Band:	Lizzy Borden
Album:	Menace To Society
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	September 1986
Guest review by:	DayFly

01. Generation Aliens
02. Notorious
03. Terror On The Town
04. Bloody Mary
05. Stiletto (Voice Of Command)
06. Ultra Violence
07. Love Kills
08. Brass Tactics
09. Ursa Minor
10. Menace To Society

The band's début Love You To Pieces was so good, Lizzy Borden (or any band for that matter) would have a hard time topping it with a similar record. It was therefore an understandable move by the band to explore new territories which lead to the second album Menace to Society. The band refined their approach, no longer going for straight ahead heavy metal, but touching the power/prog sound of early Queensrÿche. Too bad the producer didn't notice, because the me-louder-than-everyone-else styled production greatly hampers the band's new-found sense of subtlety. The vocals fight the guitars for attention while the leads show-off just a bit too much, even by 80s standards.

The material is rather good however, if not always as great as on other Lizzy Borden albums. Ursa Minor and Bloody Mary are better ballads than the début's self titled song, the former having some really great lyrics that take an unexpected twist towards the end and the latter showcasing singer Lizzy Borden's most emotional performance yet. Notorious is the band's best attempt at a mighty US power metal anthem and Generation Aliens and Terror on the Town are some of the catchiest pieces of speed metal this side of Painkiller.

Despite these highlights, Menace to Society remains Lizzy Borden's only inessential (but still pretty good) full-length studio album. Avid fans of the more accessible US power metal might want to start their Lizzy Borden collection here but everybody else should check out another album first. (As a side note, the reissue contains four bonus tracks, including the very good Taking Over the World.)