The highly respected AOR scene of Great Britain has offered through the years some raw or well-polished diamonds that have found their way in the collections of avid fans all around the world. Some of them actually made it and climbed up the charts but the truth is that the vast majority of them were lost under the radar of the commercial success. Such a characteristic case is undoubtedly Lionheart; a band that released a great debut record called “Hot Tonight” back in 1984 but for one reason or another couldn’t reach out and grab a wider audience. As a result they disbanded, reformed, recorded a sophomore effort (the really good “Second Nature”) and now they strike back with their third studio album “The Reality of Miracles”.
And for all the non-connoisseurs out there, Lionheart consists of a stellar bunch of musicians: Dennis Stratton, Rocky Newton, Steve Mann, Clive Edwards & Lee Small. So, we couldn’t expect anything less than a brilliant offering from this superband…and the boys delivered the goods!
“The Reality of Miracles” is really a melodic rock crossroad as we are not strictly treated with the expected British AOR sounds. In fact we get to experience a sonic flirt with the US AOR genre (especially in the song “All I Want is You”), some pompous moments (eg. “Kingdom of the East”) that clearly bring in mind such bands as Magnum and Ten but also pure hard rock elements that are highlighted of curse by the ever present musical identity of Lionheart.
So if you are into bands like Shy, Tobruk, Airrace, The Storm, Foreigner etc. then “The Reality of Miracles” is definitely a safe and highly recommended choice. Congrats, guys!
Highlight: Despite the fact that 2020 is a years that we would like to forget, it seems that many AOR and hard rock bands have come with some great releases. Lionheart is one of those bands…
