Not to be confused with Dennis Stratton’s Lionheart, this quintet was based around Steve Grimmett, at the time freshly out of Onslaught, and the Owers twins – guitar maestro Mark and bassist sibling Steve. Characterised by big riffs, Grimmett’s leather-lunged roar and the technoflash fretboard heroics of Mark Owers, it’s tough to credit that this debut album is now a quarter-century old.
A remaster certainly enhances the appeal of the hook-laden Had Enough and Stealer and if Have Mercy, Can’t Believe and So Cold stray a little too far onto latter day Whitesnake territory, well… no wonder the Japanese devoured them.
With the Owerses quitting almost right away, Grimmett soldiered on but couldn’t maintain momentum. In 2017 the singer fronts Grim Reaper once again and is recovering bravely from a leg amputation, while Mark and Steve have a rather decent outfit called Danze Macabre. However, Lionsheart scrubs up unexpectedly well.
