Customer Reviews

Method to Our Madness

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Lords of the New Church should have been huge. The 80's were a bad place to be a rock band (unless you were IRS labelmates The Police or U2) as demonstrated by the lack of success this album did back in 1984. The original production by Chris Tsangarides was tinny and actually gave the listener a massive headache. This release has the bass lifted in the mix and what do we get? A beautiful album meant to be played real LOUD. The Lords mixed punk, pop, and metal perfectly and somehow didn't get to the top of the chart thanks to fans of Kajagoogoo and Haircut 100 and whoever else was getting hits at the time.

GOD BLESS STIV, BRIAN, DAVE, AND NICKY!
You guys were great and this album is testament.

I own this same Remastered CD, and can't understand why it costs do damn much! I mean, I Love the album, but - why so much??
...if anyone wants a copy, please feel free to contact me at this e-mail address: auctionbids121 (at) AOL . com.

I Love to share & trade great music! :) I own this + many other rare recordings, and I don't peddle b.s.

Peace,
Michael

The Lords were a unique band, mixing 70's punk with the emerging Gothic sounds, and 60's garage and psychedelic into their dark rock 'n roll style, and also touching upon many social and political themes but without preaching.

Their debut album in 1982 is a classic and their best ever. They never managed to live up to the promise of that powerful piece of apocalyptic darkness. But this, their third album, is a close second. It's their most hard rocking record, as well as the most diverse in style and texture. There's acoustic guitars, saxophone, pianos, female backing vocals, and a wide range of approaches from very dark minimalist deathrock to straight-up blasting hard rock.

This release contains several bonus tracks, which were culled from various B-sides. Gun Called Justice was the flipside to their cover of Madonna's Like A Virgin, and mindwarp was from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 soundtrack. The other songs came out on the Psycho Sex EP from 1987, which was really more of a demo but got released for some reason.

The one thing that disappoints me about this rerelease is the exclusion of the song SF&T, which was a favorite of mine from the album. I don't know why it was deleted, as it fit in with the rest of the material well, both thematically and musically. I've never been able to find that song on any other compilations or releases. The only place is on the original vinyl, which I luckily still have.

There really isn't a weak track on this CD. It's strong all the way through, but standouts are Pretty Baby Scream, Murder Style, the title track. Get this and the Debut from 1982, if you can find them without paying a fortune. It's really too bad because this band should have been much bigger than they were and they only recorded a few records before collapsing. Now the music is increasingly harder to find and more pricey all the time. They were an intense live band, too. I had the opportunity to see them 4 times between 1985 and 88.

Having had the orginal album from release in the 80's I was keen to get a remastered copy on CD. Gosh, how dissapointing to find the awful version of the title track. The original vinyl version is so much better. Even worse is the closing track 'My Kingdom Come'. Towards the end of the track you can hear the tape slowing down, taking it out of key and sounding totally awful. I couldn't believe my ears so I dug out my original vinyl. No speed bend on this, vocals sound ace, and with the better version of the title track it sounds better in every respect. I doubt I'll play the 2003 remaster again - I'll copy the vinyl. Very, very dissapointing - a great album ruined!!!!

This one is the most rocking of the studio albums released by the Lords. Starts strong with "Method to My Madness" and keeps the energy going throughout. With the exception of "When Blood Runs Cold" and, one of the bonus tracks, "A Gun Called Justice" it's a constant barrage of Stivs' strongest vocals and Brian James' best riffs. The inclusion of "Mind Warp" from the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" soundtrack makes up, a little, for the omission of "S.F.&T." (my favorite song from the original vinyl pressing). But still a great album!

"The Method To Our Madness" was The Lord's 3rd and final full original studio album, originally released in early 1984 on IRS Records. Partially due to pressure by manager Miles Copeland to sell more albums, The Lords moved towards a more commercially viable hard rock sound and style, thus the band used an outside producer for the first time for a complete album, Chris Tsangarides, noted for his work with hard rock bands like Thin Lizzy. Influences by bands like Hanoi Rocks whom they had recently toured with were very evident on this release. This album also showcased frontman Stiv Bator's most acerbic lyrics to date.

The opening song "Method To My Madness" was a hard driving rocker that opened many Lords shows for the rest of their career. There are some outstanding tracks on this album including "I Never Believed" and "Pretty Baby Scream" which featured significant growth in guitarist Brian James' playing and style. In many ways, this album was a huge influence on bands like Guns n' Roses and many other up and coming LA glam rock bands during the mid 80's, some including GnR opened for The Lords. Sadly, after this album and tour, the band slowly lost the plot and by the end of 1985, saw bassist Dave Tregunna leave the band initiating an ever-increasingly unstable lineup as well as losing their record contract with IRS Records.

This release is the 2003 remastered cd version on Track Records. The remastered audio is a bit heavy and "blunt" for lack of a better word, but still not drastically different from the original version. This release features a short essay about the band and album by original drummer Nicky Turner as well as 4 bonus tracks, one oddly from the "Live For Today" 12" single ("Dreams and Desires") from the previous 1983 studio album "Is Nothing Sacred." The other bonus tracks include the excellent acoustic song "Gun Called Justice" which was a b-side to the "Method To My Madness/Like a Virgin" 12" single and the other two from the long out of print "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Pt2" soundtrack from 1985.

It should be noted that the version of "Mind Warp" included on this release is not the original album version but a previously unheard alternate vocal take. Also, many hardcore fans hoped the original mix of "Method To Our Madness" would be on this release making it the first time that version of the song has been available on cd (it's only avialable on the long out of print 1st pressings of the European vinyl record release) but sadly, no luck - it's the same version that's been on all cd releases of this album.

The Lords at their zenith. The last IRS record by the band, it moves more into heavy metal figures sonically and psuedo satanist imagery lyrically. This one is most like the new 2003 incarnation of the band fronted by StevenMarque; and you can really see Stiv's influence on him on tracks like KISS OF DEATH, DO WHAT THOU WILT and SEDUCER. Like any other LORDS album, a meaningful masterpiece and certainly significant theosophically, against the backdrop of most 80's vibrant/vapid offerings.

This is the worst of the 3 efforts by a great band of punk icons.
From what I know even the Lords weren't very pleased.
They were hoping to change with the times and make some money in the heavy metal market instead of doing what they do best. The production is really the worst part of it all.
I think this is also the remastered version of Method to Our Madness which is even worse. As for the other reviewer, StevenMarque sounds nothing like the Lords and more like Cookie Monster. Shame on you! there are 2 new singers in the Lords and Steven is not one of them....(singer)