Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Royal Hunt
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2011
Length: 44:08
Rating: 3.5/5
“Show Me How To Live” is an album Royal Hunt threw together incredibly fast, less than two years after the release of its predecessor “X”. In 2011 the band played a pile of shows featuring material exclusively from its first four studio albums. Of course, that foursome includes their best-known record from 1997, “Paradox”. That tour was special in one more way. The band’s big boss Andre Andersen finally caved to the fans’ loud demands to bring back American D.C. Cooper, who sang on “Moving Target” (1995) and “Paradox” (1997). So D.C. Cooper was called up for the tour, while Mark Boals kept his status as the official Royal Hunt vocalist.
Of course, it didn’t stop there. D.C. Cooper later rejoined Royal Hunt for good, and the band rushed into recording a new album. On it, they promised a return to their classic sound, the one that also defined “Paradox”. So everything is in line with the demands and tastes of the band’s most hardcore fans. The vocalist swap wasn’t the end of the musical chairs, either. Marcus Jidell (now in Evergrey) was replaced by guitarist Jonas Larsen (Stratosphere), and so Andersen delivered on the second part of what he announced in an interview for RockLine back in 2008, that after the bassist he would replace the guitarist too. Larsen keeps the “Malmsteen-esque” reach of his predecessor, and the crossfire of solo duels with Andersen holds its ground and keeps Royal Hunt’s expression well-oiled and flexible.
The announced return to the sound of the band’s nineties rhetoric has actually happened. The first element behind it is the return of the trademark orchestral arrangements, built on Andre Andersen’s lavish use of synth curtains. He cut the Hammond organ out of the new album entirely and drastically scaled back the touch of natural classical piano textures. The second element, reviving the band’s commercially successful days, is of course D.C. Cooper’s voice. Especially in the mid and lower registers, he has a darker voice than his predecessor Mark Boals. The thoroughly authoritative singing and the very color of his voice are cast to fit Andre Andersen’s retro synth textures, and part of the retro Royal Hunt chemistry is born anew at this point, since in this kind of Andersen arrangement Cooper finds his way brilliantly in the vocal delivery.
The production is crystal clear. It has a lot more sonic control and “transparency” between the individual layers of the instrument collage, but it loses some of the “punch” and liveliness that “X” had more of. That’s the sacrifice you make for the cold sound that synths bring. But don’t get me wrong. An album like “Show Me How To Live” demands this kind of production! And this kind of production suits such an album. “Show Me How To Live” is an album with more angst, more gloom, more drama than “X”. Its centerpiece is the ten-minute epic title suite, with a colorfully stretched-out instrumental middle section. That section starts to unfold on a keyboard motif that suspiciously leans toward the lead keyboard phrase in the Queen classic Show Must Go On.
Andersen once again acts as an orchestra in miniature. The album is packed with this devoted obsession with everything that smells of classicism, from the dramatist Bertolt Brecht to the composer J.S. Bach, and at times the layering of synth lines over the guitar phrases even takes the lead. There’s bombast aplenty again, and the classic “retro nineties” Royal Hunt rhetoric is established right from the album opener, which comes alive especially in the expansive “crescendo” melody of the chorus of One More Day. Surprisingly, the typical multi-harmonized choir singing of the regular crew of guest vocalists Andersen summons for every Royal Hunt album plays the dominant role here, ahead of Cooper’s vocals.
Even though Royal Hunt are known for brilliantly combining polished melodies with bravura arrangement complexity, drawing most of their inspiration from the “tales” of neo-classicism, and the new album doesn’t dodge that, it still lacks one more track with a catchy melodic chorus that would further fire up its pompous, epic-bombast nature. Something in the style of the otherwise excellent Hard Rain’s Coming!
The band’s transition toward chasing the “Paradox” sound is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the move undermines the credibility of a band that digs through its own roots at the demand of its insatiable fans, especially given that the album doesn’t reach the expressive level of the nineties classics. Vocally, D.C. Cooper is certainly a less interesting singer than Mark Boals, with less flexibility in his vocal articulation, and above all his voice is thinner than Boals’. Likewise, when it comes to conveying emotion, he can’t match Mark Boals’ conviction. So the question arises: whose benefit is this for, guys? In that respect “Show Me How To Live” certainly feels dated, cautious, tried-and-tested and already heard. No. It’s not a bad album. Far from it. Fans bought it the moment it came out, because it smells of “retro” Royal Hunt. But I dare say that, for the sake of greater compositional control, quite a bit of the creative genius that you could feel all over “X” got sacrificed. An album a lot of the band’s fans turned against, which is surely a great injustice to the Royal Hunt name.
The question is, what does this album actually bring new to the band’s discographic mosaic? A little, sure, but I fear still too little. Royal Hunt undoubtedly didn’t need the musical direction they took this time. One more album with Mark Boals would have fit more than perfectly, since with “X” the band was still evolving, whereas with “Showe Me How To Live” it dances along proven notes that will never reach the classics “Paradox” and/or “Moving Target”. Still, it’s a good album that earns back every penny you put into it. Royal Hunt can do a lot better than this, though!
Line-up
D.C. Cooper – vocals
Jonas Larsen – guitar
André Andersen – keyboards
Andreas Passmark – bass guitar
Allan Sørensen – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Kenny Lubcke – backing vocals
Maria McTurk – backing vocals
Alexandra Popova – backing vocals
Michelle Raitzin – backing vocals
Production
André Andersen
Track list
1. One More Day (6:12)
2. Another Man Down (5:13)
3. An Empty Shell (4:32)
4. Hard Rain’s Coming (5:12)
5. Half Past Loneliness (5:36)
6. Show Me How to Live (10:03)
7. Angel’s Gone (5:12)
