FEAR

This is much a transitional CD. the public response to it at the time was kind of lukewarm. After all, american singer D C Cooper has left and his voice and stage persona became kind of a trademark for the band, which can be seen in the excellent 1996 DVD. And Fear came on the heels of Paradoxx, their best work so far. A hard act to follow, specially after such a great loss.

Hearing this album nowadays shows it was really a kind of step back, trying to find their ground and adapt to the new situation. The CD starts well with a great prog song, the title track. This is the best tune in the whole disc and a fine showcase for Andre Andersen's keyboards trickery. John West, another american singer, proves that, if he is not superior to D C Cooper, at least he can handle the very demanding vocal duties quite well. He has a very good voice.

The other tracks, sadly, are not up to Fear, though. They are not bad at all, in fact they are very good, but the album suffer for a little lack of direction. Royal Hunt seems to be going back to their past to find a way to go on. Cold City Lights hints their hard rock past and the chorus has a annoying similarity to Scorpions Big City Nights, while Lies jumps into a thrash metal guitar riff in the beginning. Voices is a good ballad, maybe a little repetitive in the last part. Faces of War and Voices are too similar to be on the same CD and Sea Of time ends with a rather melancolic note.

So, all in all, not a bad CD at all, but it is not essential either, specially if you remember it comes after the excellent Paradoxx. The band sounds just treading water here and would prove they were still able to do a fine prog work on the next release, The Mission.

This has the unenviable task of following fan favourite "Paradox", then add to that the fact that singer DC Cooper has just left the band and you'd figure this would become a whipping boy of sorts. John West takes up the vocals here.

"Fear" opens with spoken words before a good mid paced rhythm takes over. Not a fan of the orchestral keyboards at all. Vocals come in before 5 minutes as it settles. It does kick back in and that rhythm returns too. "Faces Of War" opens with a beat then the tempo picks up as the guitar comes in. Again it's orchestral-like. Reserved vocals before 1 1/2 minutes. It all kicks in fairly hard but there's too much prominance given to the keys. Guitar solo before 4 minutes.

"Cold City Lights" opens with orchestral keyboards and a heavy rhythm section. It settles and the vocals follow. Contrasts continue. "Lies" sounds good for the first time with those PRIEST-like guitars to open. It goes downhill from there. "Follow Me" is ballad-like with keys and syrupy vocals. "Voices" is orchestral to start as the tempo picks up and the vocals join in. Almost a Power-Metal rhythm here. "Sea Of Time" opens with church bells and other sounds before the music comes in and builds. Guitar then comes in leads nicely. Vocals follow.

Just not a fan of this style of music at all. Especially the orchestral sections and they are all over the place.