Although Enigma Records was better known for its connection to the mid-'80s Paisley Underground scene (
Rain Parade,
Game Theory, etc.), the Los Angeles-based indie was also among the first to document the rebirth of glam metal, which overtook the L.A. club scene at the same time, by issuing the first album by
Mötley Crüe,
Poison, and others. The glam-poppy
Lizzy Borden was also ran in the hair metal sweepstakes, but its debut album, 1985's
Love You to Pieces, holds up better than many other documents from the era. The packaging, complete with faux-goth band logo and the requisite hot big-haired chick in lingerie, is crushingly obvious, and the entire album flirts with cliché.
Lizzy Borden himself -- who like
Alice Cooper adopted the band's name as his own -- sounds uncannily like
Iron Maiden's
Bruce Dickinson most of the time, and songs like "Council for the Cauldron" and "Rod of Iron" sound like
Spinal Tap jokes. Yet there's an appealing freshness to this album despite the clichés. Drummer Joey Scott Harges and bassist Mike Davis play with the whiplash pacing of a hardcore punk band, and there's a tongue-in-cheek quality to the album that puts it over during all but the most inane passages. By the end of the band's career,
Lizzy Borden would be indistinguishable from the dozens of other poodle-haired glam-metal bands on the Sunset Strip, but
Love You to Pieces isn't half bad. ~ Stewart Mason