White Lion
Mane Attraction

I dedicate my first review to one of my favorite bands of the '80s and, in my humble opinion, the best of the whole American hard-rock/glam wave of those years.

The White Lion are one of the first rock bands I listened to, and unlike most others, after endless listens, they still haven't tired me because of how much they continue to move me. This is their fourth and last album dated 1991 in which, in my opinion, they reach (at least in some tracks) their compositional and technical peak. Moreover, its recording quality surpasses that of the previous ones. However, the three albums "Fight To Survive" (1984), "Pride" (1987), and "Big Game" (1989) are also very beautiful. The band is composed of 3/4 Italian-Americans (Bratta, Lomenzo, D'Angelo) and the Danish Mike Trampenau.

The album opens with one of their best songs, which is also quite atypical and unique for its length and complexity. I'm talking about "Lights And Thunders", which starts with a rather dark intro reminiscent to me of another masterpiece from the previous year, "Pornograffiti" by the legendary Extreme. Right away, it showcases the excellent singer Mike Tramp (who last year resurrected the band without Vito Bratta for a new tour that, however, due to the absence of the sublime guitarist, wasn't very successful) and the already mentioned great guitar player Vito Bratta, who, in my humble opinion, is among the best of the time. Unfortunately, we can only listen to him on the 4 albums of the "white lion" because he seems to have retired from everything concerning the music world (it was said to be due to an unconfirmed hand problem). His taste and technique are extraordinary, and he certainly is not part of that wave of guitar heroes with all technique and no feeling that emerged after Van Halen's success… listen to what he can do with his Steinberger!! The solos alone are worth the purchase of the record for how beautiful, heartfelt, and personal they are! In some ways, he reminds me of my other favorite guitarist from the '80s (and another Italian-American), Criss Oliva (R.I.P.).

The second track is a new, better version of the timeless hit "Brokenheart" already present on their first work "Fight To Survive", a song that accompanied me throughout my adolescence. I won't talk about every single track because it would be tedious. The album consists of high-energy pieces like "Leave Me Alone" and "Warsong", mid-tempo like "It's Over", and great ballads like the beautiful "You Are All I Need". However, not all the tracks are on par with the ones I mentioned, and the weak piece of the album, in my opinion, is mainly the ballad "Till Death Do Us Part", which reminds me of the worst commercial Lenny Kravitz of recent years. The album closes with the track "Farewell To You", in which our band says goodbye in several languages, including Italian.

To conclude, an album to have for all hard rock lovers and for all guitarists who can thus reevaluate one of the most underrated and unknown guitar players in musical history.

"Sayonara and ciao my friend

You'll always have a place within my heart

And rock will come and rock will go

The scene will change and time will show

But still I hope that you'll be there for me and I'll be there for you!"