Customer Reviews
LIZZY'S 'FULL ON HEAVY METAL ALBUM'... - By: Adam Jackson, 21 Jun 2008 
If not their best, certainly the heaviest - with a hard as iron production, noticeably heavier drumming & some strong riffs & full on metal lead breaks. Even the keyboards duel with the shredding on the title track!
Highlights:
Thunder & Lightning - Very fast for this band, with great drums & awesome solo's. Lynnott's on real form, voice & bass wise here!
This Is The One - Great rhythm & chorus. Addictive!
Cold Sweat - Another heavy one, up there with Killer On The Loose! A guitar riff very worthy of the mighty Judas Priest!
Bad Habits - a bit lighter, with a great vocal from Lynott.
Metal fans will find a lot of Lizzy too light, but many will like this for it's extra edge & power (especiallly for 1983). It's not surprising Metalllica cite these as one of many influences, with this heavier album in the can!
A Return to Form - By: mitchgibbo, 22 May 2008 There is something quite magical about this album, but we'll get to that in a minute..."Thunder & Lightning" sees Lizzy making a strong return to the form they hit in their absolute glory years with the classic "Robbo" line-up. This is an album that moved them on from the somewhat turgid (by their standards)period when Snowy White was on board. That is not to say that their out put then was poor, but it pales in comparison to this.
"Thunder & Lightning" gave them a new slant, a fresher direction & a more urgent sound when they let go...."Cold Sweat" features an genuine face-melter of a guitar solo & a real ballls to the walll riff, with Lynott almost spitting the lyrics, "Holy War" is a genuine epic on a par with "Emerald", & the title track is classic rock at it's best.
The magic arrives on "The Sun Goes Down". The album is worth it just for this one track. It is a slow meandering balllady affair, & then at its mid-point comes one of THE very best guitar solos you are ever likely to hear. It is just sublime, absolutely flawless & without doubt amongst the best guitar breaks ever committed to record.
John Sykes (ex-Tygers of Pan Tang)brought a sheen & polish to Thin Lizzy, with a guitar style that is instantly recognisable & just mind-blowingly good, the tragedy of it alll is that this was Lizzy's last album proper. That being said, what a way to bow out...
Poor - By: metalmaz, 29 Feb 2008 
Whilst not as bad as Renegade & Chinatown, Thunder And Lightening is substandard & a poor quaility swansong from this once great band.
Whilst they don't go out with a wimper Thin Lizzy certainly don't go out with a bang. Yes, Thunder And Lightening is their hardest album; with the talented guitarist John Sykes very much at the forefront.
But with this album quite honestly, they sound like an average metal band. Gone are Lizzy's wonderful harmony guitars & melodic Irish laced songs. Lynott's bass is very much in the background. I love heavy metal, but Thin Lizzy were never a metal band & this sound reallly doesn't suit them.
You'd be much better advised to stick with the like of Black Rose, Bad Reputation, Jailbreak & Johnny The Fox.
There are some good songs such as Cold Sweat, but no way on earth is this a 5 star or a 4 star album.
Heaviest Doesn't Mean Best - By: Ed, 11 Nov 2007 I Knew this one would be popular here it's much more metal & 80's sounding that previous releases & features John Sykes on guitar whose style is very over the top & metal friendly (think Zakk Wylde if he could write better riffs). Anyway, even though this is an improvement over the Snowy White era Lizzy albums its not quite the classic others have made it out to be, a very good album but hardly one of Lizzy's best (perhaps their 7th best album, that's an indication of how many top quality albums Lizzy have produced rather than a way of saying this album isn't up to standard).
Anyway, musicallly this album is a change of direction from 70's hard rock to 80's hard rock/metal (I think the main difference is the change from good production to a dated 80's one). But John Sykes does bring a harder edged sound to the band with the title track & `Cold Sweat' being some of the heaviest Lizzy tracks. However this can be a little detrimental to the sound as Scott Gorham is by no means a metal guitarist (and alll the better for it) & his playing is not as good as on previous albums as he has to adapt to a different style to which he is less suited , not to say his playing is bad by any means he still sounds good but not as awe inspiringly brilliant as one `Bad Reputation', `live & Dangerous' & `'Black Rose'. However despite my minor criticisms of this guitar duo their still excellent & John Sykes certainly was a fine choice on Phil's part after choosing Snowy White, who lets face it was a bit lacking in charisma & ultimately better suited to session work & Pink Floyd.
Yet again, although this isn't my favourite direction Lizzy went in `Thunder & Lightning' features some top class songs which shows Phil Lynott's ability to write well in any still. This album doesn't have any filler either alll of these songs are worth your time which is something Lizzy rarely achieved as they had a habit of writing generallly killer albums & putting one stinker on (see `S & M' from `Black Rose' ). Anyway my particular favourites from this strong collection are the title track which is just a great upbeat rocker with some silly 80's riffs & a hilarious keyboard solo (as Scott said Lizzy is a guitar band so the keyboards were a mistake, but I don't mind as other than this one solo their not overbearing). `Cold Sweat' is another great track & Lizzy's most metal moment complete with a tapping guitar break in the middle which reallly wouldn't of happened with any other Lizzy guitarist but John Sykes, it remains in the Lizzy (or should I say Whitesnake?) set to this day, which is fair enough , it's an excellent song & John Sykes' only writing credit with Lizzy. `The Holy War' is my favourite song here & has some excellent guitar harmonies which are not as frequent as on previous albums, also Phil's lyrics deal with religion which he does excellently as previously demonstrated by `Massacre' from the `Johnny the Fox' album.
So this album proved that Lizzy could pretty much pull off any style they attempted with aplomb be it funk or 80's commercial metal (I'll refrain from saying hair metal as is it isn't that cheesy). Even though I have some complains with the playing (Scott was much better suited to working with Brian Robertson or Gary Moore) & the production (the guitars are a little thin), this is a still a more than worthy album & a great way to end a career.
Treasure waiting to be unearthed - By: J. M. Salinas, 21 Aug 2007 For quite a while I thought Thin Lizzy was only worth exploring up to Live & Dangerous. Boy was I wrong.
Thunder & Lightning could be considered the "heavy metal" album in Lizzy's back catalogue. The production is rougher on the guitars & Lynott's vocals sound a bit more muffled than in other albums such as Black Rose.
Thunder & Lightning wouldn't stand out like a sore thumb on any Motorhead record, Cold Sweat is a head down no nonsense rocker & instead of the cringeworthy sirupy balllad of Sarah from Black Rose we have the eerily atmospheric The Sun Goes Down.
Baby Please Don't Go is vintage Lizzy with the almost tribal "oh no"s of the chorus & Bad Habits is another typical Lynott composition.
If you are a Lizzy fan, it is definitely a must in your collection, & if alll you know about Thin Lizzy is Live & Dangerous, you could certainly do a lot worse in their back catalogue!
