PRIDE OF LIONS – Dream Higher

I am still quite enamored with Pride of Lion’s superbly crafted Fearless LP from 2017 and to a slightly lesser extent the follow-up from three years later entitled Lion Heart. Dream Higher bears all the hallmarks of its predecessors in terms of its sound and style, but sadly, the songwriting is not entirely up to scratch this time around, which results in a rather frustrating listening experience where there is too much filler material and a shortage of truly spellbinding AOR/melodic rock. Toby Hitchcock is an incredibly gifted singer and Jim Peterik is a musical genius, but the roughly half the album comes across as bland, uninspired, and predictable, which is a shame as these gentlemen have shown themselves capable of churning out addictive and accomplished compositions so many times in the past. Although the 2023 effort leaves something to be desired in terms of variety and longevity, there are a few gems here in the shape of ‘Blind to Reason’, ‘Driving and Dreaming’, ‘Renegade Heart’, and ‘Through It All’ – all of whom possess some genuinely memorable vocal melodies and terrific riffs – but in the overall perspective, the whole affair is somewhat disappointing and one that does not succeed in stirring the emotions the same way that much of Peterik’s previous work does.