Kev Rowland I can remember being somewhat impressed with the second album from Lioncage, which was released in 2017, and now they are back with their third which is ever better. I have been listening a great deal to Dan Reed Network’s mighty ‘Slam’ album recently, and although this one doesn’t funk and groove like that, there are definitely some similarities in the sound, and I wasn’t surprised to see that they have played alongside them. This is far more about melodic hard rock, and they have also shared a stage with the likes of FM and Tyketto, and I am sure that fans of all those bands would have discovered a lot here to enjoy.

This is polished without having all the passion rubbed out of it, and singer Thorsten Bertermann has just the right amount of rasp in his voice to keep it interestingly and not fall into the sugary sweet trap of many. There are times when it does become a little too repetitive in some of their more basic numbers such as “Blind”, but generally they carry it off with panache. They clearly show their love for the likes of Toto and Foreigner, and sometimes even bring in influences from Bryan Adams, and the result is a melodic rock album that makes the listener smile, and sometimes that is what it is all about.

Kev Rowland Lioncage was formed in Germany in 2013 by Thorsten Bertermann (vocals), Torsten Landsberger (drums) and Lars König (guitar & mix), their debut ‘Done At Last’ was released two years later with this one two years after that. Although the trio has a variety of individual musical influences they have one passion in common, melodic rock and bands such as Toto, Foreigner, Journey, Huey Lewis, Genesis, Yes, Paul Carrack, Chicago and many more. They brought in some guests to help them with this album, with bass by Lars Slowak, Sven Zimmermann, Andreas Laude-Schwedewsky and Dirk Meyer, keyboards by Mitch Knauer and Shanger Ohl, and backing vocals by Madeleine Lang, Anja Bublitz, Olaf Senkbeil and Billy King. Tim Pierce, (Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Rascal Flatts, Joe Cocker, Rick Springfield, Elton John etc.) provided some guitar parts on the track “Secrets”.

They have taken their passions and managed to combine many of them in just one record, with Journey and Toto being the most obvious, and it is as if grunge and hair metal never took place as when listening to this it is the late Seventies again. Somehow, they manage to stay just the right side of overpowering production and flimsy guitars, and throw in some good harmony vocals and melodies that make this an interesting album to listen to. If you enjoy melodic hard rock with an AOR feeling to it then this may well be of interest.