Forming back in the mid '80's in Los Angeles Lizzy Borden's career in now getting on for a quarter of a century. From their inception they have always taken a theatrical approach to their brand of shock metal. Alice Cooper may have been the forerunner of Lizzy, and the likes of WASP and Twisted Sister contemporaries but you can trace the Lizzy heritage even today in the likes of Marilyn Manson. It's been seven long years since Lizzy last released a new album and now, in 2007, they are returning to the seen with Appointment With Death so I guess the first question when we caught up the Lizzy was gonna be, why has it taken so long?

Lizzy Borden

Lizzy: Well we recorded a Lizzy Borden record that we never released. We recorded two Starwood records, one that has been released and one that will be released next year. We toured a bit in between all of that, and then we spent a good amount of time working on and recording Appointment With Death. So we’ve been working.

Your music takes in a lot of different aspects of rock and metal, for those that have never heard any of your material before how would you describe your sound?

Lizzy: the new record “Appointment With Death” is influenced by Lizzy Borden. It was our goal to make a traditional Lizzy Borden record so that meant we had to go back to 1983 and work our way back up and put it all on one record. As far as I’m concerned I think what we do is called classic metal, but you have a listen and I’m sure you will have your own opinion.

Appointment with Death is a concept album; can you explain what the underlying story is behind the songs?

Lizzy: I don't call them concept records really, I call them theme based records, the theme for Appointment with Death is, basically I'm playing death and my version of death seeps through all the songs binding them all together. The songs all connect together with the central theme being, death. Although I do have a story that connects all the songs, I like to leave it open so people can have their own idea on what the song is. I just give them an idea that points to a direction and then it’s up to their imagination to figure out what the song is about.

Does the cover depict any particular song from the album?

Lizzy: yes, the cover is me playing the angel of death, and the three girls represent various different songs on the record. I won’t tell you what those songs are; I will let you figure that out for yourselves. But each girl took her own life; and the angel of death is coming to collect, or maybe he has other ideas for them, I will leave it up to you to decide.

How much effort did it take for the album shoot and how long did it take to get into the costume and make-up?

Lizzy: it was a two-day shoot, and it took hours for all the makeup, so yes it was a lot of effort to shoot this cover, but that’s the kind effort we put into everything we do and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

The album has just been released, how have the initial reviews been for it?

Lizzy: so far in doing these interviews and seeing some reviews, it’s the most well-received Lizzy Borden record we’ve ever done in 25 years. I’m amazed by this because we put the same amount of work into all of our records, you just don’t know which one is going to be the one that everyone unanimously loves, I’m very happy it’s Appointment with death.

There are many guest musicians on the album, how did all of these come about and what kind of impact did they have?

Lizzy: We just invited some of our friends to come down and have a go at some of the songs and see what happen.

Watching Corey play was really amazing for us because he came in prepared, new what he wanted to do, and with each take never made a mistake. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that from someone coming in cold playing on a song that they’re not all that familiar with, but that’s Corey. He’s a big fan of classic metal and perfectly suited for it, he’s very nonchalant when he plays, but what he’s playing blows you away.

Marten Andersson also played with George lynch so when we started asking or friends to come in he was a natural choice. George was amazing to watch in the studio, he’s like a mad scientist with all his knobs and stuff. We just turned on the song and he started playing and he did this for a couple hours just blistering with about six or seven of us watching. It was a clinic and we were lucky enough to have the camera rolling, the end result was fantastic.

Having Dave Meniketti on this record means a lot to me and Joey because we are huge fans and we we’re usually in the front row when Y&T came to town. Just watching Dave play was something that you don’t get from just any guitar player, it’s all in his fingers and his emotion, I think he’s the most underrated guitar player ever and we couldn’t be happier that he’s on our record.

Jonas was also a friend of Marten’s, he played the blistering lead on the title track, absolutely perfect for the song and he’s just an unbelievable guitar player, were honored to have him on his record.

Erik Rutan was a friend of Brian Slagel (from Metal Blade) and Brian thought it would be a great idea to have Erik mix this record. While he was mixing I asked him if he wanted to play on one of the songs and he loved the idea. He did all the Egyptians stuff and the lead in “Somthin’s Crawlin”. It’s really cool and bizarre and completely opposite of what he usually is known for.

Michael T. Ross is in “hardline” and he plays with “Angel”, Angel is one of my favorite 70’s bands, so we had that in common. Michael came up with some really great stuff for this record. Our goal was to make the keyboards more subliminal and accent the drama in each song, Michael did it perfectly.

Adam Cameron is a really good friend of ours. He is just a great guitar player through in through and I wanted to showcase his skills on this record so I asked him to put a solo on “under your skin”. I love his inflections and the melancholy lines that he put in; again it was perfect for the song.

Marliese Mildenberger is also a longtime friend; she was a second engineer on the “Visual Lies” record. She’s also an amazing keyboardist, the stuff she came up with is really melodic and I hope to have her on future Lizzy Borden records.

Zane is a really good rhythm guitarist; he’s fast and furious in the studio and a little sick and demented, just like we like.

You have put a lot of effort into the packaging for the album, was this an attempt to combat the issue of people downloading music?

Lizzy: we always try and put a good package together, one that fits the concept of each record. But this one we went all out more than we ever have before. I hope it’s a deterrent to downloading because it really does hurt us as artists to make a record and we have no connection to actually who has it. and of course the money (not) generated never comes back to us. So we hope the package is something that people will want to have not only because the record sounds better but for a souvenir from this moment in time.

The metal scene at the moment appears to be getting bigger by the day as new bands come through, is there a fear that the scene will become overcrowded, or is there enough diversity and demand to keep the scene vibrant?

Lizzy: an overcrowded scene is better than no scene at all and that is what we suffered all through the late 90s and that’s what we’ve had to endure in the United States for quite some time. It’s getting better and although I don’t think we fit into any particular scene, we never have really; I’m glad that live music and especially metal music is back in the public eye.

Are there any plans to tour this album in the UK, if so what can we expect from your live show?

Lizzy: yes we do plan on touring, as of this moment we have some festivals confirmed and we do plan on trying to play every country possible on the appointment with death tour. And of course the show will be dramatic high energy and theatrical and we can’t wait to bring it.

And finally will we have to wait another seven years before the next album?

Lizzy: I’ve already started mapping out the new theme for the next record. Not sure when we are going to get a chance to start it, but we already have five songs demoed out and a lot more ideas. So no, the next Lizzy Borden record will be out soon as were done with our touring cycle and we can get in to record it, no breaks this time!

Appointment With Death is out now via Metal Blade and you can check the HRH review via this link. To find out more about Lizzy then you can visit the band's official website @ www.lizzyborden.com