REVIEWS:
White Lion were a melodic 80s-early 90s hard rock band that thankfully concentrated little on the sleaze and glam look and more on actual songwriting. They boasted one of the most proficient guitarists around that time that expanded on the ideas of the great Eddie Van Halen, Vito Bratta, while Mike Tramp had one of the more oddly distinctive voices of the era. Their biggest hit albums included Pride and Big Game, with their extremely hard to find debut Fight To Survive and Mane Attraction being more minor triumphs. The band broke up in relative obscurity, and Bratta hasn't even picked up a guitar since then. With the possibility of a future reunion out, Tramp recorded a questionable album of several reworked older songs with a new backing band, Remembering White Lion.
--Nick Karn
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COMMENTS
your site is not very well updatede my friend!!
mike tramp, the ex whitelion frontman has made a lot more albums than you have been adding to your website.
after WHITE LION he started a band FREAK OF NATURE.
they made 3 albums:
*freak of nature
*gathering of freaks
*outcasts
after this band broke up mike decided to go on as a solo artist.
he released 3 albums instead of only the on you have added, remembering white lion).
the other 2 albums are: *CAPRICORN
*RECOVERING THE WASTED YEARS
for more info, go to my website:
http://www.geocities.com/mike_whitelion_tramp/
mike has just recorded a new album, called:
MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS
ON THIS ALBUM WILL ALSO PLAY: STEVE LUKATHER (TOTO)
FOR MORE INFO CHECK MY SITE:
http://www.geocities.com/mike_whitelion_tramp/
greetings,
arie
White Lions biggest mistake at the time they began was passing up a singer named Vinny Albano from a band called Cashmier. Vinny was one of the best original front men on the circut at the time. He was a huge fan of Vitos when Vito played in a band called Storm. I remember the buzz was that he would get the gig as front man for White Lion and was heart broken when he didnt. I recently seen him and we spoke for hours about the old days. He said he has been searching for Vito for a while to possibly write some songs and possibly get something together. When he mentioned it, I couldnt even begin to tell you that both of them are the biggest gentlemen I have ever met in rock bands. Both have similair humble demeanors. He asked me to e mail him if I found anything out about Vito. His e mail is [email protected] if anyone else may have info. Those two guys would be a great team
Hi!
Thank you for this page on WHITE LION. One or two reflexions concerning the notes of the albums: MANE ATTRACTION (1991) is surely the more succeeded album of the group and it has a fucking sound (= 9/10) ! Make a listening with beginners (open of spirit) and you will see what they say of the latter in comparison to PRIDE...
REMEMBERING WHITE LION Fd Mike TRAMP is a beautiful surprise. Mike TRAMP could have taken again titles of the White Lion without imagination. He preferred to give them a side more Rock'n'Roll (more timeless!). And it's very successful!
In 2003 : last CD solo for Mike (ROCK' N' ROLL ALIVE) and a Box Set of the explosive FREAK OF NATURE gang ! More on the Web site of Mike : www.miketramp.com
That's it ! Now, jump, Rock, make noise ! JE
awesome band!!!! they're the best thing that ever happened to rock! what happened to vito bratta?
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This was White Lion's breakthrough album, and deservedly so, as the band's strengths are no doubt apparent here. Expanding on Eddie Van Halen's innovative playing, lead guitarist Vito Bratta's fine guitar work is all over Pride, exhibiting technical, but tasteful, flash. Plus, there's no denying the band's considerable sense of addictive melody, and lyrics which are considerably stronger, more thoughtful and much less sleazy than most of their peers. As a result, Pride is one of the more enjoyable hard rock records of the decade that serves as much more of a fun listen than a huge guilty pleasure (Poison, Slaughter, Winger, pre-Dog Eat Dog Warrant, etc.). It's consistently good, too, really only faltering with their attempts at party rock-styled songs (which aren't their strength at all) in the opening "Hungry" and "All You Need Is Rock N Roll" sounding too contrived.
A few of the songs here that leave quite an impression are "Don't Give Up" and "All Join Our Hands", both of them fantastic example of quality, sing-along arena rock with catchy as hell choruses and very hopeful lyrical sentiment, as well as the single "Wait", one of the band's biggest hits, which explodes even more at the chorus and is helped by well-constructed acoustic verse buildups. "Sweet Little Loving", meanwhile, seems like a generic rocker at first but has another completely singable melody and perfect bass work behind the chorus.
Another smash, "When The Children Cry", features more intimate acoustic playing (one of their more genuinely affecting even if somewhat cliched ballads) that closes the album on a very nice note, and "Lonely Nights" is effectively moody, with a good night feel to go along with its' melody. "Tell Me" also has its' very catchy moments in its' "ohhh ohhhh" sections, and "Lady Of The Valley" is a good epic-styled track with exciting fast riff sections, although it's a minute or so too long. This is in my opinion probably White Lion's best overall work, and one of the finer records of the scene that I'm not ashamed at all to admit I enjoy quite a bit. So there.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
White Lion's third album wasn't as big a success as Pride, and it's a little less melodic and not as energetically produced as that album with a much different production sound. It's still a strong release, however, with the only missteps coming when the band gets way too close to Van Halen territory on the uncharacteristically trashy "Dirty Woman", which isn't a great song to begin with, and the mindlessly generic speed rocker "Let's Get Crazy", which is essentially a second rate "Hot For Teacher". Elsewhere, Big Game starts and ends in excellent fashion, with the really pleasant singalong "Goin' Home Tonight" and the magically dark and moody desperation plea "Cry For Freedom" (my favorite here), both of which really benefit from Mike Tramp's vocals, which are an acquired taste but make the band sound more distinctive.
Other highlights include "Little Fighter", which has very effective political lyrics, the explosive cover of Golden Earring's "Radar Love", which is the heaviest and most purely energetic moment throughout the album, "Don't Say It's Over" (great band harmonies on this one), the reflective "Livin' On The Edge", and the powerfully raw "If My Mind Is Evil". The rest of the tracks include "Baby Be Mine", which has beautiful guitar work and a great chorus, and "Broken Home". In all, like most of White Lion's catalog, this is a very good release for hard rock fans who can't stand the cheese and lack of substance of many 80s metal acts.
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COMMENTS
[email protected] (John Schlegel)
A fine '80s hard rock record that really transcends the norm for its time in terms of musicianship and meaningful lyrics. White Lion show growth as players, pouring a high amount of energy into each performance in every song, and not holding back on the chops; Vito Bratta's guitar solos are always impressive (of course), and Greg D'Angelo's drumming is consistently competent and forceful, especially in "Radar Love." And let's not forget Mike Tramp, whose vocals are a little unusual but still well done, keeping things interesting. The songwriting is by no means amateurish, misfiring only in the two bad Van Halen rip-offs that Nick mentioned. My personal faves are the melodic ode to Greenpeace, "Little Fighter," the awkwardly groovy "Baby Be Mine," the sing-along anthem opener "Goin' Home Tonight," and the gassed-up, lick-laced Golden Earring cover. For hair metal, much of this music actually passes for great, timeless rock & roll with progressive undercurrents. This is one of the few cheesy '80s metal relics I had when I was a youngster that I STILL like today. Like Tesla, these guys were a seriously overlooked talent of their era.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
White Lion's swan song before their breakup less than a year later, Mane Attraction isn't quite on par with their two earlier successes Pride and Big Game. To its' credit, the album is somewhat more ambitious than those efforts, and it starts out with a couple absolute triumphs in that respect - the 8 minutes plus "Lights And Thunder" has great progressive song dynamics and soloing and is very Queensryche-ish, and a reworking of the hard to find first album ballad "Broken Heart" has a tremendous chorus and nice band energy. The lengthy "Warsong" is a highly powerful account of the horrors of war, from the hard-hitting riff to the desperate acoustic section to the lyrics, "Love Don't Come Easy" has awesome swirling guitars in the verses plus excellent vocal emotion and the nice credit roller "Farewell To You" is a fitting end to the band's career.
The problem here is that throughout Mane Attraction's exhausting 63 minute length, the quality of the other songs is either just 'so-so', enjoyable but nothing spectacular ("It's Over"), or very mediocre - overly generic rockers "Leave Me Alone" and "Out With The Boys", way too sappy wedding ballads "Till Death Do Us Part" and "You're All I Need", the overlong Vito Bratta wankfest "She's Got Everything" (which tries to hide its 'generic rocker' status), and the dragging bluesy instrumental "Blue Monday" (a tribute to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan) all fall victim to these faults. The album as a whole doesn't flow together particularly well either like Pride and Big Game do. Overall, this release has its' moments, but it's a disappointing way to end the band's career.
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COMMENTS
I actually liked Mane Attraction as my favorite White Lion album. It's been awhile since I've pulled out my heavy-metal cassettes from the late 80's-early 90's. I am a fan of almost every heavy-metal artists from that era, and I'd have to admit, that I miss White Lion's music more than the others.
Their music just seemed to do it for me.
c.m.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
About the only truly redeeming thing I can say about this, an album of re-recorded versions of older White Lion songs done by Mike Tramp and a very ordinary backing band, is that Tramp's liner notes are of the very emotional sort, chronicling his declining relationship with guitarist Vito Bratta and how two men who had shared so much pain together were so far apart, and the intentions behind the album - since Bratta wanted no part of a reunion, Tramp decided to tackle this project, releasing a sort of gift to the fans showcasing a somewhat different approach to older White Lion material, admirably not only focusing on the hits (of which the band really only had three major ones, all included here in radically different versions), but also on lesser known live favorites like "Lonely Nights", "Warsong", "Broken Heart", and "Fight To Survive".
While his intentions were great, the whole project is one big failure - the versions here are much slower, lifeless and dragged out longer than the originals (the renditions of the hits "Wait", "Little Fighter", and "When The Children Cry" are particularly awful) plus Tramp's vocals often sound horrible, and the guitar performance is more than enough to prove Bratta was a crucial part of the picture, and that this rawer approach is exactly the opposite of what the band's best work really was - spirited, energetic, anthemic, melodic, and with very much above par musicianship. Unnecessary embellishments as corny organs and extremely cheezy backing vocals are also prominent, and only one of these versions tops, let alone comes even close to, the original, as the sappy ballad "Til Death Do Us Part" is transformed into an engaging campfire shuffle with a great bassline to close the album. Everything else, though, drags so mercilessly (at over 63 minutes total) in a poorly executed fashion that I wouldn't recommend this one even to die hard fans.
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