Pride Of Lions Lion Heart

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Pride Of Lions releases the AOR album of the year and remind us all how this kind of music should be played and performed. In a year where the competition is fierce among the bands of the genre, all things indicate that Pride Of Lions will be the undisputed winner of 2020. I sincerely hope that all the fans of the melodic rock sound will dedicate some of their valuable time to discover and enjoy this magnificent piece of art that Jim Peterik & Toby Hitchcock had offered us with “Lion Heart”.

I will be honest with you…this is probably the best album that Pride of Lions has released since the landmark debut album of theirs back in 2003 thus proving that the legendary ex-Survivor member is on top form…as always, that is! Two elements are the crucial, differential points compared to the recent Pride of Lions albums. The first one is a clear vision of coming up with some old school, 80s AOR sound. The second one is that Pride of Lions has decided to record more up-tempo songs and let aside the ballads. I always said that the biggest asset of this band is the fact that they had created some of the best up-tempo AOR songs of all time.

Absolute highlights of this impeccable bunch of songs surely include “We Play For Free”, “Carry Me Back”, “Flagship” and “Rock & Roll Boom Town” while it would be a mishap if we didn’t point down that both Jim and Toby has retained their voices on a high level through all these years. I just hope one day, we will get to experience this band live on Greek soil…sometimes dreams come true!

Highlight: I always admired Peterik’s unique knack of coming up with lyrics that speak straight to the heart regardless if you had been in that particular place or had experienced a specific situation that Jim is describing. Amazing!