Lizzy Borden

As Sunset Boulevard became the home of big-haired, flamboyant, glam-metal in the early 1980s, local Los Angeles scenester Lizzy Borden built his band on hard riffs and theatrical showmanship and set about enjoying a career spanning four decades.

When he was growing up, Borden - real name Gregory Charles Harges - and his drummer brother Joey Scott, fell in love with the metal heroes of the 1970s and together they sought to combine the operatic rock anthems of Queen, the B-movie horror shows of Alice Cooper and the dark, gothic menace of Ozzy Osbourne. Harges named both himself and the group Lizzy Borden after a notorious Victorian-era axe murderer, and from playing local battle of the bands contests, they landed a deal with Metal Blade Records, headed out on national tours and released early albums 'Love You to Pieces' and 'Visual Lies' featuring guitarist Joe Holmes.

They hit their peak in 1989 with 'Master of Disguise' and their track 'Me Against the World' was used in the cult horror movie 'Black Roses', but when MTV refused to play the risque videos for singles 'Love Is a Crime' and 'We Got the Power' they failed to achieve the crossover fame of contemporaries like W.A.S.P. and Motley Crue.

With the onset of grunge music in the early 1990s, they went into hiatus and tried to re-invent themselves as punk-metal outfit Diamond Dogs. They ultimately returned slightly less riotous in 1999 with their classic line-up of Borden on vocals, Scott on drums, Marten Anderssen on bass and Alex Nelson on guitar, but were still loud and unashamedly metal. It triggered another successful run and, with the album 'Deal With the Devil', they reconnected with fans in Europe and became popular regulars on the festival circuit. Tragedy struck in 2004 however when Alex Nelson was killed in a car accident. They made another comeback with new guitarist Ira Black playing on the album 'Appointment With Death' in 2007, and reasserted their place as a hard touring, nostalgic slice of classic L.A. metal with their seventh studio record 'My Midnight Things' in 2018.