Album Review — British Lion

British Lion — The Burning

The story of British Lion is an interesting one. Iron Maiden bassist/songwriter Steve Harris was going to produce an album by a band called British Lion back in 1992. The band broke up before the album was recorded. Twenty years later Harris went back to the band to see if they wanted to be the band on his solo record. The result was “British Lion” which was released as a Harris solo album. Now with the second record, British Lion is officially a band and “The Burning” has been released under the band name.

I didn’t spend a lot of time with the first record so I didn’t really know what to expect with this record. To me, it sounds similar to current Iron Maiden but with Don Dokken singing. Musically, we get the twin guitars, the signature Harris driving bass lines and lots of melody. The main difference from Maiden is the vocals. Frontman Richard Taylor doesn’t have the range of Bruce Dickinson but these songs fit his voice nicely.

There are some really great tracks on this record. The album starts as you would expect with a rocker. “City of Fallen Angels” starts with guitar and Taylor’s vocals until Harris’ driving bass line kicks in.

The title track kicks in with the dual guitars which sounds very Maiden as that riff continues throughout the song. About half of these tracks have a Maiden feel to them. I would have loved to hear Dickinson take on a few of these tracks.

The middle of the record really gets going with a string of great songs. “Elysium” and “Lightning” are very strong as well as “Last Chance” and “Spit Fire”, which might be the most Maiden sounding song on the album.

The highlight of the record is “Legend”. It’s not one of the Maiden sounding tracks, but it’s got a huge chorus and Taylor’s vocals really stands out. I know it’s early in the year, but I imagine this will be a competitor for my song of the year.

I like every song on the record. The album closer “Native Son” is a little slower and is probably my least favorite song on the record. If I have any issues with the record, it would be that Taylor’s vocals are missing some snarl which would have helped a few tracks, but that’s really nitpicking.

This isn’t Iron Maiden, but it’s not that far off, especially the newer Maiden stuff. It’s a little more melodic than the classic Maiden and Taylor’s vocals are definitely different than Dickinson’s. But there are a lot of familiar elements and they add up to a very strong record.

We are off to a good start in 2020.

90 out of 100

Track Listing

1. City of Fallen Angels
2. The Burning *
3. Father Lucifer
4. Elysium *
5. Lightning *
6. Last Chance
7. Legend *
8. Spit Fire
9. Land of the Perfect People
10. Bible Black
11. Native Sun

*Best Songs