LIZARD QUEEN - Third Eye

Lizard Queen, that strange side-project from the even stranger band from the northeastern Italian border, Deep, is back. This is the first we've heard from this collective that has received favorable comparisons to Ice Dragon in the past since the last Lizard Queen album was released about a year and a half ago. But this isn't a quick little jab of a release, at 12 songs and an hour and a half worth of fuzzy goodness this is a twelve-round bout. Thing is, many bands and musicians out there would ask listeners to take out a second mortgage just to hear an album of that magnitude. Lizard Queen is asking you to PAY-WHAT-YOU-WANT.

Now, if there's one thing to complain about here, it's the tinny mix, which will definitely turn off the hardcore audiophiles out there. For me, a good tune is a good tune and I listen to old scratchy records from the interwar period anyway. Once you turn up the volume, adjust the bass and treble, it becomes a kick-ass record fairly quickly. There are little touches of Tool, some desert sounds, a thesaurus of progressive motions and it's all covered in the jelly of stoner fuzz. Judge for yourself on the player below.