Global Rock (label)
19 August 2022 (released)
10 August 2022
Lillian Axe, from New Orleans, have been around since 1983 and had a lot of success in the eighties, but this is their first album in ten years. They went down very well on this years Monsters Of Rock Cruise.
Only guitarist/keyboardsman Steve Blaze and bassist Michael Maxx Darby are still in the band from those early days with Brent Graham on vocals, Sam Poitevent on guitar and harmony vox and Wayne Stokely on drums.
They actually make a very good sounding album. Graham’s vocals are high and strong, perfectly suited to music that has a strong gothic feel to it. Blaze and Poitevent create some cracking riffs against a powerful and melodic engine room from Darby & Stokely.
The production quality is superb, massive soundscape and pin point positioning for individual musicians but a slightly more ‘raw’ feel would benefit a few of the numbers.
The songwriting is generally excellent, there is a strong melodic element to most tracks but it doesn’t lose the metal element that the band made their name on.
‘The Great Deception’ has huge power and a fantastic vocal while ‘Dance Of The Maggots’ has a creepy Alice-Cooper-esque sense of humour behind it. ‘Never Ending Me (Dempsey’s Kick)’ begins in a balladic form before exploding into a massive riff laden and angst-ridden piece.
Very enjoyable, strong writing and playing but nothing I haven’t heard, well worth investigating.
