LAZARUS – Episode One

Consider this your precursor to the next chapter of Metal, and an opportunity to revisit music created by musicians without studio trickery. With the release of Lazarus’s Episode One, the Golden Days of Metal are revisited by the Long Island quintet who themselves were witnesses to the music during the first go around in the late seventies and early eighties.

Guitarist Glenn Dagrossa and drummer Nick Dallasandro were making noise in their corner of the East coast back in the eighties with their band Tempered Steel. Shortly after inception, the band changed the name to Lazarus and began getting notice in the underground Metal scene, even being hailed by Kerrang magazine as “… the quintessential Metal band(s) of our time …” But, like so many bands on the cusp of “making it,” tempers flared, opportunities came and went, and people pursued other avenues. Glenn continued making music with Lazarus bassist Ron Porcelli in their successful Smooth Jazz ensemble “Signs Of Rain”. However, you can take the Metalhead out of the music, but you can’t take the music out of the Metalhead; and thus the sounds of distorted guitars and thundering drums brought the members of Lazarus together again. This time, Glenn has turned the guitar duties over to the tandem team of Dave Marcado and Artie Dillon, and has taken up position front and center as vocalist.

Episode One sounds like a classic piece of Metal history, a disc that could have easily been sandwiched between Queensrÿche’s 1984 release The Warning and Saxon’s 1985 Innocence Is No Excuse. The comparison to these two albums is due to Lazarus sounding a bit like Queensrÿche with Biff Byford on vocals. Listen to “The Distance,” a hard-driving number that bears a lot of resemblance to Queensrÿche’s “Nightrider” off of their first self-titled EP. Mercado and Dillon play off each other very similarly to the twin leads of that time period, such as Smith and Murray, Downing and Tipton, and yes, Wilton and DeGarmo. Dallesandro and Porcelli play well together in a galloping Iron Maiden kind of way, and add a lot of life to the songs.

The only shortcoming is in the overall sound of the disc: a bit too old school and thin. The tonality of the instruments sounds great, unlike the same old processed sounds that every band is using today; but the sound struggles to get out of the speakers. Listeners might find themselves continuing to turn the volume knob farther and farther up trying to get these songs to their proper decibel level.

With their first EP, Lazarus has offered up an exciting journey of Power Metal; reminiscent of so many classic bands, yet still sounding fresh. You may think Lazarus is taking a chance at being referred to as a “retro-outfit,” but their honesty and passion in the music separates them from the imitators. This isn’t a tribute band, this is the real-deal. There will be doubters who will say they have “been there and done that,” but “Episode One” is absolutely worth doing it again.