Chris Sanders' Knight Fury ~ Time To Rock (album review) ... Birthed from Lizzy Borden's axe & Dave Mustaine's sneer!

Style: heavy metal, power metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: Arizona

Members: Chris Sanders ~ guitar/b. vocals
William King ~ vocals
Dave Ellifson ~ bass
Ken Mary ~ drums

Additional: Adam Emmons ~ keyobards

In a 2011 interview I did with KF creator/guitarist Chris Sanders, formerly of Lizzy Borden & Nadir D'Priest, he said he wanted to turn back the clock & create some traditional heavy metal. It won't take but a few bars into the first song on the debut by KF, Time To Rock, to realize he's achieved his goal. Indeed this sounds out of time & maybe out of place in an era of reunion hair bands & alt rockers who riff without an edge into eternity. My knowledge of rock eludes me at the moment to be able to clearly throw out names like Twisted Sister or Ratt as points of comparison, but I played the album for a friend whose a middle aged non-heavy metal listener who grew up listening to Devo & Gary Numan & he immediately said it had a classic 80's rock feel. "Nothing Left" opens the album with a heavy dual guitar distorted riff that drops like a friendlier & more melodic sounding Halford against a pounding rhythm section that includes Megadeth's Dave Ellefson on bass, a connection made on Sanders' previous work with the Northern Light Orchestra. Sadly, it's a high profile guest but as bassist his work is somewhat tucked into the mix. William King enters with a highly distinctive tenor pushing the music forward. He's also responsible for lyrics on all but the opener, turning out a catalog of loneliness & loss, though the music comes across quite upbeat. The template is basically set-up for the album with this first song. Fast riffing, the obligatory guitar solo & William King's voice cutting & soaring over it like Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden or Yes's Jon Anderson. For those expecting something akin to Sanders previous band & the one that probably brought him the most fame, Lizzy Borden, this is nothing like that. If anything it might be closer to London, whose lead singer Nadir D'Priest Sanders played with for some time & who said Sanders was like Randy Rhoads. My friend said the album reminded him of Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger". Ironically, we heard the song later being played at the restaurant we had dinner at so it mysteriously bears mention here. Time To Rock doesn't necessarily sound like Survivor but the same driving feel that makes that a great song to play in the car can also be found here. Also of note is that for a band formed by a guitarist this is not like, for example, Slash's output which has a tendency to be one long solo but Sanders actually keeps the soloing limited sticking to coming up with heavy rhythms. Check out "Battle For The Castle", not one of the four singles released for the album, which is one of the more interesting songs due to its vocal dynamics calling up an almost Iron Maiden-esque feeling & the fact the rhythm largely pulls away leaving the guitar solo in mid-air.

Lizzy Borden ~ Master Of Disguise (album review) ... Psychodrama!

Style: shock rock, hard rock, heavy metal
Label: Metal Blade
Year: 1989
Home: Los Angeles, California

Members: Lizzy Borden ~ vocals
Joey Scott ~ drums
Elliot Soloman ~ keyboards/horn
William Kidd ~ keyboards
Mike Razzatti, David Michael Phillips, Ronnie Jude ~ guitar
Brian Perry, Mike Davis ~ bass

Additional: Timothy Taylor, Jacques Voymant, Brian Boyle, John Chudoba, Jerry Moore, Darren Solomon ~ horn
Tim Stithem ~ drums

Guest: Joey Vera ~ bass

Lizzy, the singer not the band, has shined at his creative best when constructing concept albums versus mish-mash rock song collections. Lizzy Borden, the band not the singer, debuted with some good glam metal songs & a decent if not a bit comical & gimmicky image in the tradition of Alice Cooper but soon floundered on follow-up releases with poor song-writing that did little for Lizzy's often tinny vocals. Lizzy Borden soon disbanded only to reform a decade later to record the greatly improved Deal With The Devil only to find a career climax with the follow-up Appointment With Death. Appointment With Death was a concept album that brought in lots of keyboards, raging metal or glam, a new costumed image & songs interlaced with the theme of death. But, before this unexpected high, just after breaking up the band Lizzy released a solo album named, with some self-parody, Master Of Disguise. Though, with the same drummer, Lizzy's real life brother Joey Scott Harges, & released under the name of Lizzy Borden, but now referring exclusively to the singer not the band, many may not know that this was a solo album ... much in the same way that people may not have known that there was a difference between Alice Cooper, the band, & Alice Cooper, the solo artist. But, there's definitely a musical difference. Like the later Appointment With Death, Master Of Disguise is soaring above what came before. Unlike Appointment With Death it is a true rock opera while the later is a collection of songs sharing the same theme. Songs float from one to another with sound effect & symphonic bridges much as as many bands has done in the 60's/70's or as Judas Priest would later do on their operatic concept album Nostradamus, but Lizzy pulls back the reigns on the meandering over-indulgence that hurt Nostradamus & desire for concept over songs. Beyond just the transitions between songs Master Of Disguise demonstrates the largest range of music & experimentation on any album penned by Lizzy, even including his other band Starwood in the mix, including traditional hard rockers, acoustic guitar & piano ballads, non-synthesized horn sections, orchestral bridges, & chorused vocals. The normally quasi-theatrical vocals of Lizzy, against both rock & symphonic backgrounds, finds a perfect home here where everything clicks, uplifting the weaker songs in the process. But, there really aren't any weak songs just ones that are less memorable than others or might feel more like bridges in the story than completed songs. Though, considering this against past Lizzy Borden albums one might wonder if it's not really an experiment in failure or an experiment in throwing everything one can think of into a pot & stirring like a rock'n'roll madmen. The only failure would be in not enjoying the result. Most hard rock albums fail at pulling off the concept album approach, as the format of the music often doesn't allow enough variety or at best too much pomposity. Lizzy is one of the success stories. Though, some might say differently based on low sales at the time, but a lot of that is more a reflection of the year of release & Lizzy Borden's reputation not the album itself. It's too bad that Lizzy Borden was never bigger as this album should go down in history with far more accolades than it has received. Inspired by Phantom of the Opera this is a great starting point to discover Lizzy Borden, though it's a bumpy ride as one moves to other albums. "Love Is A Crime", "Be One Of Us", "Psychodrama" & "We Got The Power" would all go on to be included in concerts as fan favorites in the decades to come.

Lizzy Borden ~ Best Of (hits comp) (album review) ... The master of disguises!

Style: glam, hard rock, shock rock
Label: Metal Blade
Year: 1994
Home: Los Angeles, California

Members: Lizzy Borden ~ vocals
Joey Scott ~ drums
Gene Allen ~ guitar/b. vocals
Alex Nelson, Corey James, Joe Holmes ~ guitars
Brian Perry ~ bass
Michael Davis ~ bass/b. vocals

Additional: Mark Benson, Tony Copozzi ~ choir
William Kidd, Elliot Soloman ~ keyboards
Tim Stithem ~ percussion
Joey Vera ~ bass

Lizzy Borden, the singer not his namesake band, has two phases to his career. There's the more well-known glam rock 80's line-up & then there's the late 90's/current incarnation formed after he broke up the band & spent some time with Starwood. The first is heavily L.A. glam while the second moves further to the shock rock realm which Lizzy had always been a part of but never to the extent he does today. Among these two phases have been numerous musicians, including a supposed solo album, but always with his crazy real life brother Joey Scott as the one steady variable on drums. This collection covers the early era. I believe it's time for an update because the music of the later LB is often far superior let alone less hemmed in by the pressure of getting radio play & popularity. One of my first reviews was their latest release Appointment With Death which I believe is a must have, not just to see LB in top form but also because it's just an a great album of love songs all tainted by death in some form that makes for addictive listening. So, while waiting for Best Of ... Vol. 2 get Appointment For Death & this compilation & you'll pretty much have the best of their catalog, with only the later Deal With The Devil missing. Without question this compilation is a a dated release with an often campy glam sound & Lizzy's soaring tenor. LB never made it as big as many of their L.A. peers, not headlining a tour till the past few years, though Lizzy did get a reputation for wielding an axe on stage a la something Alice Cooper might do while appearing in the first part of the famous movie "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years". Though, some shocking scenes later in the film left this opening largely forgotten. I believe that LB firmly picked up the shock rock mantle of Alice Cooper, who spent the early 80's far from the scene in a alcohol induced commercial slump of music only shocking for its poor quality. LB is the under-rated bridge between Alice & Marilyn Manson & Lordi. This greatest hits album will give you a basic understanding of what made LB originally great - sing along rock anthems of youthful angst & liberation, including: "Me Against The World", "American Metal", "Master Of Disguise", "Psychopath", "Ultra Violence", "Give 'Em The Axe", "Rod Of Iron" & "Notorious", the only song with 'Heil Caesar' as a bridge. The band has never been a chart-topper so this is really more of a collection of fan favorites & a few lesser songs to fill up an album. Having seen LB in concert, now with their autographs on my wall, I can attest to the popularity of this selection. But, as such, this actually gives a great overview of the band as you get both their strong stuff & some less memorable songs which paints a good overall picture of the band. What I love about Lizzy is that whenever he sings it sounds like he's taking on different characters. So many of his peers sang in similar ways but without the nuances or desire to sing in a tone or style that might be unfamiliar. The only weak part of the album are live versions of "Live & Let Die" & "Red Rum", one of which is better in the studio & the other another band would later do better.

Lizzy Borden ~ Appointment With Death (album review) ... Their deathly masterpiece!

Style: hard rock, glam, shock rock
Label: Metal Blade
Year: 2007
Home: Los Angeles

Members: Lizzy Borden ~ vocals
Marten Andersson ~ bass
Joey Scott ~ drums
Ira Black ~ guitar

Guests: George Lynch, Dave Meniketti, Corey Beaulieu, Jonas Hansson, Erik Rutan ~ guitars
Michael T. Ross ~ keyboards

Having heard every album by glam & shock rock’s great under-recognized singer-songwriter Lizzy Borden, I proudly declare this to be one of best in the discography! This latest release, after about half a decade working on other projects, is a more mature sounding Lizzy where the excess of glam is put away for a firm grip on the shock rock now of Lordi & Alice Cooper while retaining a continued emphasis on powerful lyrics. This is album features love songs laced with the theme of death, from love of self to love of others. Under a sheen of headbanging rhythms these are truly emotional songs & that emotion shines through. Lizzy’s vocals are no longer the typical 80’s falsetto but either due to age or changing music, or a little of both, are now a dynamic mix of highs & lows that at times sound like an ethereal being come to earth bringing great wisdom, particularly when he harkens "I’m on the outside breaking free." Musically this is the same L.A. hard rock onslaught that has always been the trademark Borden sound but if this isn’t their hardest album it feels like it, where every song has a distinct drive. Two tracks have already been released as videos & I hope that is just a beginning because I can’t stop listening to this album & have already shared it with friends. Highly recommended & make sure to look for them on tour where they costume themselves as death. Features the guitar work of vegan guitarist Ira Black, whose since left the band, along with a guest roster of members from Dokken, Lynch Mob, Y&T, Trivium & Morbid Angel.

(originally written for the Roman Midnight Music newsletter: Issue 1, Summer 2009, expanded for blog)