Customer Reviews

Destiny Stone

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Good
The production on "The Courage to Love Somebody" is just phenomenal. Granted it could be mistaken for a long-lost Survivor track, but they just something about the guitar tone and the synthesizers that make it work. The vocals send a strong message of love with their powerful delivery. "Parallel Lines" to easily pass as the soundtrack to an emotionally charged movie climax with its driving rhythms and over-the-top chorus. Peterik's flair for the keyboard takes center stage on "Born to Believe in You". Toby and Jim pull off a great duel vocal melody on the chorus. What kind of fool relies a lot on the keyboard as well, but this time around it's for power ballad. There's a very 1980s-esque solo that goes along with it.

Pride of Lions seem to excel in the ballad department, which is evident on "Light from a Distant Shore". Little guitar licks here and there add depth to the song. "Letter to the Future" walks a fine line between melodic rock and an Andrew Lloyd Webber production. The song begins slow and understated, but finishes with all pistons firing. A catchy muted riff dominates "Falling Back to Then". On the verses the vocals seem a little darker and deeper, but that makes way for a high-registered melodic assault. I wanted to note that Pride of Lions don't skimp on material. There's no song shorter than four minutes, with most tracks clocking in between five and six minutes.

The Bad
It's not quite clear who's singing what.

The Verdict
The `eye of the tiger' is alive and well, now traveling with a Pride of Lions. The Destiny Stone truly is the best of 80s-era melodic rock with a modern twist. Each song is powerful and sure to bring out every emotion possible. The guitar tone and heavy use of keyboards is what will reel you in. A nice slice of what's missing in American rock today.

How can the duo made up by rock veteran Jim Peterik known as great songs by Survivor, 38 Special and a lot more and 25-year-old bud Toby Hitchcock work? It is truly unprecedented combination. Yep similar things are tried in Santana's SUPERNATURAL album when the rock legend Carlos Santana made great combination with Rob Thomas young talented rocker of Matchbox Twenty. With Pride of Lions debut two years ago and
this one just released, Jim Peterik competes fairly well with talented new singer Toby Hitchcock having strong vocal the rock world has been waiting for. Before Survivor Jim did sing during Ides of March and latter-day Chase. But after finding great singer Dave Vickler he was content with background role concentrating on songwriting. For most of Survivor and 80's rock fans Jim Peterik taking co-lead vocalist role is quite fresh somewhat like meeting a new singer. Not only uncovering his great talent as vocalist but his songwriting shown in this album is better than ever. All the track included are well-written and well-hooked. Among the great songs I would pick LIGHT FROM DISTANT SHORE, BORN TO BELIEVE IN YOU, and MAN BEHIND THE MASK as my top favorites.

Must-have album if you are a rock connoisseur.

Released just a year after their self-titled debut, 2004's The Destiny Stone is the second album from Pride of Lions. While the album title and artwork suggests a power metal (or maybe pomp rock) style, Pride of Lions is actually an old school AOR/melodic rock group started by former Survivor guitarist Jim Peterik and vocalist Toby Hitchcock.

Given Peterik's involvement as guitarist, occasional vocalist and songwriter, it should come as no surprise that Pride of Lions sounds a lot like Survivor. There's also something of a vintage Styx aspect to some of the songs on this album. The Destiny Stone is full of soaring ballads, upbeat love songs and solid, mid-tempo melodic rockers. It's probably more on the lighter side than I'd prefer, but then again so were a lot of Survivor's albums. Peterik delivers some sweet guitar work though, and Hitchcock has a tremendous range and conveys a lot of emotion in his singing. The whole album is a well-executed, highly-polished AOR gem.

If you're a fan of the classic AOR sound Survivor helped define in the `80s, or just enjoy high quality melodic rock, you definitely will want to check out Pride of Lions. I'm partial to the band's debut album, but The Destiny Stone is another great showcase of what this band has to offer.

Initially I was disappointed by this second effort from Pride of Lions. However, after several listens the cd grew on me. Whilst there are no unbelievable power ballads like their first CD, Light from a distant shore is excellent. As for the rest of the material on this CD, I would say that if you are a fan of Journey, Toto,or Styx, you really should add this Cd to your collection. Singer Toby Hitchcock has an unbelievable range and could easily be mistaken for both Dennis De Young or Tommy Shaw. (hard to believe but true)
The courage to love somebody and Parallel Lines are awseome. Born to believe in you is an excellent rocker, while Man behind the mask sounds like Dennis de young and the song is eerily familiar - Mr. Roboto. Second hand life and falling back to then make the album complete.
The filler tracks Back to Camelot and Gift of song are listenable but not unforgettable - mind you the lead singer in Gift of song shows off his range here and listen out for an Alan Parsons like bridge in the middle of the song.
All in all a worthy CD in any collection

I probably listen to more of this fluffy AOR stuff than is good for me, and the older I get, the more I seem to indulge in it. One band I always come back to when I'm in the mood for this kind of thing is Pride of Lions, and especially this album, their most consistent. It's hard to put my finger on what exactly makes this band so great - yes, Peterik can write songs and Hitchcock can sing, but all of that was true of Survivor and I never much liked Survivor. This band is more varied in terms of instrumentation and much more mature lyrically than Survivor, or in fact most any other AOR band I can think of. Pick this one up. The fact that I am writing a review praising it all these years after its original release shows you that it has real staying power.

The Good
The production on "The Courage to Love Somebody" is just phenomenal. Granted it could be mistaken for a long-lost Survivor track, but they just something about the guitar tone and the synthesizers that make it work. The vocals send a strong message of love with their powerful delivery. "Parallel Lines" to easily pass as the soundtrack to an emotionally charged movie climax with its driving rhythms and over-the-top chorus. Peterik's flair for the keyboard takes center stage on "Born to Believe in You". Toby and Jim pull off a great duel vocal melody on the chorus. What kind of fool relies a lot on the keyboard as well, but this time around it's for power ballad. There's a very 1980s-esque solo that goes along with it.

Pride of Lions seem to excel in the ballad department, which is evident on "Light from a Distant Shore". Little guitar licks here and there add depth to the song. "Letter to the Future" walks a fine line between melodic rock and an Andrew Lloyd Webber production. The song begins slow and understated, but finishes with all pistons firing. A catchy muted riff dominates "Falling Back to Then". On the verses the vocals seem a little darker and deeper, but that makes way for a high-registered melodic assault. I wanted to note that Pride of Lions don't skimp on material. There's no song shorter than four minutes, with most tracks clocking in between five and six minutes.

The Bad
It's not quite clear who's singing what.

The Verdict
The `eye of the tiger' is alive and well, now traveling with a Pride of Lions. The Destiny Stone truly is the best of 80s-era melodic rock with a modern twist. Each song is powerful and sure to bring out every emotion possible. The guitar tone and heavy use of keyboards is what will reel you in. A nice slice of what's missing in American rock today.