Spain’s all female traditional metal group, Lizzies, have been all over the internet. My main interest started when they announced a London show at the excellent Live Evil festival. Since then, the demo material has been burning my cd player and their recent 7 inch single ‘Viper’ was a taster of things to come for this their debut full length release.
I must admit, I was a little flabbergasted when I heard this album run through for the first time. Reasons for which I will summarise at the end. When you take the album on its full merit then ‘Night in Tokyo’ stands out the most for me; it has infectious melody and style combined with a strong varied arrangement. Whilst ‘666 Miles’ is a touch more in your face and I have found that ‘Mirror Maze’ could have easily been penned by one of those popular US bands towards the mid to late 80’s, it would certainly attain some radio play for its easy of flow alone. ‘Russian Roulette’ is another track I would put in the same league as the former mentioned and overall I would rate the album as rather accessible, an album that is made for a more general metal audience. Well-penned of course, melodic and catchy in more than a few places with the heaviest track being ‘One Night Woman’ based in initial impressions.
My initial breath taking opinion as hinted at the start of this review was merely for the production not the music itself. The mix has the vocals a touch too loud and the guitars very quiet. The overall polish of the final mastering has also lost a touch of the raw edge I liked so much with say their ‘End of Time’ EP, in particular the tracks ‘Speed on the Road’ that also appears on this full length album. The rawness of an older track like ‘Heavy Metal Warriors’ (not featured here) is lost a little for me and thus the initial spark is not quite so bright as it once was. But never the less, this is still a decent slab of traditional metal with a few NWOBHM influences added for good measure. It just has a more of a subdued kick than their earlier recordings, but if you liked the album by Night Viper for instance (reviewed here previously), then you can do no wrong in checking Lizzies ‘Good Luck’ charm out.
(7/10 Paul Maddison)
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