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For the Behind The Roar Stories click HERE Classic Rock Magazine – April 2007 PRIDE OF LIONS Passing the ‘difficult third album test with ease. Formulated on the sublime, apparently effortless chemistry between ex-Survivor guitarist/songwriter Jim Peterik and his 30-year-old vocal protégé Toby Hitchcock, the first two Pride of Lions albums set the bar at a very high level. The pairs third album in as many years, The Roaring of Dreams revisits the style of their eponymously titled debut, which is itself a distant cousin of Survivor’s own Vital Signs. Inspired by a dream that Peterik had about his recently deceased brother-in-law, opening track Heaven on Earth is pure AOR nirvana, and Pride of Lions proceed to stir the soul with the likes of Book of Life, Love’s Eternal Flame, and Language of the Heart, confirming the remarkable consistency of Peterik and Hitchcock’s respective talents. By Dave Ling
"That whole 'Survivor' thing is soooooo '80's, dude." "Crunching, atonal talentless Creed clones [is that an oxymoron or what?] are where rock's at, my man. Get with the times." I'd just like to say one thing. Nuh-uhhhh. Last night a reasonably small but highly-charged crowd packed into the Dorothy Menker Theatre at Moraine Valley College (the site of several previous World Stage extravaganzas) and experienced something special. Real, honest-to-goodness live rock'n'roll. Rock with soul. Rock with emotion. Rock with melody. Rock that rocked as hard as any other rock has rocked before. Do I make myself clear? In a word, Pride of Lions. Well, yeah, that's three words. Get over it. First, those of you who chose not to come out need to go kick yourselves. HARD. Like right now. Go ahead - I'll wait. Still waiting. Done? Good. Now go do it one more time for good measure. What you missed was the undisputed master of the genre referred to as"melodic rock" [an aside here - I think genre labels are stupid. Radio people need labels because otherwise they can't figure out what to play. Let's just ignore that "melodic rock" thing and just call it "damn good rock." Agreed? Good.] Anyhow, what you missed was an undisputed master of "damn good rock" at the top of his game. Whatever place inside his mind and soul he pulls these songs from, he's certainly tapped a new vein with the POL material. From tender ballads to huge arena rock, this is it. He seems to have a knack for songwriting - I've always maintained that if he just applied himself a little more, he could probably give up the greeter's job at Wal-Mart and do this for a living.
My throat hurts just thinking about it. A quick introduction is needed here - Pride of Lions is made up of: Jim Peterik - songs, voice, guitar, keys, rock star hair Jim, Toby, and the rest of the band have taken Europe and Japan by storm, but have yet to tour over here. Why? Don't get me started on a music-industry rant. It would get ugly, and we don't need that. And it gets even uglier when I go off on modern radio. Suffice it to say that if Bon Jovi can have a resurgence, like they have with their last couple of albums, then it's about damn time we got Pride of Lions over here for ourselves. As much as I love 'em, I simply can't swing round-trip airfare to Belgium and Japan every time I want to see them perform. Now, on to the concert. If you want to come out swinging, "It's Criminal" is certainly a good way to do it. And then, just to prove that "Criminal" wasn't just a fluke, you launch into "Gone". I must state here that I've had a long-time love affair with "Gone". From the very first time I heard it, it rushed right into my brain, found itself a niche, and settled in for good. "Gone" is one of those songs that I like to call "Holy $@#%" songs - you know the ones - the songs that stand head and shoulders above the rest of the songs on an album, make you sit up and say, "Holy $@%&!!!!! Now THAT'S a song!!" It's happened a few times before. First time I heard "Bring Me Some Water" by Melissa Etheridge on the radio, I actually drove right to the closest store and bought the cd. Same thing happened with "Was" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd. "Flipside" by the Ides of March is another one, as is "Rebel Girl", the formerly really-hard-to-find Survivor nugget. "The Last Resort" by The Eagles and "Chain Lightning" by 38 Special also fall into that category. I also judge a "Holy $#%&" song by its"repeatability factor" - how many times in a row can I hear it and not get sick of it? True "Holy #$%&" songs have infinite repeatability factors. "Gone" is one of those. I still get chills every time I hear Toby launch into the modulation right after the bridge (confused? Grab your copy of "Songwriting for Dummies" and look it up.) It sounded like it could have been a Rainbow song with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals. Oddly enough, Jim later told me that he had been thinking that exact thing when he wrote it... The show was a mixture of pure POL material, with a few Peterik-penned Survivor classics and some songs from Jim's recent "Above the Storm" solo album thrown in. That means it's all good. Jim gave the band a break after "Burning Heart", and brought out Ides-mate Chuck Soumar on percussion to help him with the title track to his most recent solo album, "Above the Storm." The rest of the band, sans Toby, who was apparently having a latte' and getting a rubdown, came back to join in on two more songs from "Above The Storm." In Toby's absence, Jim brought out the only Lioness in the pride, World Stage alum Lisa McClowry, to duet with him on "Live Life" (another "Holy #$#@" song...) and "In The Days We Have". Lisa's voice is a great blend and, frankly, it's nice to see the hot rock chick (that's an official music term. Look it up.) on stage with all the guys. I'm sure there are those who will say, "Sure, Peterik managed to write two albums for POL. But can he pull out a third one, or has he run out of ideas?" If you're one of those people, you can go sit down and be quiet. The Lioness stayed out, Toby came back on, and the band debuted a brand-new song called "Heaven on Earth". Jim explained the inspiration came to him, in a dream, from his recently-departed brother-in-law. Less than a minute into the song, it became clear that there was something surreal at work here - whatever the rest of the songs on POL3 sound like, "Heaven" is another "Gone." The audience was completely blown away. Let's hope Lisa's voice ends up on more of the new tracks. The evening was almost over, things were starting to wrap up, and then the the band started in on one of those huge arena ballads, "Gift of Song." "Gift" is one of those semi-autobiographical songs from Jim that tries to explain his life-long obsession with music. Normally a show-stopper during "World Stage", something in Toby suddenly clicked that night and suddenly he was a man possessed, singing from somewhere deep, deep down in his soul. I can honestly say it was truly one of the most emotional moments of the whole evening, whether you were on stage on in the audience. The word "electric" is overused, but there really is no other way to explain it. Toby hugged Jim when it was done - hell, even I wanted to run up on stage and hug him. If you've seen enough Ides and World Stage shows, you can tell when Jim is really wound up by the intensity of the "Guitar God" solo that leads into "Eye of the Tiger". That night was one of those nights. Even the band joined in on a little impromptu jam session right in the middle... And just when you thought it was over, they came back to give us one more - the hard rock classic "Heavy Metal", a song co-written by Jim and Sammy Hagar after a pot of really, really good, strong coffee. With a tequila chaser. Odd combo, but hell, it worked. Toby even found a growl in his voice that I'd never heard before... what a way to end an evening. Here's hoping they land a domestic record deal and a tour - if you missed this first one, you won't want to make that same mistake twice. For those of you who like to keep score at home, here's the set list: It's Criminal Paul Braun, Director
Pride
Of Lions performed on October 30th at the Rockfabrik venue in
Ludwigsburg, Germany!
I remember looking around me during Man Behind The Mask and feeling like a Berwyn kid transported into Never Never Land. It was strange and cool- and a moment I will never forget. The show after the show was a gas! We all followed Luk down the winding brick street to a little pub called the Dark Cloud. Traditionally this pub has been the home of countless after show jams- and POL kept that tradition alive with songs that we didn’t play at the main show. Christian sat at the upright piano in the corner- Mike and I had acoustic guitars and we played for about an hour for all the locals and visitors that came to the club. It was truly magic- and if you remember what happened at the Dark Cloud that night- you weren’t there! Thanks to everyone (especially Luk) who believed in me enough to book Pride of Lions into this prestigious festival. Thanks also to Linda Miller- our old friend from Fargo, ND - who visited us (she’s living in Germany now). “When Serafino Perugino, the head of my record label, Frontiers, called me in February of this year and asked if we could have a new Pride Of Lions album written and ready by July for a November release- I just about dropped the phone- that’s exactly one year since the release of our debut!” exclaims Peterik, “I composed myself, and always one for a good challenge I said, “No problem!” From that moment on Jim and Toby Hitchcock have been living and breathing Pride Of Lions. Their second album, The Destiny Stone is now complete, and if early response is any indication, it just may surpass the first in artistic vision and world acclaim. “We set out to top ourselves, to write a set of songs with the great uplifting messages and melodies that have become our trademark.” says Peterik. To have a great singer like Toby to co- sing these songs is a songwriter’s dream come true. It lets me explore the full range of melodic vision.” Toby Hitchcock, a relative newcomer to the rock scene, at age 26 has made an indelible mark as a “singer’s singer” with echoes of some of rock’s finest voices in his distinctive tenor. “I had a blast recording this album. We kept the basic team the same, same band, same studio, same production team (Jim and Larry Millas (Billy Idol, Survivor), behind the board. I say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” The Destiny Stone is a song cycle that Jim Peterik started in January ’04. Many of the songs were inspired by the mysterious visions he experienced as a child of four. “The only way I can describe it was that it felt like I was falling through a crack in time. It was far different than a dream- much more vivid and intense. The Destiny Stone is the musical embodiment of these journeys.” The range of material on the album goes from from majestic orchestrated ballads such as “Back To Camelot” and “Light From A Distant Shore” to hard as nails rockers such as “Born To Believe In You”, “Parallel Lines” and the lead off track “The Courage To Love Somebody”. “As usual, I wear my influences on my sleeve, like with the Styx inspired, “Man Behind The Mask” and my tribute to John Miles, “The Gift Of Song”. But I always try to inject my own style to the blend and make it unique,” states Jim. “My favorite on this record is “Falling back To Then”, says Toby. “It has a trippy kind of Pink Floyd section that I can’t get enough of.” The Destiny Stone, which was released on the Frontiers Label in Europe and the King label in Japan, comes out on the heels of Pride Of Lions benefit tribute song to the Madrid train tragedy of Mar 11, 04. “Having the support and input from a great label like Frontiers has been vital to us. Serafino demands only your best work and hopefully we have delivered.” In a computerized world where great melodies and passionate feelings are hard to come by, put on your head phones, turn up the volume, dim the lights and get ready to ride- The Destiny Stone. |
February
saw the release of The Roaring of Dreams- the third album by Pride
Of Lions. So far the reviews and airplay reports have been amazing
and sales are outstripping the first two CDs. POL received Burrn Magazines
highest rating for the month- 94 out of 100!
"Melodic rock is, like, dead."
Jim also has a knack for hooking up with the right vocalist - and Toby
Hitchcock is definitely the right voice for POL. He's got the best of
all the classic rock tenors, all wrapped up in a package that's part
rock star, part big, goofy kid. Whatever, the audience just loves Toby,
and Toby honestly, sincerely loves the audience right back. And for some reason, that voice just keeps coming and coming and coming...
The new Pride Of Lions DVD and companion CD are now released by Frontiers Records world wide. The DVD was filmed last August in Belgium and features songs from our first and second POL albums as well as Black Ribbons from our tribute single. We also include a few songs which I co- wrote and performed in my Survivor days as well as a whacked out version of Vehicle by the Ides Of March. Toby Hitchcock is brilliant on this disk establishing himself once and for all as one of the worlds best vocalists and performers, Klem, Ed, Christian and Mike are all captured well on this 12 camera, 48 track presentation. Larry Millas did a great job mixing this DVD for 5.1 sound. It was a magical night in Belgium for us and the 17,000 people in attendance. You can order this DVD and the audio CD version with bonus disk right here or from our official importer at .JPG)
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Pride
of Lions has taken a leap into the future with a performance in Belgium
in early August. It was the first time that Toby Hitchcock and I were
able to bring the whole Pride of Lions band overseas. I feel very
blessed to have not one but two bands of truly excellent friends and
musicians. The Pride guys- Toby Hitchcock- lead vocals, Ed Breckenfeld
- drums, Klem Hayes- bass, Mike Aquino- guitar, and Christian Cullen-
keyboards, are truly world class people as well as great musicians.
The fest we played was truly the “mother of all festivals”
in my mind. It’s called the Lokerse Feesten- a ten day fest
held in Brussels. This show has been running every year now for about
the last 15 years and is legendary for its production, huge attendance,
and great bookings. This year featured Iggy Pop and The Cure. Pride
of lions was the first act on the bill on a Thursday night. Me and
the guys- including Larry Millas from the Ides who accompanied us
as road manager and front of house sound man- went with the promoter-
Luk DeRoover- the day before to the gig site. We were overwhelmed
by the huge arced stage and arrays of motorized lights. Also the crowd
numbered about 18 thousand when we were there. We were pinching ourselves
saying- tomorrow night- that will be us up there on that stage!
We
spent the night at a quaint Belgium inn and the next day was dedicated
to a television taping and of course the sound check. The crew onstage
and in the house was all top notch. Europe really takes their rock
and roll seriously! What is more astounding is that the 500 or so
people working the fest were all volunteers from the area. That’s
the kind of pride this city takes in their fest.
Pol
took the stage at 8:15 while the sun was still setting. We opened
with It’s Criminal from our debut album and it felt like we
were firing on all cylinders. The crowd was into it- we saw many Pride
of Lions shirts and fans singing along with the choruses. It felt
great to be so far from home and seeing new friends. There were people
from all over Europe in the audience- including our good friend Flip
from Sweden and even Greg Lutter all the way from Florida! As the
sun went down and the veri- lights came into focus we were fully warmed
up and rocking. Some high points for me were “Unbreakable”
which brought down the house. Also- Toby singing The Gift Of Song
always gives me shivers. When we play that song- I feel as if I’m
in the audience watching instead of onstage. Also- our tribute to
the Spanish bombings “Black Ribbons” was a somber but
special moment. 