You have to admire Jon Leon’s single- minded vision because Flying Tigers appears to be virtually all down to him – excepting Wyatt Anderson’s awesome lung power and Giovanni Durst’s battering performance behind the kit.
Leon wrote the entire thing and plays everything else – including the bouzouki – on this follow-up to debut Over the Top.
Leon’s devotion to the path of true metal is plain for all to hear and the result is engrossing and ambitious, with the first half of the album a selection of fist-banging anthems and the second half – Starman’s Son – an overblown conceptual melodrama about aliens and the evolution of mankind.
Musically, the NWOBHM influences are all pleasant and correct, with Leon’s inventive riffing bolstered by his uncannily accurate Maidenesque bass gallop. It’s all so fantastically energetic you’ll probably break into a devil-horn-throwing sweat just listening to it in the car on the way to Tesco.
