Although it was the Lords' third release, The Method to Our Madness sounds more like a debut. The band is bursting with energy and the production, by Chris Tsangerides, is much rawer than that on The Lords of the New Church or Is Nothing Sacred? The opening salvo is "Method to My Madness," a four-on-the-floor rocker with a vocal contribution by I.R.S. Records impresario Miles Copeland, who admonishes Stiv Bators, "Now don't go tellin' secrets/This record's gotta sell!" After that, the aggression level stays pretty high, dipping only for a couple of ballads, "I Never Believed" and "When Blood Runs Cold" (the latter of which uses a string section; Stiv Bators and strings -- who would have thought it?) The Method to Our Madness contains some of the Lords' best non-hits: the sinister, sexy, bass-driven "Murder Style" and "The Seducer," the tale of a figure who might be a messiah, might be an antichrist, probably not too far off from how Bators saw himself. The closer, "My Kingdom Come," sounds like an ending, and it was; the Lords would never again record at full power before their split in 1988. ~ Bill Cassel

Rovi