Lions Share - Two (1997)

Swedish band, Lions Share formed in 1987, suffering through many line-up changes. This is their second full length album (as you may have guessed) and is a progressive, melodic hard rock album with metal elements. They are now classified as "Power Metal" by Encyclopdia Metallium.

Just had a listen to a couple of their more recent tracks. Not overly impressed. This one is better.

It has a sort of progressive-hard-rock look to the packaging. Cover features two molten dolphin leaping from a chessboard. Black on white inside, very straightforward and very easy to read. Lyrics one page, band member photo on the other. They all look rather serious. On the back int contains the legend "Absolutely no gates used in this cd". Not sure what that means. So I asked google:

A noise gate or gate is an electronic device or software that is used to control the volume of an audio signal.

So, you learn something new everyday. I guess that means their sound is more authentic?

A chugging with pompous organ-synth opens "Wild at Heart". Full bloated, stirring. Guitars shift in and the rhythm surges forth. Vocals enter, smooth, almost sweet of a pitch not unlike Dream Theater. Surges into more full-blown shouts and bellows, with backing vocals sweeping around it like disembodied voices. Soemwhat savage and aggressive, as befits the lyrics:

"You know I've got a mean streak and you know that nothing can stop me now!"

The keyboards go a little wild in the solo.

The "Lord of the Pain" enters with lower, smooth vocals overlaid with gutteral shouting. Loud, aggressive, with violent rifts and churning emotions.

"Transient" starts with a blast. Shouting and singing combine in this sci-fi themed song with its rock rhythms.

The super-dooper-power-ballad "Don't Come Easy" feels almost like a parody, it's so different from the others. Vocalist Andy Engberg almost seems to be crooning. His voice is filled with passion and this is just like those good old-fashioned rock ballads of the late 80s/early 90s, complete with sing-a-long chorus and backing vocalists. It's uncanny, and quite beautiful, really. Engberg should sing more often.

"Shadows" was the first song I heard by Lions Share - played on MTV and it's a pretty epic hard rock piece. It starts with an aural assault like an avalanche of sound as the guitars and drums thrash, before Engberg's voice rises with the power and clarity of a deity rising from the stone. It is an immense and mighty song.

This is followed by another semi-ballad, "Baptism of Fire" has its slower moments. It is a stirring piece, complete with choirs. And latin. It makes me wonder if Lions Share are a Christian band. There's even a touch of Enya-style warbling. For a heartbeat, no more. There are some odd and intricate little quirks weaving their way through this track, bringing it into dramatic and passionate life.

Now it's time for a New Wave cover. Secret Service's "Flash in the Night". Not sure why metal bands like to cover New Wave tracks - this is the third I've heard in the last week. Here's the original. Whilst keeping the rhythms and structures the same, it is transformed into a dark and brooding Hard Rock piece, still retaining the keyboards. Immense and solid.

Another loud and dramatic piece, "World Gone Wrong" offers more of the heavy rifts, melodic shouted vocals and loud instrumentation, including keyboards. Not a bad piece, but nothing new or dramatic.

We conclude with an instrumental "Rat Race". For an instrumental, it offers little different from the actual songs, except for a bit more keyboard and that rising of drama and tension that builds then fades within a few beats.

Overall, it's an entertaining enough album, if a little too similar to the other bands of the late 90s for my tastes. Except for when they jump back into an 80s power ballad. Bit too shouty and not enough singy.

This earns it a rating of 6/10.