Seventeen years.
That isn’t a gap between singles. It isn’t a little pause while a band takes stock. It is 17 years between albums. In metal terms, that is practically a lost era. Long enough for whole scenes to appear, disappear and rename themselves three times over.
So when Lion’s Share come back with “Inferno”, that gap has to mean something. You do not leave it that long and return with something half-baked. You come back with a point to prove.
And honestly? Did I miss the memo? The one that said metal was back, baby. Not any of this “core” bollocks, not this suffix or that fad, but proper metal. The sort with riffs you can wear patches to. The sort made by people who never stopped believing in the old ways.
That is exactly what “Inferno” sounds like. Not a polite return. Not a nostalgia trip. A statement.
Lars Chriss has said the goal was to make the strongest, heaviest and most focused Lion’s Share album of their career, and after a 17-year wait, that was the only target worth aiming at. Anything less would have felt like a waste. But the beauty of this record is that it sounds like a band who knew precisely what was at stake. There is no filler, no excess, no messing about. Just nine songs and a clear sense of purpose.
Formed in Sundsvall in 1987 by Chriss and keyboard player Kay Backlund, Lion’s Share have long since earned their place. Touring with Motörhead, Saxon, Dio, Manowar, U.D.O. and Dee Snider is not the kind of CV you stumble into by accident. Since 2017, the band has effectively been built around Chriss and vocalist Nils Patrik Johansson, but if there was ever any danger that 17 years away might have dulled the blade, “Inferno” kills that idea stone dead.
“Pentagram” opens things in exactly the right spirit. Proper metal. Damn right it is. The sort of opener that makes you think the memo really did go round and everyone else just forgot to read it. There is an Accept-like certainty to it, proper Euro metal, standing tall and grinning while the amps do the talking.
“We Are What We Are” only underlines the point. It has that proud, chest-out feel of a band planting their flag and refusing to compromise. If Saxon were German, you suspect they might sound a bit like this. Get your patches on, baby.
“We Will Rock” keeps the momentum going, all clenched fists and steel-toed confidence, before “The Lion’s Trial” slows things down a touch, gets heavier and starts to crush with a bit more force. That is where the light and shade comes in. A record like this needs dynamics as much as it needs riffs, and Lion’s Share understand that.
Then comes “Baptized In Blood” and, frankly, if you have a song called “Baptized In Blood”, you had better make it harsh as sandpaper. They do. The guitar work here is sensational, and the whole thing bites exactly as it should.
“Live Forever” is where the record leans into proper power metal territory, while “Chain Child” has that gallop that metal bands have been trying to perfect for decades. It sounds terrific. “Another Desire” is as classic as metal can get, the kind of track that reminds you why this style never really dies however many trends come and go around it.
And then “Run For Your Life” shuts the door in style. There is a close-to-Candlemass groove in the thing, all doomed grandeur and weight, but what really seals it is the sheer glee in the closing solo. That matters. Too many records these days sound like they are trying terribly hard to prove how serious they are. “Inferno” proves its point, sure, but it also sounds like Lion’s Share are having a brilliant time doing it.
That may be the biggest triumph of all. After 17 years away, this could easily have been cautious, careful, even a little apologetic. Instead it sounds hungry. Alive. Like a band that have waited the best part of two decades and decided that if they were coming back, they were coming back all guns blazing.
You can’t get more metal than nine songs, and this is glorious.
RATING 8.5/10
