Time Signature Nocturnal symphony...

Genre: heavy metal

Lillian Axe have been around the block a few times, taking a musical journey from glam metal / hard rock over progressively inclined metal to more traditional metal. The present album is a bit of melting pot, drawing on various metal style, but the basis is traditional heavy metal.

I think that, overall, the albums is pretty decent, but marked by mediocricy, which is a bit of a shame, because there certainly is a lot of good stuff on it, too.

The album starts out well with the acoustic intro "Cocoon", and then the roller coaster ride begins. Tracks like "Megaslowfade" (which contains a vocal melody which is disturbingly similar to Kiss' "I Was Made for Lovin' You"), "Jesus Wept", Ignite", "Sad Day on Planet Earth", Ignite", "The Grand Scale of Finality", "Within Your Reach", "Cold Day in Hell", and "Fire, Blood, the Earth and the Sea" all contain both weak and strong elements. The general weakness, I think, is repetitiveness within the individual song, but still, every track I've mentioned contains one or two or more interesting, sometimes genius, elements which make it worthwhile listening to.

Other tracks, I think, are very successful, such as the more progressive-like "Hibernate", "Down Below the Ocean", "Nocturnal Symphony", "Kill Me Again", and the ballady "Bllod Raining Down on Her Wings". These tracks are very good, but held back by the vocal style, which is not very versatile and more good ole rock 'n' roll-ish. I think that a more operatic style would suit this album much better.

The production is a but fuzzy, which is not a problem to me, but might be to you if you're used to the very polished productions we hear today. The drums in particular sound very strange at times. There is nothing wrong with the musicianship, though, and especially the guitar solos are blazing. They're a bi tretro, but I like that. Certainly, there's a very talented guitarist behind them.

So, this is not a bad album at all, and if you like AOR and traditional heavy metal, you might want to buy it.

Stephen Lillian Axe had just began turning people's head with several hits from their "Poetic Justice" in 1992 when grunge wave came sweeping in. The band tried to survive the change by releasing "Psychoschizophrenia" which incorporated a darker element and deeper essence to the music and lyric department respectively. Big thumbs up to Stevie Blaze who wrote all the songs, this man is simply a genius definition, not to mention the thrilling guitar solos he had on this album.

"Crucified" is a blazing opener, crushing forward with an intense hard rock, followed by a groovy track of "Deepfreeze" with a wonderful solo. "Sign of The Times" has a combination of dark verse, melodic bridge, and catchy rough chorus. A stunning delivery by the band and this one is the best track of the album. Couple of great ballads here are unbelievably pretty. "The Needle And Your Pain" that's dedicated to a late friend who died of cancer and "The Day I Met You", an ode to the lost love, this track is emotionally sad and touching. Some great songs that I like here are "Stop The Hate", "Deep Blue Shadows", and the Japanese bonus track, "Here Is Christmas".

To sum up, "Psychoschizophrenia" contained a mix of early glam with a bit of alternative influence, a bit dark and heavy, but melodic and accessible at the same time. This is a grower and not an easy album, probably needs at least 4-5 spins to capture the whole magical thing of Blaze's ideas. A brilliant underrated album that ever came out in 1993!