Royal Hunt – Show Me How To Live

Album number eleven for the Danish based with the American singer Royal Hunt and I may start believing that except the so called lucky seven, there may also be a lucky eleven. I’ll let you know why I think of that as simply as it gets, but the truth is that many fans around the globe were waiting for the return for the inevitably bound with Royal Hunt’s music D.C. Cooper. It turned out to be a wise choice in the end, as the latest album of the band brings out something of the glorious past and mainly the two trademark releases of the past, ”Moving Target” and ”Paradox”. Especially ”Paradox” is one of the best albums created in life and mainman Andre Andersen tried to reproduce this feeling by making its sequel, ”Paradox II:Collision Course” in 2008. But some things tend to happen only once in life and despite the good album he made, he couldn’t bring out the feeling of the first masterpiece fourteen years ago.

So the main songwriter of the band decided to bring D.C. Cooper back, leaving the differences between them behind and getting reunited, they set on making something that would bring something of the former glory back. Here we should state that since their separation, many things happened. First of all, D.C. was very close to become the singer in Judas Priest, and though he didn’t make it, he decided it was about time to form a band in this style, called Silent Force. From 2000 to 2007 he released four albums with the band which is still supposed to be active, while on 2007 he also did the vocals for the debut album of Amaran’s Plight called ”Voice In The Light”. So he pretty much was active and no matter if you like these releases (like I did) or not (like many others, maybe including you), none can say that he didn’t try his best during this period.

On the other hand, Royal Hunt released six albums without Cooper in nine years. And Andersen had the luck to work with two of the best singers he could find, replacing Cooper, meaning John West and Mark Boals. These six albums continued the tradition of Royal Hunt releasing very good albums (especially ”Fear” was great), but in the eyes (or should I say ears) of the fans, something was always missing. The ideas were there, the compositions also, but again, you know what happens with people craving for what they got used to. Well, it took about fourteen years but what was destined to happen finally took place and with the eleventh album in twenty years, the duo of success got back together. And this time there are no excuses for the fans, as what they wanted finally is reality and with a very decent way. Maybe one of the positive things of the album is its duration, which is about 42 minutes, divided into seven songs, surely way less compared to past albums.

And I say maybe because I believe that the album would become even better with two or three songs in the same vain, but then we would have people complaining about fillers or long duration (there is ALWAYS something negative in a man’s mind, especially when he will do anything to point out even if it doesn’t exist). In these seven songs, you will find the elements and atmosphere that made Royal Hunt a great band in the mid ’90s and one of the biggest hopes for progressive music in general. The pounding melodies, the great choruses, the keyboard fillings that work better than some riffs would (I have stated many times that Royal Hunt is my favorite band not including many riffs), the rhythm section (same as in the previous album) supporting as good as it gets, and last but not least, THE voice that was destined to fill these songs from the very beginning (though I personally had no problem if the band would continue with West or Boals).

In overall, ”Show Me How To Live” is a promising new beginning for the band, as long as they continue in the same level of performance and inspiration. Let’s hope they won’t limit their selves in this album only, for it will be a great pity, as well as if they play a safe card continuing on this same direction. With D.C. back, I’d like to see them daring something different for their future. They had their share of success for sure which they definitely deserved, and it’s likely not going to happen in the same way again (though we can never be certain). So, with no stress around them, they can show in about two years from now that this album was not a one hit wonder. I am very happy I was able to write about this special band, it is about time the ones not familiar with them to check them as soon as possible. They may not be brutal or thrashing, but there’s things in life that can be great even by including melody. Try them and you won’t lose your time.