Master of Disguise is the fourth studio album by Los Angelesmetal bandLizzy Borden. The album was released in 1989 by Metal Blade Records and marked a different direction for the band. While still focusing on Glam metal, the album was a concept album more focused on theatre, slower pieces, and dramatic themes. The album saw only founding members singer Lizzy Borden and drummer Joey Scott Harges return after the departure of long term guitarist Gene Allen. Master of Disguise would prove to be the band's highest moment as it would spend 10 weeks on the Billboard 200 for 10 weeks and peaking at 133. Many songs from the album would become staples of the songs live sets, including the title track, "Love is a Crime", and "Sins of the Flesh." The album was re-released in 2007 with a 25th Anniversary Deluxe version with 2 bonus tracks and a DVD on the making of the album.
Production
With the band consisting of only founding members vocalist Lizzy Borden and drummer Joey Harges, the band was without long-time guitarist and songwriter Gene Allen. Even though Visual Lies had been a commercial success it had been met with mixed critical response. Lizzy Borden would set out to write a concept album. In a 2018 interview, Lizzy mentioned that he wanted to focus on the vocals on the album, and that this was the first album to use layered vocal harmonies with himself, a style that he would use for every album afterwards. "With me, it was just myself, so I really wanted to fight to try and find different personalities within each harmony, and flush that out. That was really my focus on that. I knew this was going to be a very vocal record — it was going to be all about the vocals, all about the song. It wasn't going to be about showcasing musicians or anything like that — it was all going to be about the song and the vocals." Additionally, the album's production marked a change in direction with a focus on a large stadium sound and recording parts of the album with a full orchestra.
Reception and legacy
The album would become their highest charting album, reaching 133 on the Billboard 200 Chart in 1989. In a review for AllMusic, reviewer Eduardo Rivadavia compared it to Alice Cooper's transition from being the Alice Cooper Band to a solo act. "Much like Alice's triumphant solo debutant ball, Welcome to My Nightmare, Lizzy Borden's next dance, Master of Disguise, was a highly stylized concept album built on surprisingly solid compositional ground, and did much to eradicate thoughts of recent blunders." Metal album review blog Angry Metal Guy wrote, "A highly entertaining piece of metal, Master of Disguise is far and away Lizzy Borden‘s best work with their most mature writing. It also shows a band willing to take chances, roll the dice and be more than a metal band with their hair metal roots showing. Check this out, but be prepared to sing along and rock out in front of a mirror." In a review for Exclaim!, reviewer Keith Carman wrote "It straddles a hair metal past and a slightly more direct metallic future, and by albums end the soaring vocal delivery, multiple time signatures, samples, soft acoustics and driving rocknroll beats prove that despite casting himself in with a usual gang of heavy metal idiots, at least at one point in time, Lizzy Borden realised their own heavy metal The Wall. Maybe we can grow to appreciate this re-energised version." The album introduced Lizzy's layered vocal harmonies, a style that would persist through future albums.
