CD, Dominus Entertainment, 2nd pressing, Jewel case. Booklet, 2019

Australian Heavy Metal

When we were preparing to begin work on what would become the “Fallen Idols” album, talk inevitably came around to discussing what direction we wanted to go in this time. In the past we would work out a general idea of what we wanted to do, but invariably any plans were scrapped and the albums just evolved naturally into what they eventually became. This time, however, we felt the need to do an album that we, ourselves, would want to hear, as if we were fans as well as the artists.

LORD, over most of our career, have had a very open-minded approach to styles. Apart from a few years in the early to mid-2000s when ranks were closed up and the style became very focused on power/thrash metal, this is a band that always had no problem mixing melodic rock with extreme metal, and any variation in between. This idea of diversity was ingrained into our being literally from day one. Our albums were always “the best damn mix-tape you’ll ever hear” which delighted fans who got it, whilst annoying and frustrating some reviewers who couldn’t fit us into an easily defined stylistic box.

This approach was born in the drunken haze of backyard parties, where our long-suffering stereo systems blasted tunes from all genres of rock and metal, mixed together in a mish-mash of styles that were never questioned: it was “all just metal” to us, whether it was Bon Jovi or Bathory. The sub-genre either didn’t exist yet, or simply just didn’t matter. The most important thing was how that music made us feel at the time.

We wanted to capture that vibe on this album. What if there was no legacy of music that we’d produced before now? What if this was our first album, and any previous albums we’d released were just albums that could be from any artist that we enjoyed to listen to? What were the things that we grew up listening to that gave us “that” feeling? Style and trends be damned. We wrote what we liked, recalling the “it’s all just metal” mood and feeling of those mix-tapes, of those backyard parties, of those songs that made us who we are today.

“Fallen Idols” is not a concept album but it has a real theme of nostalgia running through it. Not a sad or wistful kind of nostalgia, or any want to recreate the 80s verbatim, but more of a knowing nod back to those days where the music spoke louder than any boxes than needed to be ticked.

It’s an album for us, and for everyone else who gets it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Press play and just listen