a-knighthood-for-bruce-dickinson

Great Metal Albums of 1987: Lizzy Borden- Visual Lies

Posted in 1980s, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and the 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 28, 2022 by 80smetalman

This time, there is no debate on whether “Visual Lies,” compliments of Lizzy Borden, is an EP or an LP. Nine songs covering a time of forty-one minutes gives the answer to that. Going back to reality, one of my goals when I started writing this blog was to encourage people to get out their old records and listen to them again. Okay, my main goal is to sell copies of “Rock and Roll Children,” but that’s not the point here. A great side effect of this is that it has got me to do the same. I never bought a Lizzy Borden album back in the 80s because I knew people who had their albums and play them and since they weren’t well known in the UK, I hadn’t listened to any of their music for three decades. So, you can say that I am making up for lost time.

“Visual Lies” can be broken down into three chapters. Chapter one is the first two songs which are the more commercial radio friendly tunes. Both have that radio friendly melodic vibe to it but not anywhere close to making a hard core fan think they’ve sold out. The metal is present in both of the songs. Lizzy’s vocals are straight up and there are cool guitar solos. Saying that, I do think that White Stripes ‘borrowed’ the intro off the opener, “Me Against the World.”

Chapter Two is where the band goes more power metal spanning four tracks. Even the track, “Outcast,” which is close to being a power ballad has more power than ballad. The same holds true with the melodic harmony of the backing vocals on the choruses. Sure, the melody is there but it doesn’t lose any of the power and of course, there are some great guitar solos. While “Outcast” is my pick for favourite track, the guitar solo trade off clinches it for me, no intensity is lost on the other three tracks. “Den of Thieves” brings the most power of the three as it comes close to being speed metal but all four of these tracks just totally rock!

“Visual Lies” goes progressive metal in its third and final chapter. “Lord of the Flies” is probably what Yes would have sounded like if they had gone heavy metal. The song has a great progressive melody but backed up with some great power chords. It’s probably my imagination but Lizzy does sound a little like Jon Anderson here. Even the guitar solo sounds progressive. While not as intense as “Lord of the Flies,” the remaining tracks are in the same vein. Nice progressive sounding melodies with some hard power chords and in the case of “Voyeur, I’m Watching You,” a rather flowery guitar solo.

In the months between “Terror Rising” and this album, Lizzy Borden went through changes in guitarists. It seems that Tony Matuzak only played on the EP and Alex Nelson departed as well. Two guitarists gone but only replaced by one, Joe Holmes. It’s not a catastrophe because Joe seems to fit right in with Gene Allen as they do some amazing trade offs on their solos. On another note, 1,000 80smetalman points to Armand Rosamillia and 500 to Aphoristical for the assist for identifying the accompanying vocalist on “Don’t Touch Me There” from “Terror Rising.” Singing along with Lizzy was Betsy Bitch, real name Betsy Weiss.

And here she is

Track Listing:

  1. Me Against the World
  2. Shock
  3. Outcast
  4. Den of Thieves
  5. Visual Lies
  6. Eyes of a Stranger
  7. Lord of the Flies
  8. Voyeur (I’m Watching You)
  9. Visions
Lizzy Borden

Lizzy Borden- lead vocals

Gene Allen- guitar

Joe Holmes- guitar

Mike Davis- bass

Joey Scott- drums

Well, I’ve made up a little for not listening to Lizzy Borden in thirty years and with these two albums, I sort of regret what I’ve been missing.

Next post: Bitch- The Bitch is Back

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com

To sign the petition for a knighthood for Bruce Dickinson, click the link: https://www.change.org/p/special-honours-committees-for-knighthoods-a-knighthood-for-bruce-dickinson

Great Metal Albums of 1987: Lizzy Borden- Terror Rising

Posted in 1980s, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and the 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , on April 24, 2022 by 80smetalman

Before I even began to listen to “Terror Rising” by American band, Lizzy Borden, I had a question about it thanks to Wikipedia. They call this album an EP owing to the fact that it only has seven songs for a total combined length of twenty-seven minutes. I know of LPs which only have that many songs and aren’t much longer in length. That put the question in my mind, should “Terror Rising” be considered an EP or an LP? After mentally debating this question for about 1.2 seconds, I began listening to the album and after a few notes, I didn’t really care.

The album begins with the melodic metal riffs which Lizzy Borden was known for back in the day. Opening track, “Give Them the Axe,” was the supposed single for the album and I can hear why. It’s hard rocking but melodic rhythm is ideal for commercial radio at the time. Lizzy Borden’s vocals are straight forward without going over the top falsetto and the rhythm is very catchy. Plus it has a short but to the point guitar solo. Single or not, it was a great way to open the album.

Up next is a very very interesting cover of the Jefferson Airplane classic, “White Rabbit.” You could easily say that Lizzy Borden put their own spin on it. Being a big fan of the Airplane back in the day, I am not offended by this cover, in fact, I like it very much. Since, I’ve been singing the praises of bass players lately, I will continue to do so and say that Mike Davis puts down a really groovy bass line on it. There are also a couple of cool guitar solos.

Next is a live recording of “Rod of Iron.” Now I am not sure if it’s the same recording as on the 1986 live album, “The Murderous Metal Road Show” but it sounds good here. In any case, it is played very well and remembering back to when I posted about the live album, I remember why I regret not seeing Lizzy Borden live. The same goes for the next track, “American Metal.” It is also on the previous live album but in this case, you get a studio recording of it. It’s a good straight forward metal tune and Lizzy goes a little more over the top on the falsetto vocals at times but the backing vocals are done well. If played live, this would be a good song to encourage audience participation to.

Then we get to the hidden gem, “Don’t Touch Me There.” Here’s another mystery which my normal online resources haven’t been forth coming to provide the information. I am offering 1,000 80smetalman points to who can tell me the lady who accompanies Lizzy on the vocals. Together, they make a fantastic duet. All of the cliched innuendos are present but backed up with some great heavy guitar. For anyone who says that humour doesn’t belong in heavy metal, then I highly recommend they listen to this one. It’s a great fusion of humour and metal.

“Catch Your Death” is another straight forward faster paced metal song with an intro that leads you into believing it’s going to be a power ballad. It’s the fastest song on the album which keeps the album ticking over very well to the title track closer. It does have a great guitar solo trade off and it might be a good time to point out that Lizzy Borden added a third guitarist, Tony Matuzak, to the line up. It does bring an extra sense of power to things.

Title cut, “Terror Rising” is a horror movie type song where Lizzy is trying to dismiss the demon he made a deal with but the demon refuses to leave. I get the feeling that the demon takes over at the end before the repeated lines, “It’s terror rising, I’m terrorizing.” end the album on an amusing note.

Track Listing:

  1. Give ‘Em the Axe
  2. White Rabbit
  3. Rod of Iron
  4. American Metal
  5. Don’t Touch Me There
  6. Catch Your Death
  7. Terror Rising
Lizzy Borden

Lizzy Borden- Vocals

Gene Allen- guitars

Tony Matuzak- guitar

Alex Nelson- guitar

Mike Davis- bass

Joey Scott- drums

Forget about the EP or LP debate, “Terror Rising” stands on its own as a cool album from an great but amusing metal band. Since the 1980s, I had forgotten about Lizzy Borden but I am enjoying my personal renaissance with the band, which is why….

Next post: Lizzy Borden- Visual Lies

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com

To sign the petition for a knighthood for Bruce Dickinson, click the link: https://www.change.org/p/special-honours-committees-for-knighthoods-a-knighthood-for-bruce-dickinson