Leo Rising
Artist: Danko Jones
Genre: Alternative, Hardcore, Rock
Record Label: Reigning Phoenix Music
Release Date: 21 November 2025
Released via Reigning Phoenix Music on 21st November was “Leo Rising” by Canadian Hard Rock band Danko Jones. If you’ve never heard of Danko Jones, they’re from Toronto and formed all the way back in 1996. The band is comprises founding members Danko Jones (Vocals and Guitar) and John “JC” Calabrese (Bass), alongside 2013 addition Rich Knox (Drums). The band generally blends together a mix of classic hard rock and punk, and are well known for high-octane live shows on their often marathon tours.
“Leo Rising” is Danko Jones’ twelfth studio album, following on from 2021’s “Power Trio” and 2023’s “Electric Sounds”. “Leo Rising” is all about showcasing the fizzing, electrical chemistry between the three members of this powerhouse band, which had operated as a stable and harmonious unit since 2013. The band comments that “Leo Rising” is the most uplifting and inspirational album to date, where a thunderous display of high octane guitar-driven rock awaits, from the thrill seeking opener “What You Need” to the blues infused seductive delight “Too Slick For Love”.
The album opener is “What You Need”. The guitar-led intro is pretty catchy and there’s a noughties punk attitude to both the instruments and Jones’ vocal style. The lyrics aren’t especially complex, and the track does follows the same rhythm and structure generally throughout, but it also comes across as pretty anthemic and a decent high-energy opener for the album. We found it solid but would have liked a few more surprises.
The second track is “Diamond In The Rough” which features former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman. We enjoyed what was another catchy and fast-paced intro, finding that “Diamond In The Rough” followed a very similar pattern to “What You Need”. With this track, Danko Jones is giving us pretty strong Nickelback vibes, with Jones’ vocals coming across as raw and powerful, while the instrumentals have that noughties rock feel to them.
The third track is “Everyday Is Saturday Night”. We were strongly reminded of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” with this track, largely down to the pacing and style of Jones’ vocals. Like the two tracks before, “Everyday is Saturday Night” is incredibly upbeat and empowering, fitting the band’s stated theme of this album well, which we took as a real positive.
Fourth up is “I Love It Louder”, which kicks off straight away with upbeat vocals and punk rock style instrumentals. We really liked how the guitar and bass came together in this track, with the drums tapping out a lively and bouncy pace, fitting the punk aesthetic perfectly. Despite being another track that seems to be quite simply constructed and repetitive, the energy in the track made it a highlight on the album for us.
The fifth track is “I’m Going Blind”. The string-led intro of this track, just before the vocals kick in, really reminds us of “No One Knows” by Queens Of The Stone Age (which we know is a real fan favourite). Overall, we found ourselves enjoying this track and we couldn’t help but head bob a little to the rhythm.
The sixth track is “Hot Fox”, which we found to be one of the heaviest songs of the whole album. It starts rapidly, pretty much kicking in with all the instruments as one immediately from the start. When listening this track through, we were reminiscent of rock music from the late 80’s / early 90’s era, such as genre-legends Aerosmith and Alice Cooper. We can’t quite place why this was the case, but we just found the whole atmosphere and structure of the song to be a bit of a throwback, with Jones’ vocals having a kind of retro feel to them.
The seventh track is “It’s A Celebration” and, as the name would suggest, it’s another positive upbeat track; Jones’ vocals in “It’s A Celebration” remind us somewhat of Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, and come across in the same catchy, energetic way. We do feel at this point that the album is not sending too many surprises our way, with the tracks coming across as predictable and somewhat formulaic.
The eighth track is “Pretty Stuff”, where we found parallels with the work of ZZ Top, in particular fan-favourite “Gimme All Your Lovin’”. For us, this was down to the blend of hard rock with some clear country influence, raspy vocal style, catchy repeating chorus and robust guitar riffs.
Ninth track “Gotta Let It Go” takes on a more alt-rock style, with a punk-pop feel to the vocals in places, before tenth track “I Can’t Stop” slows down the tempo ever so slightly. There’s a bit more of a Punk style to “I Can’t Stop” and we were glad for a bit of a change in pace to break up what has been a very full-on album so far. Across the ninth and tenth tracks, we were left feeling like we had heard a very similar sound somewhere before – after a bit of brainstorm, we found the resemblance! Fans of Scottish icons Biffy Clyro will find a lot to like, especially across these two tracks, where the riffs, pacing and vocal style have so much in common.
The eleventh and final track of the album is “Too Slick For Love”, which starts with a screeching guitar before dropping into thumping bluesy rhythm reminiscent of Golden Earring’s “Radar Love”. “Too Slick For Love” is a fun closing track, with the blues influence just offering a little variety to set it apart from the rest of the album. The chorus is simple and catchy, and the overall rhythm is impossible not to toe-tap or hand-drum along to. The guitars ramp up towards the end to deliver something of a crescendo close for this album.
Overall, we have to admit we were a little disappointed that “Leo Rising” came across to us as lacking in complexity and variety. We say this because most tracks within the album sounded pretty similar to our ears, with the songs often feeling formulaic and predictable. We found the lyrics to generally be fun but repetitive, with the instrumentals solid but at times overly safe. We did find considerable influence and/or similarities from some real rock icons, and we really did enjoy the parts of the album where it did feel like a slightly different turn was being taken; the bluesy “Too Slick For Love” and the bouncy “I Love It Louder” were high points on the album for us. We’d have loved for Danko Jones to have taken a gamble on a few more twists and curveballs in this album – it’s a celebration of the chemistry between the band after all, so a great reason to let creativity fly. Even though it wasn’t our cup of tea, give “Leo Rising” a go, as there’s still some fun to be had with this album for sure.