siLLy puPPy France has always been one of the more experimental nations when it comes to nurturing the arts especially in the world of music. While periods of history have seen moments of identity crisis such as the early progressive rock scene which found French bands imitating their English counterparts, this exotic nation always seems to find a way to adapt to any music trends and then take it somewhere nobody else was looking so in a way i’ve come to expect more from this nation that celebrates the arts with a capital A and implements creativity as a national pastime so when i hear a band like the Limoges based LIZZARD i’m quite taken aback but not in a good way.

This band formed in 2005 with William Knox on bass, Mathieu Ricou on vocals and guitar and Katy Elwell on drums. This trio found its first demo “La Criée” released in 2006 and then followed it up with an EP titled “Venus” two years later but wouldn’t release this debut full-length until 2012. Well, i think i’ve found France’s answer to America’s heavily popular band Tool. Despite emerging from the land that has a major sense of national pride and is one of the few nations where artists feel comfortable producing in their native French language, LIZZARD has shed all its Francophile self-worship and has literally shed any trace of its origins sounding like a counterpart of Tool in a parallel universe.

In fact this band sounds so much like Tool circa the “Undertow” era before they really took a leap of faith and went all progressive on the alt metal world. With that groovy bass centered riffage of Paul D’Amour and a somewhat similar vocal style to Maynard James Keenan with guitar heft to match, if somebody told me this album was a long lost Tool album of unreleased material that got scrapped before the band changed its style, i would believe them as there is nothing on this album that is original. In fact this sounds like the long lost bridge between “Undertow” and “Ænima” as it’s slightly more progressive than Tool’s debut album but not quite as sophisticated as what came after. It’s kind of a mind fuck because LIZZARD pulls it off so extraordinarily well that they are the best Tool clone i’ve ever heard.

Unfortunately clones of Tool aren’t really needed and due to the fact that Tool has such a distinct sound it’s almost impossible to successfully pull off a similar sound without making you think of Tool! While i find the music on this one listenable and in character with the alternative 90s, for 2012 this sounds not only achronistic but way too derivative for my liking. There really isn’t a lick of originality on this album whatsoever and that totally rubs me the wrong way. It seems alt metalheads are way too lenient when it comes to copycats and aren’t as concerned about originality as they are about a nice groove but so sorry for any fans of this band but this is waaaaaaaay too close to the source for its own good. If this had come out 20 years earlier i might be a bit more forgiving but considering this comes from one of the most artistic nations on the planet, it makes it all the more unforgiveable. Meh. Actually worse.