Lillian Axe - Love + War (Music CD)

The members of Lillian Axe apparently conceived this album as a comment on the duality of human nature, with the first half devoted to songs about love, the second, well, you know. Unfortunately the lyrical skills of the band weren't really up to this level of subtlety, though they do have their moments. For instance, "She Likes It on Top" is not about what you think it's about, and "Ghosts of Winter" manages to carry off ideas that would have sounded overwhelmingly pretentious if not done this well. "Letters in the Rain" even manages a level of soulful wistfulness that is rare in tunes of the ear-popping variety. Still, one doesn't really listen to a Lillian Axe album for the poetry. This, the band's second album, does have loads of relatively sophisticated melodic metal guitar riffage from Stevie Blaze and some very tight ensemble work from a band that was more accomplished than most of their peers. It has dated reasonably well compared to most work by their contemporaries, though the overwrought vocals from Ron Taylor and the synthesizer washes on some of the material are definitely products of their time. Still, Lillian Axe was trying to move metal to a more interesting level at least some of the time, and it's to their credit that so much of this album is so listenable over a decade later. ~ Richard Foss