Lizzy Borden : "My Midnight Things"

Ok lets get one thing out of the way first. Why the fuck is there a cover of 'Silent Night" on here? There is no excuse for that and the first thought I had been I heard it was "I can't delete this fast enough. Now on a more positive note. His voice sounds great. Though I am trying to find what is really him  by searching through layers of vocal overdubs. By "Obsessed With You" the Queensryche influence is more prevalent. His vocal is little lower , perhaps with age but "Long May They Haunt Us" sounds like a more rock n roll version of who this band used to be. "the Scar Across My Heart " is a little too happy, a little too rock n roll and a little less metal than I want it to be. I am using "Visual Lies" as the album I am measuring these songs against. They do the best job of bringing a new modern sound to what they are doing while maintaining their classic identity on a song like "A Stranger to Love".

I don't mind the effects on his voice at the beginning of "Perfect Poison". I am trying to be ok with the gratuitous use of synths  here. The guitar is trying to hold tension as they decide if they want this to be a power ballad or not. Not the album's best song, but it doesn't suck either. They commit to a ballad for better or worse on "Run Away With Me". When they try to shift dynamics and go into a rock section it sounds like Styx's cheesier moments. "Our Love is God" actually rocks so this album runs hot and cold. The chug of the guitar sits well against the vocals. The reprise of the title that opened the album is more ballad like take on the song. His voice doesn't sound half bad, and while I would be prefer to hear a harder rock take on the song, this stripped down version is good for what it is.

The vocals continue to have Queen like layers of harmonies on "We Belong In Shadows". Despite the song's title this is not that dark in fact it might be a little too happy for me. The keyboards sound like 80s new wave, but the vocals are too Aldo Nova, oh...right some of you are too young to know who that is , well you did not miss much. The there is another reprise this time it's "Long My They Haunt Us". it's beginning to sound like a musical. Once again this could be worse, it's not the direction I would prefer to hear them go in, but they pull it off. The album closes with an updated version of " Waiting in the Wings " from "Master of Disguise" which is the album Lizzy and I parted ways on because it was such a departure from metal. Here the song works in this context and they did a great job bringing it into today. It sounds a little like Alice Cooper's new wave years. I'll round this up to an 8.5 as it might not measure up against the classics , but his voice is holding up and it's a better comeback than I could have hoped for.