Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Lillian Axe
Label: AFM Records
Release: 2012
Rating: 4/5
“XI: The Days Before Tomorrow” is the album where Lillian Axe bring that transition to its conclusion and close out a new chapter in their evolution. Of the original members, only the founder and bandleader, a superb guitarist, Steve Blaze, is still in the lineup today. And that’s enough. Steve is the engine of the band’s constant musical change, the driving force behind its endless evolution. With Lillian Axe, everything grows on this guy. And everything falls on him too. Funnily enough, the band counts “Deep Red Shadows” as a studio album, even though it feels more like an EP. Half of it is new original material, the other half is classics from the first four albums, reworked and dressed up in acoustic arrangements. That album was already steering the band toward anthemic quality, pomp and metal bombast. In the new millennium, the band pours most of its energy into creating predatory moods; most of the songwriting is basically subordinated to a drama theater of many emotional states. The development of its musical character rests, then, on the development and maturing of Steve Blaze as a musician. “XI: The Days Before Tomorrow” defines the band’s newly found style.
Never mind that the band will probably have to go looking for a completely new base of supporters, because the new Lillian Axe differ so much from the old ones that you have to wonder whether it even makes sense to keep the old classics in the live set. Either way, Lillian Axe have come through the transition very successfully. They’ve pushed the evolution of their musical identity up a level, to a level of epic pomp, of longer songs with plenty of motifs and ups and downs, built on a gradual build-up of atmosphere. Along the way, Lillian Axe manage to bring in a touch of eclecticism that adds a certain homegrown charm, while keeping a firmly “metalized” stance that can even handle the slightly “sloppily loose” riff sound of the production (which is the foundation of the massive wall of backing sound behind it all). Lillian Axe are dark, not like the raw lumberjacks of Manilla Road, but in the epic quality they develop they come very close to Europe’s ears. Closer than many an American metal band. Hard rockers known for a pinch of eclecticism and coming from Europe, such as the newer Ten, are the sort of thing the new Lillian Axe brush up against in similar moods.
Derrick LeFevre proved a hugely fitting replacement for Ron Taylor, as the sophisticated sensitivity, enriched with a dimension of passion, in his vocal interpretations of the acoustic versions of Lillian Axe classics on “Deep Red Shadows” confirms. Still, Derrick had to leave Lillian Axe. The excellent screamer Ronny Munroe (ex-Metal Church) stepped into his place, but he stayed with Lillian Axe only briefly. The newcomer Brian C. Jones brings a darker vocal to the band, one that would fit perfectly in some neo-prog band like Arena, as well as in melodic rockers with a dash of eclecticism like Ten (for instance a song with many shifting moods like Take The Bullet, or The Great Divide). Brian C. Jones is one of the key figures in realizing Steve Blaze’s new musical vision. Jones has put his vocal chameleon act to effective use on the new Lillian Axe album.
Even the softer, more intimate moments of the album, like Bow Your Head, still come across as stubbornly rock, yet they’re richly seasoned with an organic blend of acoustic and distortion, even orchestration. That causes the band no trouble whatsoever, and in this way they deepen their unique, recognizable musical footprint! Of course, that kind of thing matures over the years. One of the key things that makes this album unique is that the new Lillian Axe pay more attention to detail than ever before. So a good bunch of the songs carry a touch of unpredictable development, yet Blaze and company never lose the red thread. The songs stay firmly compact, but with the way they combine motifs and tempo shifts, they’re loosened up just enough to stir the listener’s imagination and make you hit “repeat” on your CD player. This is an album you’ll be gnawing on for a long time. Blaze proves his many layers. Whether it’s in the way he effortlessly fires off lightning-fast bursts of arpeggios and then, the next moment, enchants the listener with a gentle touch in acoustic pieces like Bow Your Head or My Apologies (the mood is deepened further by the use of a stereo chorus effect), or the closing (bonus) semi-acoustic instrumental Angels Among Us, which erupts into a continuing eclectic mix of hard rock and an assault of “eighties” synthesizers.
The second half of the album is interesting, where the band stomps on the gas in the furious Caged In (released as a radio single), Lava On Your Tongue (the album’s first single) or Soul Disease, which cling to the characteristics of alternative metal. The atmosphere is held back, and a bit of the epic feel of the first half is sacrificed. Even so, the new Lillian Axe’s distinct identity stays intact on these tracks too.
Once a glam party band, now eclectic rockers. That’s how Lillian Axe’s evolution went. Today’s Lillian Axe have precious little, if anything, in common with the first four albums. Lillian Axe also called it quits in the mid-nineties (no big news for a glam band, right?), woke up at the turn of the millennium with a few sporadic gigs and a live album, vanished again, and finally returned to the living in 2007 with the album “Water Rising”, where the band’s stylistic transition really began in earnest. Here’s a new band with a new, authentic style all its own, and it fully convinces. It’ll appeal to those of you looking for something “unusual”, to those who value a superb feel for arrangement and melodic rhetoric, and to those who demand the predatory pull of many moods. An album that’s absolutely worth your attention! Whoever grasps its musical message will be richly rewarded! All we can call it is “Lillian Axe rock”.
Lineup
Brian C. Jones – vocals
Steve Blaze – guitar
Sam Poitevent – guitar
Eric Morris – bass
Ken Koudelka – drums
Production
Sylvia Massy
Tracklist
1. Babylon
2. Death Comes Tomorrow
3. Gather Up The Snow
4. The Great Divide
5. Take The Bullet
6. Bow Your Head
7. Caged In
8. Soul Disease
9. Lava On My Tongue
10. My Apologies
11. Angels Among Us*
*…. bonus track for the European market
