by Martin Popoff
Royal Hunt - Fear
(Rondel)
Crappy cover art notwithstanding, Royal Hunt have proven themselves able to bounce back from their
nasty lawyer-fueled battle with ex-lead singer D.C. Cooper. New belter John West (Artension) is a
cold, logical and appropriate choice to front this album, seamlessly performing in front of Andre
Anderson's keyboard-drenched compositions, songs that are getting longer, more arresting and
self-important. Through strange and booming stadium rock production values, the band has found a
way to send prog rock songs into the prog metal arena without plundering heavily from the rigid
and over-exposed tenets of power metal. It's essentially a strange mix of keyboards and drums,
with a little bit of guitar and vocals hanging around to blend the two disparate up-front
elements. This ultimately is Royal Hunt's star zone trump card, the band sampling traces of Dream
Theater's new spirituality, the odd bits of Queensryche few are studying (Empire), and regal tones
from Turner-era Rainbow, while emanating a strong central keyboard persona of their own cult
status making.
Rating 8