{"id":17892,"date":"2014-01-07T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2014-01-07T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=17892"},"modified":"2014-03-06T09:20:49","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T09:20:49","slug":"album-review-lizardia-lizardia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-lizardia-lizardia\/","title":{"rendered":"LIZARDIA – Lizardia (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIZARDIA
Lizardia<\/strong><\/span>
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\nSelf-released (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Somehow successfully combining sun-blessed stoner rock, retro groove and doom metal, Greek rockers Lizardia are a band to keep an eye on when it comes to writing accessible yet heavy metal. The quartet consists of vocalist Bluff, guitarist Jeje, bassist Gary and drummer Pijo, and on this ten-track debut they\u2019ve married to effect elements of cosmic rock with the usual Black Sabbath<\/a>-inspired blackness with a sprig of psychedelia. <\/p>\n

I often get tired of this type of metal, but Lizardia have managed to keep me entertained throughout. The band open up this hour-long groove-fest with \u2018Turn To Smoke\u2019, which has hints of Corrosion Of Conformity, Monster Magnet, Pentagram, and traditional rock. <\/p>\n

The riffs don\u2019t really dazzle \u2013 in fact, they are the sort of grooves you\u2019ll swear you\u2019ve heard a thousand times before over the years \u2013 but coupled with the purposeful vocals of Bluff and the hard-hitting drums of Pijo, there just happens to be an air of menace as the band stride with confidence into \u2018Like God\u2019 and the distorted fuzz of \u2018Tomorrow\u2019s Gift\u2019.<\/p>\n

While Lizardia are targeting an audience that may well have become saturated by this sort of metal, there\u2019s no shame in churning this sort of retro rock if the songs are good enough, and I really do believe that these guys have something decent in the locker. Okay, so Scott \u201cWino\u201d Weinrich (Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan) mastered this art long before these guys were even born, but I really do like the brooding atmosphere of \u2018Tomorrow\u2019s Gift\u2019 and its subtlety, too. When put alongside the weighty trudge of \u2018Sutter Cane\u2019 or the cosmic fizz of \u2018Mountshake\u2019, I hear a band energetic and passionate and able to construct good melody within those smoking guitars. <\/p>\n

I did ask myself before putting this on if I needed to hear another band that bridges the gap between, say, Sleep and Kyuss, but now that I\u2019ve dived in I\u2019ve become endeared by the pummelling shake of \u2018Ultrasonic Supervision\u2019 and the spaced-out sprinkles of \u2018Aurora On Jupiter\u2019 which, for all of its 12 minutes, had me reaching for those crusty Hawkwind albums again! <\/p>\n

For all their hooks and whiskey-drenched grooves, Lizardia are not going to change the scene in which they\u2019ll drown, but I\u2019d rather applaud this kaleidoscopic venture rather than condemn it to the pits of eternity. And while I doubt they\u2019ll be put up there on the roster with the bands that created this noise many years ago, Lizardia\u2019s debut chunk of cheeriness is still worth your time if this sort of stoned groove is your thang.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LIZARDIALizardia Self-released (2014)Rating: 7\/10 Somehow successfully combining sun-blessed stoner rock, retro groove and doom metal, Greek rockers Lizardia are a band to keep an eye on when it comes to writing accessible yet heavy metal. The quartet consists of vocalist Bluff, guitarist Jeje, bassist Gary and drummer Pijo, and on this ten-track debut they\u2019ve married […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-lizardia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17892"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17895,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17892\/revisions\/17895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}