Do you like your live albums to be warts'n all, bum note live?
Or do you prefer them to be cleaned up via post gig cosmetic surgery - a nip here, a tuck there?
If it's the latter, you'll love 'Live In Belgium'.
Jim Peterik has orchestrated some skilful vocal, instrumental and crowd noise overdubs in the studio, turning
'Live In Belgium' into the best live melodic rock studio album for quite some time.
Peterik has got two things going for him in Pride Of Lions (apart from an obvious enthusiasm). First, he still pens an awesome melodic rock song. Two, in
Toby Hitchcock he has found an able vocalist with an athletic voice, perhaps not as distinctive and expressive as Jimi Jamison's, but certainly one that can soar through the octaves. And in the Pride Of Lions v Survivor, Peterik v Sullivan competition, Peterik definitely has the better haircut. Just.
Good value here. Two discs. The first is a fourteen track record of the aforementioned gig in which Peterik briefly revisits his past, with Ides Of March's
'Vehicle', Survivor's
'The Search Is Over', 'I Can't Hold Back' and
'Eye Of The Tiger' mixing in with a strong POL set, and to be perfectly candid, you just can't see the join. Pride Of Lions clearly competes in the same division as either band picked from Peterik's short but highly durable CV.
The second disc, seven tracks in all, rounds up various bonus tracks only available previously on the Japanese releases of the duo's two albums, plus a couple of new songs.
Wannabes should listen and weep. By definition, these are songs that missed the cut when the band's self titled debut, and follow up,
'Destiny Stone' were released in Europe.
Yet the quality here is breathtaking.
Peterik continues his quest to reach out and touch that awesome melodic moment on the theatrical, heartfelt single,
'Black Ribbons'.
Where Hitchcock's high toned voice swoops and swirls round Peterik's echoing piano on the balladic
'Feels Like Another Planet, on
'Dark Angel' - a sublime blend of hardwired axework and sepulchral keyboards - it is untypically harsh, giving the song weight and stature.
That said, opener
'Reckless Love' is probably the pick from these seven high calibre songs, in that it vividly recalls Survivor's genuinely world class
'Vital Signs' / 'When Seconds Count' purple patch back in the middle of the eighties.
That's where I came in.
Written by
Brian Friday, July 28, 2006
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