Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Royal Hunt - Eyewitness CD (album) cover

EYEWITNESS

Royal Hunt

 

Progressive Metal

3.04 | 57 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars The music of Royal Hunt has for some reason attracted me in a way that I enjoy the music flow and its keyboard-drenched arrangements. As for "Eyewitness", there is nothing so peculiar about this album that I can SELL to you. Everything flows naturally from opening track to end of the album and every song sounds good to me. I cannot lie to myself and (of course) to you that nothing is so specific about this album especially if you have been listening to Royal Hunt's music. This album offers (still) melodic metal in relatively soft riffs but maintaining relatively medium to fast tempo.

The opening track "Hunted" (5:02) lands easily into my ears and it creates an uplifting mood for me especially like today, very early in the morning, I feel like being energized with this happy-go-lucky song. It's like "begin the day with a high motivation, conquers all obstacles during the day you might face .!!!". Well, it's basically that kind of nuance regardless the actual content of the lyrical passage the gentlemen in the band have written. Hey, music is emotion, my friend! Sometimes, we don't need to understand what the band intends to convey the message through a song - we just need to interpret for our own context and purpose! Why? Because we purchased the CD and they created the music for us, the customers. Let the music flows into our mind.

"Can't Let Go" (5:02 is another straight-forward rocker with excellent groove and great guitar solo. I really enjoy this track. "The Prayer" (3:29) brings forward church organ at opening part followed with excellent vocal harmonies. Through "The Edge Of the World" (6:14) the band brings us to another upbeat music with attractive guitar riffs. This song has a right balance of simple composition and melody line. Wooohhhaaa . it's a nice song to sing a long ". at the edge of the world ." . so rocking! "Burning The Sun" (6:10) is another rocking track with excellent guitar riffs, melodic vocal line and nice keyboard work. "Wicked Lounge" (3:49) starts off with electric piano intro followed with vocal line in ballad style.

"Fifth Element" (4:10) is an excellent composition with excellent combination of clavinet and guitar riffs. The intro part is really good especially when guitar solo enters the music. This is an instrumental track with various styles combining inventive keyboard work of Andre Andersen and guitar solo of Jacob Kjaer. Oh man . this is the best track of this album. I imagine if I hold a progressive rock program on an FM Radio I would start the program with this track! "Help Us God" (4:47) continues the music with another excellent melody and beautiful guitar melody augmented with keyboard. "Game of Fear" (4:33) starts off with drum solo followed with tight bass lines and then guitar riffs. Keyboard sound (unique to Royal Hunt) follows really well. Lead vocal enters the music in high register notes. The title track concludes the album beautifully through nice acoustic guitar fills and nice vocal. The concluding track is mellow in style at halfway through of the track. The music blasts loudly in the middle, combining great keyboard and guitar riffs.

I would say that this is a very good album in terms of composition, combining keyboard and guitar in a balance way - sometimes keyboard plays more than guitar - resulting good harmony. It's a very enjoyable album accessible to many people especially those in rock and metal vein. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Gatot | 3/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this ROYAL HUNT review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.