LIONCAGE – Done At Last (2015)

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LIONCAGE born 2 years ago when Thorsten Bertermann (vocals), Torsten Lanndsberger (drums) and guitarist Lars Konig met at a Rock festival in Loreley, Germany, that was headlined by Toto and Whitesnake. All three members are influenced by that type of ’80s Melodic Rock such as the aforementioned plus Foreigner, Journey, etc, and have played in different cover-bands for several years as professionals.
They decided it was time to create their own band, record their own songs, and invite many friend session musicians to record their first CD “Done At Last“.

Obviously, “Done At Last” delivers polished guitar-driven Melodic Rock and keyboard-drenched AOR midtempos & ballads for all ’80s lovers. Mixed & produced by the guitarist Lars Konig himself, everything here is smooth and melodious.
Opener “Mission Of Love” and follower “Stay” are both very nice rockers, but the album begins to show it better pieces with “Fallin'”, a lovely uptempo AOR cut with catchy verses, cool guitar stabs and ’80s synths.

“Dancing Queen” features a sweet saxophone arrangement enhancing its Westcoast spirit, then “Till The Morning Comes” delivers stupendous vocal harmonies and a really good AOR chorus.
“Where Do We Go From Here” returns to a pretty catchy Melodic Rock, as it does the bass-pumped / riff driven “Reach The Stars”. “Pictures” brings to mind Seven and their self-titled album last year, while “Down Under” is quite moving surrounded by classy keyboards.

LionCage is without a doubt a trio of talented and experienced musicians, with strong musicianship and songwriting skills as heard on their debut “Done At Last”.
The vocal harmonies are smooth; all songs begin and end with melody and catchy arrangement and lyrical phrasing; the guitar lines, both riffs and leads, are dynamic, and the rhythm section holds down the beat and keeps the groove. Perhaps what they need to increase is the punch, but surely they wanted this melodious sound firmly planted in the ’80s.
“Done At Last” has everything what classic Melodic Rock / AOR lovers want, and it’s very, very enjoyable.

01 – Mission Of Love
02 – Stay
03 – Fallin’
04 – Dancing Queen
05 – Till The Morning Comes
06 – Where Do We Go From Here
07 – Don’t Be Afraid
08 – Reach The Stars
09 – Pictures
10 – Down Under

Thorsten Bertermann – vocals
Torsten Lanndsberger – drums
Lars Konig – guitars
guests:
Sascha Wranik, Dietmar Wulfgramm, Shanger Ohl – keyboards
Andreas Schwedewsky, Sven Zimmerman – additional bass
Dirk Meyer – additional bass and vocals
Jonny Moller – saxophone
Olaf Senkbeil, Anja Bublitz, Torge Losch, Melanie Stahlkopf – additional vocals

PRE-ORDER:
www.amazon.co.uk/Done-At-Last-Lioncage/dp/B00WZF4ZOK
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