Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog

ROYAL HUNT – The 11th studio album from Denmark’s ROYAL HUNT, Show Me How To Live, was released in North America on November 29th, 2011, via Frontiers Records. On Show Me How To Live, former lead singer D.C. Cooper reunited with this band’s founding member, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer: Andre’ Andersen. Along with Jonas Larsen (guitars), Andreas Passmark (bass) and Allan Sørensen on drums, ROYAL HUNT has justifiably reinstated their respected status as a player in the world of Melodic Hard Rock, with Show Me How To Live.

Progressively leaning, symphonic and very much melodic is Show Me How To Live. From the opening track of One More Day, I realized there would be many elements to listen for with this ROYAL HUNT band’s musicianship. In its simplistic comparison, listening to ROYAL HUNT is like listening to a Melodic Hard Rock orchestra. With a backing chorus to compliment the exquisite arrangements of One More Day, this song opens up Show Me How To Live with inspiring musical extravagance.

The melodic ride never subsides with ROYAL HUNT, as Another Man Down is highlighted by a memorable  guitar solo from Jonas Larsen and the spot-on drumming of Allan Sørensen. As pivotal components to the music of ROYAL HUNT, orchestration is the vertebrae of this album while the keyboards are its nerve center. The muscle comes through with the guitar and rhythm section. The songs Hard Rain’s Coming and An Empty Shell in and of themselves are my picks for anyone to listen to, in explaining the aforementioned music components.

Throughout all 7 songs, the vocals of D.C. Cooper keeps me engaged in the music. D.C. has excellent range and doesn’t overreach, all the while giving this album a vocal identity that is muscular and downright enjoyable to hear. A true catalyst is D.C. to this band. Andre’ Andersen on keyboards is a thrill a minute. Andre’ impresses me most by not over-saturating this album with his love for the keys. Yes, these synthetic sounds are plentiful, only I don’t hear the over-indulgence that could have been.

I hear a respect for balance within the songs on Show Me How To Live. No instrument is ever buried under the layers. Andre’ and his band give off a vibe of mutual appreciation for the strength of the song and quality certainly overrides quantity on this new ROYAL HUNT album. Fans of Symphonic/Melodic Hard Rock and Metal should dive right into Show Me How To Live and bask in all of its deliciously layered splendor.

ROYAL HUNT:

Andre’ Andersen – keyboards

D.C. Cooper – vocals

Jonas Larsen – guitars

Andreas Passmark – bass

Allan Sørensen – drums

Show Me How To Live – Track Listing:

One More Day

Another Man Down

An Empty Shell

Hard Rain’s Coming

Half Past Loneliness

Show Me How To Live

Angel’s Gone

* For more info on ROYAL HUNT, click on the links below:

ROYAL HUNT – Official Website

FRONTIERS RECORDS

Stone.

This entry was posted on December 29, 2011 at 1:00 am and is filed under Hard Rock, hard rock albums, Heavy Metal, melodic hard rock, melodic metal, melodic rock, Music, progressive rock, rock music, rock music news, symphonic metal, symphonic rock music with tags Hard Rock, progressive rock, rock music news, royal hunt, show me how to live album, symphonic rock. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.