Royal Hunt The Watchers
Century Media 2002
By Russell Garwood
Royal Hunts "The Watchers" acts as an interesting retrospective with four re-recorded tracks from their first two albums, a previously unreleased version of the new song "Intervention" (plus an eight minutes shorter radio edit) and four live tracks. The Danes progressive, melodic metal brings to mind Dream Theater at times; always flawless in its technical proficiency there are enough catchy tunes to breathe life into the meandering compositions.
Guitars of Jacob Kjaer are precise and tuneful but can lack power at times, while the vocals of John West are solid at lower ranges, and still tuneful if slightly more fragile when he goes into power metal mode. Backing vocals help add interesting arrangements while giving the music more energy than would otherwise be present in their technical sound, and the keyboards of Andre Andersen are top notch. Bass courtesy of Steen Mogensen is, like the music, complex and effective, while the line up is completed by session drummer Allan Sørensen, whose contribution is valuable he has no trouble with the sporadic time changes.
This release documents an energetic live show and an evolving sound well, a combination which makes "The Watchers" a very good introduction to Royal Hunt. Live and unreleased tracks also make it a necessity for current fans a good album with which I can find relatively few complaints.
Century Media 2002
By Russell Garwood
Royal Hunts "The Watchers" acts as an interesting retrospective with four re-recorded tracks from their first two albums, a previously unreleased version of the new song "Intervention" (plus an eight minutes shorter radio edit) and four live tracks. The Danes progressive, melodic metal brings to mind Dream Theater at times; always flawless in its technical proficiency there are enough catchy tunes to breathe life into the meandering compositions.
Guitars of Jacob Kjaer are precise and tuneful but can lack power at times, while the vocals of John West are solid at lower ranges, and still tuneful if slightly more fragile when he goes into power metal mode. Backing vocals help add interesting arrangements while giving the music more energy than would otherwise be present in their technical sound, and the keyboards of Andre Andersen are top notch. Bass courtesy of Steen Mogensen is, like the music, complex and effective, while the line up is completed by session drummer Allan Sørensen, whose contribution is valuable he has no trouble with the sporadic time changes.
This release documents an energetic live show and an evolving sound well, a combination which makes "The Watchers" a very good introduction to Royal Hunt. Live and unreleased tracks also make it a necessity for current fans a good album with which I can find relatively few complaints.
