Reviews list for Liege Lord - Master Control (1989)

It’s interesting that I’ve never heard a full Liege Lord record before now. I’ve certainly been aware of their highly regarded trio of 80’s albums for many years but they were hardly a household name back in my formative years & I’ve not found myself being tempted previously. I did however quite like the title track from their classic 1988 “Master Control” album when I investigated it for inclusion in the monthly The Guardians playlist a couple of years ago & have subsequently intended on giving it a decent chance ever since. What better time than now I guess!

“Master Control” kicks off in fairly hectic fashion by placing its cards down on the table right from the get-go. Although there’s a significant amount of speed metal included throughout the tracklisting & I agree with that genre being awarded a dual role, the US power metal tag is the most accurate label for this record given the chunky guitar tone, the up-tempo feel of a lot of the material & the operatic higher-register vocal performance of Joe Comeau. You can expect to identify hints at heavy metal & genuine thrash popping up here & there but neither are consistent enough to command further representation.

Comeau is a dead-ringer for Iron Maiden/Samson front man Bruce Dickinson. In fact, his likeness is really pretty uncanny & it’s very clear that he’s worshipped at the Maiden altar for many a year. He does sound a touch like Overkill front man Bobby Ellsworth’s more Maiden-inspired mid-80’s moments sometimes too though, particularly in his phrasing when the music gets a little more thrashy. The production is a touch inconsistent from track to track but the performances are very precise & the execution is pure class with the fantastic guitar solos being an obvious highlight.

The A side is very consistent indeed with no weaker tracks but the B side is a little more hit & miss. Both of my album highlights come in the second half of the album though in the Judas Priest inspired heavy metal anthem “Feel The Blade” & the thrashier US power metal of “Rapture”. Unfortunately these strengths are offset by a couple of duds in “Broken Wasteland” & “Suspicion” which tend to even out my feelings a bit after cancelling out the good impression left by those two highlight tracks. The lack of a couple of truly elite level pieces definitely places a cap on the appeal that “Master Control” has the power to muster but this isn’t a bad US power metal record. It’s just not really the classic that it’s so often made out to be these days in my opinion.

For fans of Helstar, Savage Grace & Agent Steel.

For some reason I thought Liege Lord had been around for ages and churned out multiple releases. Instead, I can see they managed just three full lengths in approx. 4 years. Having started as a Judas Priest covers band (under the name Deceiver) in the early 80’s, they evolved into a speed metal (of sorts) act around 1984.

Straight out of the traps on their third and (to date) final album the six string antics of Paul Nelson and Tony Truglio are the standout section for me. They are both listed as lead guitarists which might explain the high level of energy that comes across from the off. The riffs are urgent yet varied enough to incorporate some of the more traditional heavy metal familiarity which is also obvious in the voice of Joseph Comeau who avoids the diluted sounding vocals that plagues this sub-genre so often and instead has a kind of hoarse and gruff heavy metal/more aggressive Sammy Hagar style throat.

Frank Cortese sounds like he is having an absolute blast on the drums, but I feel he is at the mercy of the mix in some regards and is a little too far back in proceedings. As a unit, there is a sense of cohesion here that makes for an entertaining album that never really gets up into the realms of being exceptional. At times they do go a bit Van Halen (Feel the Blade) with more catchy and diluted structures taking precedent. As such I do not class this as a speed metal record end to end. In fact, from pretty much the halfway point there is a real change of direction on the record. A change for the worse in my book.

This is disappointing given how well the album starts through the first four tracks. When we get snippets of this early promise returning (Rapture) it is surpassed by some below par song writing and cluttered arrangements in track. The loose references to some NWOBHM plod do nothing concrete enough to cement this release as being one that is consciously trying to show variety and it just seems to show the limitations of the band’s influences. Closing track, Fallout starts like some power ballad with the heavy blues influence on the lead work giving way to a more aggressive format which seems still to be more about being showy as opposed to exerting any real quality control.