Published on Sep 27, 1999
Of the hundreds of bands that were active at some point in the
metal scene during the ’80s and early ’90s, there were obviously
many good bands who – through no fault of their own – fell through
the cracks and never got the recognition they deserved. I’m certain
that many long-time readers could easily rattle off a laundry list
of some of these bands who were their particular favorites.
Having had little exposure to Lillian Axe over the course of
time that I’ve done music reviews, I’d hesitate to state without a
doubt that this group belonged in the same category. By no means is
this a slam against Steve Blaze and company; it’s just a simple
fact that I’ve not had the pleasure of listening to all of their
releases. (I think the only other exposure I had to them was in the
form of a greatest hits album from back around 1991.)
With the release of the “closet-cleaning” album
Fields Of Yesterday, Blaze and crew show that this band had
reason for people to take notice of them – even though they
occasionally fell prey to weak material.
One side note – more of a memo to the guys promoting this
release: Why the difference between the cover we’ve got on this
review and the cover art I have on my copy? My version features two
cherubs (okay,
naked cherubs, but if you get aroused by that, you need more
help than I can provide) and – if my memories of Greek mythology
from high school are correct – a centaur. It doesn’t make
sense.
If you’ve followed the band religiously, you undoubtedly have
these songs in some form. Recorded between 1989 and 1992, many of
these tracks have found their way to fans through the hands of tape
traders. Why they never saw the light of day on a commercial
release until now is a bit of a mystery; for the most part, these
tracks are very solid pieces of work that, at one time, could have
spelled at least another step towards superstardom for the
band.
At the outset of the album, it might not seem this way. “Death
Valley Daze” is rather atypical of what the metal scene was like
around that time. It’s not a terrible cut – to be honest, there’s
no song on
Fields Of Yesterday that could be considered anything less
than average – but it’s nothing that would knock my socks off. On
the other hand, when I hear songs like “Do It,” “Blood On The Moon”
and “The Last Time,” I have to wonder what it was about these songs
that kept them from making the cut.
Fields Of Yesterday is filled with moments like these, as
well as one or two potholes along the way. But the worst things you
could say about songs like “Calm Before The Storm,” “For Crying Out
Loud” and “Kill Me Again” is that they’re your typical fare of
metal from the ’90s: lots of flash, little substance. Fortunately
for Lillian Axe, they’re able to quickly regain their momentum
within the span of one track.
The long-time fans of Lillian Axe, besides being thrilled with
the band’s re-forming prior to this album’s release, are
undoubtedly ecstatic that they can now own CD-quality versions of
these once lost treasures. For the rest of us,
Fields Of Yesterday is an interesting document of a band who
undoubtedly deserved a better fate than they were handed. If the
new line-up can crank out songs of this caliber, they could well
help lead metal to its renaissance in the 21st Century.