| CD REVIEW Lionheart |
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Band: Lionheart I have very little info to give you about Oakland (San Francisco, CA) based Hardcore act Lionheart [certainly not to be confused with the legendary British Hard Rock band fronted by Jess Cox (formerly of Tygers Of Pan Tang) and guitarist Dennis Stratton (who’d been with Iron Maiden), who left us the one 1984 album Hot Tonight during their lifetime (Nov 1980 – April 1986) and the archive compilation Uneartheed – Raiders Of The Lost Archives in 1999], simply because there wasn’t much to find on the band on the Internet (or at least, noth through my usual channels). So, what càn I tell you? Currently the line-up of the band is composed of singer Rob, guitarists Rob & Earl, bassist Travis, and drummer Jay. But that hasn’t always been so, because on the The Will To Survive album (which was originally released through Sacramento’s West Coast Worldwide imprint in late 2007, recorded during July of the same year at Oakland’s Panda Studios), Earl was supplemented by guitarist Evan…and at one time (befóre the recording of the album) Travis was preceeded by one Kevmo Money. Another thing I’m sure of is that the band has at least been active sonce September 2004 (because that’s when they starteed up a MySpace profile! Also, the band released a 6-track EP entitled This Means War (off which they only re-recorded the song “Calling You Out” for the full-length album) during 2006…no idea whether that was a private affair, or an EP issued by a proper label! Anyways, although the guys are from Southern California, they didnn’t feel much like jumping on the bandwagon of Poppy Punk which is so popular over there, and rather wanted to make it the hard way, following in the footsteps of North Californian acts Hoods and Powerhouse, who also adhere to the Metallic Hardcore sounds of the New York City scene! Actually, Lionheart also throws in quite a bit of Mosh factor, as you will be able to hear from the songs posted at myspace.com/lionheartbahc. By the way, try to check out the lyrics posted in the blog section of the page. As the band mentions, their main influence is life itself, and the lyrics are the more honest and lived for it! One of the big disadvantages of the current global crisis…besides the fact that many record labels are switching to an on-line kind of promotion wherin reviewers have to burn their own CDs…is that those labels whom still prefer to send out hard copy (that’s what the actual CD is called in those circles) or promo CDs tend to save up several releases before sending them out to reviewers of “less” importance (for some reason record labels still prefer the actual fysical magazine above the on-line one), with as a result that a number of releases/ reviews always come àfter the album’s street date! Of course, in the case of I Scream, I’ve always known things to go that way, and occasionally that’s a bummer, especially when the band in question happened to be on tour in the neighbourhood. Yep, Lionheart was in Europe, touring with Freya and Sworn Enemy from February 12 to March 29…so even if you get to read this asap, you’ll find the guys only have a couple of German shows left before goin’ back home! Not that they’ll have a lot of rest, mind you, because in April they’re out on US roads playing support to Thick As Blood and Your Own Destroyer, and starting May 5th (up to July 3rd) they’re out on futher North American dates with Folsom! You may wonder why it took so long for this great album to make it over onto the European side of the Atlantic Ocean…well, let it be known that the album was only recently (September 2008) re-issued through Stillborn…and becaùse we had to wait so long for it, the European version doés include the complete 2006 EP (which has a slightly duller sound overall, making for the listener not being able to make out the different singers – yep, there’s a backing singer with whom Rob frequently battles in the typical “tough guy”-type of vocals). If thàt didn’t make the wait worthwhile, I don’t know! Anyways, definitely a top release, but the original stuff wàs issued some time ago, and therefore I cannot (on principle) add this release to my year-lists! The compilation…because that’s what it is, isn’t it…nevertheless gets a top rating!!! 98/100 Tony. |