Pride of Lions
Fearless

Album number five from one of the absolute best AOR bands out there, Petrik, Hitchcock and the band come through fearless this time. And compared with the predecessor it certainly looks a lot better, I will put a vinyl on order right when I have written this review because that would look good and sound great in my collection. It is stated that Petrik has been listening and cherry picking from what he has liked best about what the band has done so far. That has led to a sound closer to the debut album than the predecessor was, and that is of course not a bad thing considering how great that album was.

It is melodic and catchy albums with choruses to die for, and with good variation over a dozen tracks it is certainly an appealing album. Toby Hitchcock’s vocals are great as usual and the melodies are excellent with a production that is certainly one of the best I have heard in the AOR genre. It seems as Pride of Lions always tend to deliver high quality stuff. What they don’t deliver though are surprises, there is none one this album and I am not sure there has been any since the first. In all honesty all the albums of Pride of Lions can be described as variation of the debut, which in turn can be described as a variation on something by Survivor. We get the songs they tend to deliver on each and every album with several parts that feel very familiar.

Familiarity does not breed contempt in this case though because the songs are still so expertly crafted, excellently produced and performed. I really like this album and it would certainly not be exaggerating to claim that it is the best album in the genre this far, and I don’t doubt that it will remain the best for a while even when I have reviewed other albums in this genre. So, even though it may lack a little forward thinking and surprises it is still a fantastic album and I don’t really think that it has any major flaws. It is certainly an album that will appeal to anyone into AOR or who like anything that Pride of Lions has made before.

I am impressed with how these guys deliver high quality albums all the time, just listen to tracks like Everlasting Love, All I See is You, Silent Music and the title track if you want just four examples of what I am on about. But the fact is that all twelve tracks are really great and that this is a great album even though it offers not surprises – something that certainly appeals to the fans.

HHHHHHH