Known to few, back in the 80’s Lizzy Borden was nothing more than another second-rate horror shock metal band named after a famous murderess. Musically, Borden’s albums could be installed among other classic American metal acts of the time if you have any. Personally, I have a couple of their vinyls including “Menace to Society” from 1986 and it’s far from being magnificent... Dressed like W.A.S.P. and Twisted Sister, Lizzy Borden would release only concept albums, like King Diamond. Devoid of the latter’s uniqueness, Lizzy Borden disbanded and their vocalist of the same name went for a solo career with 1989’s “Master of Disguise”, although nobody really understood that change as long as the logo on the case was totally the same. “Appointment with Death” is actually the third album after Lizzy decided to get the band together again in 2000. It’s also arguably the best one he has ever released. Be it the nostalgia about the old mid-tempo metal sound that kicked in the middle 80’s with bands like Helstar and Crimson Glory, or some of us are just fed up with German operatic pseudo epics, the reason will remain unknown, but the truth is that “Appointment with Death”, if put aside its naïve plot, appears to be a very decent, very energetic and quite well produced old-school metal album. Not many of them these days, eh?