Pride of Lions
Lion Heart

I remember Pride of Lions for their utterly brilliant debut that was released back in the early 2000s, they have released four albums since then and none has been even close. The last two that we reviewed were pretty good, this album is their sixth. They haven’t always done great covers, Fearless had a good cover, and this one has a pretty dreary cover. But it might have the heart of a lion and that would probably make up for that, so let’s see what Peterik and Hitchcock has to offer.

It is a Frontiers styled album, they have a tendency to release albums that sounds quite similar and this is a lot less dynamic compared with the previous albums I have heard from this band. Catchy choruses and distinct melodies, and pretty typical of the AOR-genre, it does sound a lot less fresh than the previous albums I have heard by this band. Toby Hitchcock is a great vocalist, one of the absolute best in the melodic rock and hardrock music. On this album he doesn’t sound his best, he sounds mostly ordinary on this album and I think the album as a whole feel pretty uninteresting from a creative standpoint – it almost feels like an uninspired album.

Lion Heart is a solid effort, it doesn’t offer anything terrible or, the songs are all solid. I think the album starts pretty well, the first two or three songs promises much but the album never really takes off. It doesn’t have one of those brilliant hit songs that the previous albums had to offer, and without any of those songs the music of Pride of Lions seems pretty lacklustre. And I think that it sounds kind of like any albums from the Frontiers roster, pretty generic, well-made but generic.

If you like AOR of the variety that Frontiers throws out millions of almost every day, then this is certainly one that you should check out. You may be slightly disappointed if you are a fan of Pride of Lions as this is nowhere near the best that they have done – it is probably their worst album to date. In the end I think there are better choices than this one it is far from bad, but I have reviewed several albums from this genre that are a lot better than this one and it is all about numbers, how many albums can you afford and how many do you have time to listen to? If that number is limited this isn’t the best choice.

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