PARADOX

Paradox was my introduction to Royal Hunt (and to the world of prog metal). It's their most progressive work and their very best up till now. Looking back it seemes obvious the bands evolution through their earlier releases, but this one is quite remarkable. While Moving Target and even Clown In the Mirror hinted their prog tendency, it was still hard rock melodious the music they produced. On Paradox both the metal side and the progressive side are the rules. A concept album full of great tunes it fullfilled every promise their music had from the very beginning.

On Paradox the talents of every member is in full bloom. D C Cooper had to use all his skills to handle the new songs and he does it very well, emerging from this album as one of prog metal great voices. Steen Mogensen's bass is proeminent for the first time in the studio and finally he has a medium for his talent and technique. Jacob Kjaer guitar is as sharp as ever, full of melody and passion. And russian songwriter, leader and keyboards player Andre Andersen finally unleashes all his Rick wakeman\Keith Emerson style in full throtle. The orchestrations in this CD are beautiful and Andersen at last shows how good he is with longer compositions. Yet nothing is self indulgent here. All notes fit in the right place. Rarely I've seen a prog metal album where virtuosity was so well aplied without waste.

All songs are excellent and flow effordlessly, making this one of the most dinamic and pleasant albums to hear as a whole (although you can also enjoy every track individually too). Even the bonus tracks on my CD are very good: Restless is a great acoustic piece and The Final Lullaby is a very seldom track that was not penned by Andersen, but has the same style as the other tunes.

Conclusion: one of the best prog metal albums of all time. If you're into that style of music or has an open mid to everything good and done with passion this album is a must have. Highly recommended!