Royal Hunt - Paradox II: Collision Course
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Published March 29 2008
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Genre |
Symphonic/Melodic Metal |
Mark Boals
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Vocals
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Tracks |
10 |
Marcus Jidell
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Guitar
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Runningtime |
51 Min. |
-
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Guitar
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Label |
Frontiers
Records |
Per Schelander
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Bass
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Release |
14 March 2008 |
Allen Sorensen
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Drums
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Country |
Denmark/USA/Sweden |
André Andersen
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Keyboard
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Similar artists |
Space Odyssey,
Shadow Gallery, At Vance |
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The ninth album of Royal Hunt marks a new chapter in their
history and the reason for this is, as usual I should say, a new line-up.
Mark Boals (ex-Malmsteen and Ring Of Fire) is Royal Hunts fourth vocalist
since the beginning in 1991. I wasn't very pleased when I heard the
news of the vocalist change since I felt that John West really hade
grown to be a worthy replacement of D.C. Cooper on the great live album
2006 Live. Just as I described in my review of that record: "However,
with this live album, if not earlier, John West proves once and for
all that he is THE vocalist of Royal Hunt, not just a replacement.".
The title reveals that this is a continuation of the phenomenal
album Paradox (1997) and the question everybody's asking if it's a sequel
worthy of its name? Well, not really I have to say. The overall direction
stays true to the trademark sound of Royal Hunt and the quality of the
song writing is almost as good as always. My problem with Paradox II:
Collision Course is that I don't think Mark Boals fit in the band at
all. I can't argue about his technical skills but his vocal style has
a negative effect on the melodies. On Exit Wound for instance he ruins
a great song with an exaggerated vibrato in the chorus. The second half
of the album however proves that this line-up can do great things with
killers like Tears Of The Sun, with a nice addition of female vocals,
and my favourite track Hostile Breed.
At first I was immensely disappointed with André
Andersen's new effort but slowly the album has grown to be a quite pleasant
addition to the Royal Hunt discography. I'm still having issues with
Mr. Boals but since the album has a lot of great compositions it almost
makes up for this detail. Maybe it's just me, I know for a fact that
a lot of people are praising this album, but my conclusion stays firm;
Paradox II: Collision Course is a decent album but no way near Royal
Hunt's best achievement in their career.
See
also review of: Paper Blood
, 2006 Live
Performance
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Originality
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Production
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Vocals
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Songwriting
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Summary
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