Artist: Royal Hunt 
   Title: Paradox II Collision Course
   Label: Cargo Records

First off let me say that I’m new to Royal Hunt. I love bands who produce quality neo-classical music and I just don’t know why they passed me by.  It’s possibly because I was too busy engineering live bands of the grungy and pop-punk nature through the 90’s and early noughties and not delving deep enough into the influences I grew up with, Yes, Rush, Yngwie to name but three.  I did actually catch Royal Hunt live in Bradford a couple of years ago when John West was still on vocals, but unfortunately they left me with a hollow feeling and I didn’t bother buying any of their product.

The whole concept of Royal Hunt starts and ends with keyboard maestro Andre Andersen, a man who has an endless imagination and can compose, write, virtually play any instrument and produce all at the same time it seems!  Royal Hunt have been through as many member changes since their inception as Deep Purple and this new cd sees the inaugaration of Mark Boals (ex-Malmsteen, Ring of Fire, The Codex)

This new conceptual cd is the follow-up to their 1997 critically acclaimed 'Paradox' album, which is regarded by most Hunt fans as an all-time classic so has a lot to live up to.

The album kicks off with 'Principles of Paradox', the sound of rain and acoustic guitar, quite appropriate, as it is raining like hell outside as I review this. Except for a few vocal lines this is an instrumental and there are some keyboard passages that remind me of Rick Wakeman.

All the tracks on here segue into each other and following on is 'The First Rock', where we get to here Mark Boals in earnest. The muscianship on here is of the highest standard and this track is fast-paced, heavy and of course melodic,

Then we’re straight into 'Exit Wound', opening with keyboard orchestration.  The song has a dramatic feel about it, I especially liked the guitar structure and the chorus features various guests providing their soaring melodies.

'Divide and Reign' is up next with it’s double kick drum and keyboard opening, the song turns into a symphonic Slayer style, this song is heavy with an epic feel.

A keyboard explosion introduces the next song 'High Noon At The Battlefield', before some beautiful bluesy guitar and an emotive vocal from Mark Boals. In fact this and the following two songs, 'The Clan' and 'Blood In Blood Out' are the pinnacle of the cd, showing the outstanding quality of muscianship on parade and featuring some fantastic guest vocals.

This leads us into 'Tears Of The Sun', veers between slow and mid-tempo, another great vocal from Mark Boals and some wonderful melodies weaving across the song.

'Hostile Breed', opens with the sound of Islamic prayer and features some DT style tempo changes, soaring lead vocals, choir style backing vocals and gfantastic interplay between Andre and Marcus Jidell.

Finishing the concept, 'Chaos AC', features some straight-forward classic riffing from Marcus and a bit of Deep Purple style Hammond organ courtesy of Andre.  The song features some great guest vocals and once again the melodies and song structure are first class.

This is one of those albums you need to play a few times to appreciate the nuances.  The concept being the collision course between the modern western world and religious eastern movements, the tracks as I have mentioned previously segue into one another to create this bombastic, symphonic epic. Big melodies, killer guitar riffs, progressive arrangements and some outstanding guest musicians make this album a great achievement for the band.

For those of you already fans of Royal Hunt, it’s an essential purchase, for everyone else, you may buy better albums this year but this one will be in your top ten at the end of it all, go get a copy now.

*Review by Brassy

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