Return of the Pride

Return of the Pride is a comeback after a full sixteen years, on which Mike Tramp again brought expansive melody and plain words to the front under the White Lion name. Released on Frontiers in 2008, it was made without original guitarist Vito Bratta, with a new lineup of Jamie Law (guitar), Claus Langeskov (bass), Henning Wanner (keyboards) and Troy Patrick Farrell (drums). Tramp and Langeskov co-produced it, recording in Australia and Copenhagen. Guitar hooks cross with the ache in the singing, sounding an 1980s-style melodic hard rock in present tense. Epics like the eight-minute-plus opener “Sangre de Cristo” and the seven-and-a-half-minute “Battle at Little Big Horn” appear, and “Finally See the Light” and “Live Your Life” were presented as singles. Rather than aiming only to recreate the past, a matured voice and settled songs give the album a different depth. Views on Bratta’s absence differ, but it earnestly takes up the idealistic ring of the band’s name.