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"Pride" (1987) was my very first introduction to White Lion and remains my favorite album by the band. This album is an absoluteley flawless work of art. Mike Tramp (Who sounds a bit like a cross between Megadeth"s Dave Mustaine and Testament"s Chuck Billy) has a talented and unique vocal style that mixes perfectly with one of my guitar heros, Vito Bratta. Ex-Anthrax drummer Greg D"Angelo has a powerful 80"s style to his snare and kick drums while bassist James Lomenzo rocks awesome on the 4-string. "Pride" begins with the catchy and heavy song "hungry", which instantly grabs the listener. Next comes "Lonely Nights" which is also a very catchy song and has an absolutely phenomenal solo by Vito Bratta. "Don"t Give Up" and "Sweet Little Loving" are also great songs with awesome guitar riffs and suprises. Then comes the more serious "Lady of The Valley" which features a great variety of tempo changes, mixtures of acoustic and electric guitar, and some very beautiful harmony, including a mysterious but awesome solo. "Wait" is another excellent song with great rhythm and tapping work by Vito. "All You Need Is Rock N Roll", "Tell Me", and "All Join Our Hands" are also very great songs with exceptional metal chemistry and breath-taking solos. Last but not least comes "When The Children Cry", which is a very surreal ballad that is put together as a beautiful ensemble of acoustic guitar and harmony. In this song, Vito plays an extremely emotional solo, which could literally bring tears to your eyes. I can"t conjure up enough postive compliments about "Pride" and White Lion. It upsets me that some reviewers think of Vito Bratta as merely "a rip-off of Eddie Van Halen." I can bet that most of those negative reviewers have never went out and bought a guitar and an amp and tried to play in any articulate manner and appreciate how difficult it actually is. No offense to Van Halen (I happen to like Van Halen), but when you put White Lion next to Van Halen, White Lion blows Van Halen away. Van Halen made maybe 2 good albums (with Roth), but all 4 White Lion albums are so much more musically satisfying. Vito Bratta shows us joy and sorrow, love and hate, hope and despair and every human emotion with his guitar. Eddie Van Halen shows us talented tapping which is neat, but gets repetitive after a while. Vito Bratta remains the most unrecognized and profound guitarist in heavy metal. Vito Bratta is the only guitarist who"s hypnotizing guitar skills have left tears in my eyes after listening, which is not easy to accomplish and is something that Eddie Van Halen has not even come close to. It"s really unfortunate that White Lion was only around for such a short amount of time and that they were so extremely underrated. White Lion made the choice to not go for the gold and girls which definitely seperated them from the less talented musicians and made them less popular. Instead of singing about sex, money, and girls, White Lion emphasized on more serious issues in the world such as relationships, war, family abuse, rights, and freedom. It was also the early 90"s grunge movement that eventually ended many of my favorite band"s carriers. Grunge pushed a lot of great 80"s heavy metal bands out of the way and then creeping up out of no where in the lime light came(c)rap "music" which really screwed things up. In conclusion, "Pride" was one of the albums that I lived on throughout highschool and it always brings back a lot of memories when I listen to it. If you don"t have this album, if you love 80"s heavy metal, and you don"t want to be dissapointed, White Lion"s "Pride" is the ideal start. I also strongly suggest "Fight To Survive", "Big Game", "Mane Attraction" and "The Best of White Lion." Long Live White Lion! ROCK N" ROAR!!!