Lizzard
Shift

You would have the same thought as myself if you figured French trio Lizzard for a typical heavy metal/hard rock band and their new album shift doesn’t exactly have a title that suggest anything else. The artwork isn’t exactly impressive, or looking exciting in my view. They have three releases before this one, the first one was released in 2008 and the latest called Majestic was released a few years ago. There is much written about live shows, touring and that sort of thing in the press release and that could be another reason for imagining that this to be a regular heavy metal album. But they are described as art rock and I have seen comparisons with bands like King Crimson, Tool and Pain of Salvation.

And the comparisons may not be completely off as it is that kind of melodic, progressive rock music. Mid-tempo rock music to be exact, with very good sound, good vocalist and so on, a good production plain and simple. But it is also a production that lacks a bit of variation and dynamics, and it feels like an album that is a lot longer than its actual playing time that is fairly sensible in terms of minutes played. It can be described as nine solid tracks that take a bit too long to play and has a little too little variation to really create a standout album.

Wow-factors are none on this album, it is a decent effort and the sound is very good. But the album lacks energy and an album of songs with lower tempo makes for a bit boring listening, as there are no dynamics, no energy. Perhaps those who like the band’s earlier works will find this album more appealing than myself who is more of a general music fan. The album should have more dynamic sound and more energy to appeal, and a hit song would not have been detrimental to the album either.

Not really an album I can recommend, it feels like they waste a good production on a rather dreary album. It is slow and it feels a bit uninspired. It sounds generally good but the songs are dull and when I listen to this CD in my car I tend to change to the USB sticks that always sits in the stereo and contains a lot better songs than what can be found on this CD. No, I can’t really say that Lizzard or Shift impress me much, you will not miss anything if you don’t buy this album.

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