Lizzy Borden - Master Of Disguise (1989) - Cheesy entertainment with multiple influences - 83% (15/07/11)

If you happen to like polished heavy metal with some symphonic and progressive elements or simply some great hard rock opera music from the eighties, this album is something you might enjoy and really should listen to.

Lizzy Borden delivers anything a fan of the genre could desire. Epic, powerful and orchestral constructions like the amazing opener and title track "Master of disguise" that could have also found a place on the albums of "Savatage" and "Queensrÿche" of that time but would sometimes also fit to the music of "Elton John". The guitar play is clearly influenced by bands such as "Iron Maiden" or others coming from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal if its not buried under orchestral sounds and choirs. A part of the guitars, the album sounds one hundred percent American and sometimes a little bit too pathetic. Sometimes the band though descends into the ranges of overwhelming cheesy melodies that would fit to any European power metal band and reminds me of the humorous "Helloween" tracks of the same time. Those elements always come back on this album but the band keeps the tension high with many short and catchy songs like the catchy commercial single "Love is a crime" or the ballad "Never too young" that remind me of great hard rock bands such as "Europe" as well as the legendary "Aerosmith" and the less legendary "Poison" or even more visual show effect acts like "Alice Cooper". Some live samples, diversified interludes and sound effects underline the theatre topic of this record and the band proves that they truly are the masters of disguise in here. The album never gets boring and varies a lot without sound inconsistent. But I must admit that the band copies a lot and fuses multiple influences of the rock and metal genre to a potpourri of superficial entertainment without delivering something profound or unique. I though must admit that the copies are well done and that the songs are almost all catchy as hell and very addicting. The band has a talent to write twelve potential genre hit singles for this record plus two nice bonus tracks. Sometimes they remind me a lot of the glam metal scene and technically brilliant posers with commercial tendencies such as "W.A.S.P." or also "Mötley Crüe" to name two more obvious influences.

In the end, I can especially recommend this album to any fan of the mentioned bands that doesn't bother if a band copies his or her musical heroes if it is done in a solid way. I would also suggest this record to a newcomer that slowly gets into the metal or hard rock scene and would like to discover different and diversified styles from the most famous and important bands of the eighties in a quick way. Another potential client for this record could be somebody that simply doesn't have the money or time to buy the classics of the bands mentioned above and prefers to only choose one record that unites all those styles in a very entertaining way. But anybody that is already fully into metal music might only buy this record to get some light and nostalgic entertainment and shouldn't expect something groundbreaking or essential in here. Anyway, I still prefer the originals to the copy even if this one is of a rather high quality and a good alternative to the “Savatage”, “Helloween” and “Alice Cooper” records in my collection from time to time. It's somewhat a great compilation record honouring the best commercial hard rock and heavy metal bands of the mid and late eighties. I must finally admit that I somehow happen to eventually really appreciate this cute album with its cheap, sweet and charming failures and strengths which explains my rather elevated rating percentage that I wouldn't normally give to this kind of cover music.