LOUDLION – Love Will Break Your Heart

Here is a small treat for some of you Hard Rock fans. Have you been longing for the old sound of the classic era of Def Leppard? Are the albums Pyromania and Hysteria on the top of your CD pile? So here you have it folks, the short, yet great EP from the American band from Los Angeles, California – Loudlion.

It’s really hard to say if this group is a full time band or just a project. Their formation date is unknown. What is known is that the band’s members are members of several other bands like: The Donnas, L.E.O, The Darling Alarm, Bang Camaro, and Rooney and from Andrew WK. The only member that is not involved in any other band / project is the lead vocalist, Robbie Royce. You can say that Loudlion are a bunch of boys and a girl that are huge fans of Def Leppard and they want to do it – big time.

The band’s style is not just similar; it’s almost the same as Def Leppard’s, 1984-1987, line of music writing, when noticing the riffs and even the solos – major melodic Hard Rock. That is the main reason why one would probably think that these guys are a tribute band. But so it seems, they are not. In addition, the band, along with a great production, was able to create the same sound of Def Leppard’s classic era with gloomy drums and low gain guitars with strong reverbs (or phasers even).

Aside from the fact that most of the members of this group are lead / rhythm guitarists, the one man that does the album is, with no doubt, the vocalist, Robbie Royce. When you listen to this guy singing with your eyes closed, you actually can hear Joe Elliot in his prime years with the deep, full voice along with high pitched notes. Robbie is one talented dude and the only hope is to hear more from him in the future.

Regarding the songs, Loudlion presents four songs. All of them deserve special attention. The opener is the self-titled of this EP, “Love Will Break Your Heart”, which appeared on the soundtrack of the movie, Balls Of Fury. From the beginning of it you can feel the Def Leppard spirit all around. While playing this song with Def Leppard’s classic, “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, one can hear a small resemblance but it still has the band’s original touches.

The second track, “The Hills Have Eyes” is totally Loudlion. Their usage of the old style of Hard Rock turns this baby into a great track with fine melodies and a catchy chorus. This track also appeared on the Horror motion picture, “The Hills Have Eyes 2”’s soundtrack. “Dawn Of The Dead”, is the strongest link on this EP, delivering the goods with everything it brings on – amazing riffs , lead parts , chorus , Robbie’s voice, absolutely a classic.

The closer, “Die Tuff” is a good song but it disappoints in one major thing. It’s a total rip off of Def Leppard’s song, “Love Bites”. The band can mimic Def Leppard’s sound and motifs but this song is some sort of an alternate copy of “Love Bites”. The opening, the drum effects, the lead guitar in the chorus and even the breaks are the same. From this end, Loudlion crossed a certain line that shouldn’t be crossed.

Although baring this issue, Loudlion did a good job with this release. One can only hope to hear a full length album of theirs in the near future. These guys can really rock and demonstrate it in an almost perfect way. Rock Of Ages.