Year : 1987 (Metal Blade Records Remastered Digipak Edition 2022)
Style : Power Metal , Heavy Metal
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 72 mb
Bio:
Liege Lord is an American power metal band active in the 1980s.The band was formed by Matt Vinci, Anthony Truglio and Frank Cortese.Liege Lord was originally a Judas Priest cover band named Deceiver (after the Judas Priest song of the same name). Judas Priest's influence can be heard in the early vocals and guitar riffs of the Freedom's Rise album.Liege Lord first signed on with the French record label Black Dragon after Christian Logue of Savage Grace recommended the company to the band. Freedom's Rise was released in 1985 on Black Dragon in Europe, and on Ironworks in America.Reaching cult status in the metal world with their three releases, the band featured Joe Comeau, who would later go on to play with thrash metal bands Overkill and Annihilator. Guitarist Anthony Truglio went on to play in the band Gandhi with Page Hamilton from Helmet, and also played in the new version of Helmet. Guitarist Paul Nelson would go on to play with Blues/Rock icon Johnny Winter and winning a Grammy Award and multiple Grammy Nominations signing with his own solo artist deal on Sony/EMI Records.Master Control was recorded from March 22 to April 11, 1988. The album was produced by Terry Date and Liege Lord.As of August 2012, Liege Lord has been active again and headlined the Keep It True XVI festival, which took place from April 19 to 20, 2013, at Tauberfrankenhalle in Lauda-Königshofen, Germany.
Album:
Lords, masters… it seemed like these lads wanted to be great, to rule the world… well, you know the saying, if you’re not born to be great, you can’t twist destiny subsequently… but it sure as hell is worth trying, to twist and perhaps even break this perfidious destiny’s neck, to shout in its fuckin’ ears your desires, and to accept nothing but exactly what it is you want… well, at least this is how I know one takes a master’s control over this illusion we call reality.Metaphysical digressions aside, this band were an indelible part of the stolid US power metal movement throughout the 80’s, a dedicated batch who only found it feasible to dissolve once their beloved genre was overtaken by… thus rendering their legacy to the finest metal decade. Fair play, and kudos. As this is how you leave your short but essential discography unstained for the future generations to salivate over… salivation certainly commenced with the debut, a solid power/speed metal slab that saw the band outgrowing their infatuations with Judas Priest, the latter prompting the musicians to have a short stint under the name Dreamer… sorry, Deceiver, and play Judas covers only. Thankfully, the emulation/reverence project was put an end with this rise to originality, individuality and above all, freedom, a sure-handed entry into the annals of said movement, the youthful at the time bunch standing proud next to their brothers-in-arms Omen, Griffin, Jag Panzer, Savatage…a string of singles preceded the emergence of the album reviewed here, the band obviously eager to display their new material, propagating it fervently far’n wide, confident in its scorching qualities… and well rightfully so as this opus slays from a speed-point-of-view, propelled by a sense of urgency and headlong stretches towards the good young (at the time) thrash. Add the attached epic vocals of Andy Michaud, and you have a recipe for success, and not only on the local circuit. With the production qualities also upgraded by a healthy notch, the band rush onto the arena with the wayward headbanger “Trangressor”, saddling all the birds… sorry, horses in the vicinity right after with the galloping wonder “Birds of Prey”. A smattering start, the lads doing away with both the more carefree side of the speed metal movement (“Cast Out”) and the steam-rolling power/thrash sector (“Portrait of Despair”) along the way, adding the more contrived shredder “Black Lit Knights” as a potential template for Helstar to use on their oncoming exploits. Yep, neat stuff, the Lords have taken care of business from all sides, leaving nothing to chance, also spicing the setting with the intriguing restless instrumental piece “Walking Fire”, but failing to reach the speed of sound with the marginally less dynamic power/speedster “Speed of Sound”.But that’s alright, we’re not looking for breaking the sound barrier here; we just want to hear a fine example of American steel, pure and non-contaminated. And here it is, half an hour of it, guaranteed to burn you if touched… no kidding. A delectable cross over three genres, this album hit all the right buttons back then, placing the band in a propitious crossroad from where they had a fairly good look at the scene’s developments, and could choose to swing in whichever direction seemed the most marketable one. The more technical moments remain just hints, though, if there should be one minus ascribed to it, the guys voting to vent out vigour and passion this second time around, concealing intricacies and contrivances up their sleeves… cause there’d surely be time for those to be exhibited later…it’s debatable whether the exhibition that “Master Control” was, was the finest one possible. It’s a more ambitious, more diverse, decidedly more polished as well, offering but it considerably lacks the sincere spontaneous, confrontational “wanna ram you down” attitude so amply shown here. Covers, mellower heavy metal tunes and frequently inserted melodic hooks did provide entertainment for the hungry metal masses, but it was 1988, for crying out loud; a more definitive position should have been taken… obviously, you don’t feel like thrashing, and you don’t feel like embracing the progressive branch whole-heartedly either… cause those were the two most viable options if you wanted to stay afloat, and hopefully cross into the next decade. On top of that you’ve lost the speed that made your previous opus such a compulsive listen… masters, lords… sure but those who strive for a master’s status simply can’t afford to reside in nomansland, not for very long anyway.Getting out of there was definitely on the band’s schedule; that’s why this abrupt disappearance from the scene was heart-breaking, and not only for their diehard fans. They surely had the skills to also sing an ode to Nosferatu, or find their own penetration point to the top, or to make everyone think this… polemics and speculations; this is how things were left in this camp; with a burning touchy album sticking prominently in the middle. Will the guys choose to carry on its flame now that they’ve reformed (since 2012)? Or will they try to ambitiously squeeze fate some more in order to finally take control… of the scene, of the universe, of everything… I’d personally vote for the former option… leave it all to chance with as much passion and vigour emitted as possible. The way of the lords…
Line-Up:
Andy Michaud - Vocals
Tony Truglio - Guitars - See also: ex-Upwards of Endtime, Page Hamilton Quintet (live), ex-Helmet (live), ex-Deceiver (USA)
Paul Nelson - Guitars
Matt Vinci - Bass - See also: ex-Deceiver (USA)
Frank Cortese - Drums
Tracklist:
01. Transgressor 03:20
02. Birds of Prey 02:57
03. Cast Out 03:05
04. Portrait of Despair 02:58
05. Black Lit Knights 04:06
06. The Manic's Mask 02:56
07. Legend 03:39
08. Walking Fire 03:07 instrumental
9. Speed of Sound 04:32
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