LIONHEART - The Will To Survive
Although Lionheart come from California, their simple kind of hardcore couldn’t sound more New York. Their debut The Will To Survive from 2007 will finally be released in Europe, with the songs from their EP This Means War (2006) as bonus tracks.
The short intro throws already phrases like “Bay Area Hardcore”, “Motherfucker”, “Pit” and “In Your Face” at the listener, making it clear from the onset that the quintet is anything but friendly. They play their quite fast hardcore with a lot of anger, reminding mostly of Hatebreed. Add to this hefty breaks and gang shouts, and you know where you’re at with these guys. The lyrics that accordingly blame social injustices match the musical storm.
As hard as the musicians try, they hardly manage to come up with songs that sound different from each other. With Honor is their fastest moment, and they let it rock a little harder on This Means War, but eventually they rely too much on the same pattern. Even the bonus tracks fit right in with the overall sound, except that they suffer from a more muffled production. Apparently the instruments were tuned half an octave down for the older material, but who am I to notice such subtleties?
Lionheart are not bad at what they are doing, but other bands did similar stuff, sometimes even with better quality. The situation is not quite hopeless, but the band faces a lot of work and rehearsal hours ahead of them if they want to come up with something more special.