Representative Albums: "Menace to Society," "Master of Disguise," "The Best of Lizzy Borden"
Representative Songs: "American Metal," "Lord of the Flies," "Me Against the World"
Biography
In the wake of Mötley Crüe's meteoric rise to superstardom in 1983 on the strength of their now classic album Shout at the Devil, a countless amount of other similarly styled theatrical metal bands cropped up in the Los Angeles heavy metal community, including Lizzy Borden. Basically an '80s update of Alice Cooper (with some Iron Maiden-esque riffs mixed into the melting pot), the group built a substantial regional following on the West Coast with an over-the-top stageshow, but failed to break through commercially. Like Cooper, the band Lizzy Borden had a lead singer who shared the same name as the band, issuing several albums on the Metal Blade label from 1984-1990: 1984's Give 'Em the Axe, 1985's Love You to Pieces, 1986's The Murderous Metal Roadshow and Menace to Society, 1987's Terror Rising and Visual Lies, and 1989's Master of Disguise. Borden also appeared in the 1988 Penelope Spheeris-directed documentary about the '80s metal scene, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II. With the hard rock musical climate changing by the early '90s (and grand stageshows becoming old hat), Lizzy Borden decided to pack it in. Borden would go on to form a more retro-glam outfit, Diamond Dogs, in the '90s, but opted to reunite the Lizzy Borden group by the end of the decade, in time for 2000's Deal with the Devil and ensuing tours. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
Lizzy Borden specializes in the shock rock style originated by artists such as Alice Cooper and KISS. The band is named after the notorious Lizzie Borden, a woman accused and acquitted of murder in the late 19th century.
Though the band was considered a part of the Los Angeles "glam metal" scene in the mid-1980s, they were musically influenced by bands such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, KISS, Alice Cooper, and Judas Priest. Their lyrical themes are more representative of this style, especially on earlier recordings.
In 2008, the band announced various festival appearances, including the Sweden Rock Festival in Sweden, and the Bang Your Head Festival in Germany. In November 2008 Lizzy Borden toured the United States with Finnish Monster Rockers Lordi. They also performed a two week European headlining tour performing in nine Countries over two weeks. Lizzy Borden recently announced that they are the first-day headliner of the two-day Keep It True XII Festival, set to take place April 24-25, 2009 at Tauberfrankenhalle in Lauda-Königshofen Germany, as well as North American festivals at Rocklahoma and Rock Gone Wild. The video for "Under Your Skin" premiered on MTV’s Headbangers ball in April 2009 and the previous video for "Tomorrow Never Comes" was nominated for video of the year 2008 on MTV's Headbangers Ball.
On Jan 24, 2009, former guitarist Corey James died in a car accident.[1]
