Named after the figure responsible for a notorious 1895 double homicide that inspired the enduring jump-rope chant "Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one," Lizzy Borden operates as a theatrical heavy metal ensemble based in Los Angeles and, following the precedent set by Alice Cooper, takes its identity directly from the frontman. The group joined Metal Blade in 1984 and fused horror-themed stage production with aggressive guitar work and glam-tinged melodic power, achieving prominence throughout the mid- and late 1980s via the releases Love You to Pieces (1985), Visual Lies (1987), and Master of Disguise (1989) before the rise of grunge and alternative rock prompted a retreat in the early 1990s. A reunion occurred in 1999, yet operations paused following guitarist Alex Nelson’s death in 2004. Activity resumed in 2006, and despite repeated lineup shifts the band maintained club and festival appearances, ultimately returning to Metal Blade in 2018 to issue its seventh studio album, My Midnight Things.
Brothers Gregory (Lizzy Borden) and Joseph (Joey Scott) Harges established the project, which secured its initial major opportunity when Metal Blade selected the track “Rod of Iron” for the fourth installment of its Metal Massacre compilation series in 1983. A recording contract followed soon after, leading to the 1984 debut EP Give ’Em the Axe. The original roster of Borden on vocals, Scott on drums, Gene Allen and Tony Matuzak on guitar, and Michael Davis on bass delivered the first full-length album, Love You to Pieces, in 1985. Matuzak departed shortly thereafter and was succeeded by Alex Nelson, whose contributions first appeared on the 1986 live recording The Murderess Metal Road Show and the subsequent studio effort Menace to Society. Veteran pop-metal producer Max Norman oversaw the third album, Visual Lies, issued in 1987; that release marked the band’s strongest commercial performance up to that point and contained the single “Me Against the World,” which featured on the soundtrack for the 1988 horror-comedy film Black Roses. The same year also brought an appearance in Penelope Spheeris’s documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. Although 1989’s Master of Disguise received limited attention upon release, it later emerged as a fan favorite and one of the group’s most lasting works.
Confronted with the altered musical landscape of the 1990s, Lizzy Borden, like many contemporaries, struggled to adapt and entered full hiatus in 1996. Borden, Scott, and bassist Marten Andersson briefly performed under the name Diamond Dogs, later changed to Starwood, yet the original band reactivated in 1999 with a lineup comprising Borden, Scott, Andersson, and Alex Nelson. They introduced material from the fourth studio album, Deal with the Devil, at Germany’s Wacken Open Air Festival in 2000 before embarking on a global tour. The 2004 automobile accident that claimed Nelson’s life led to another cessation of activities. Two years afterward the group reconvened, adding guitarist Ira Black (Vicious Rumors, Metal Church, Heathen) and issuing the 2007 studio album Appointment With Death, which included contributions from George Lynch (Dokken), Dave Meniketti (Y&T), and Corey Beaulieu (Trivium). Throughout the following decade the band sustained live activity across domestic and international venues, including repeated festival engagements. A return to Metal Blade took place in 2017, prompting sessions for the first new material in more than ten years and culminating in the 2018 release of My Midnight Things.
