THE WATCHERS

This particular ROYAL HUNT album is either re-done older tracks or live versions of these earlier songs.The difference of course is that John West is doing the vocals for the first time on these ROYAL HUNT classics. And the guy can flat out sing, so for many these are improvements over the originals.

"Intervention" is on here twice. The first one is a full version at over 14 minutes while they end this album with a shorter radio edit of the same song. This might be my favourite. Quite powerful at times and keyboards race over top early. Some nice piano before 7 1/2 minutes. "Lies" kicks in with riffs after 2 minutes as the crowd roars on this live version. Some orchestral sounds on this one too. "Flight" opens with a scream from West before it kicks in with keys leading. Not a fan.

"Message To God" might be their most popular tune. The crowd certainly gets into this one. I like the bass and the guitar before 3 minutes. "Epilogue" is a catchy tune. It's okay. "One By One" is heavier and I like the instrumental interlude before 3 1/2 minutes. "Clown In The Mirror" opens with piano as reserved vocals join in. It gets fuller in the power ballad type track. "Day In Day Out" is uptempo but it settles when the vocals arrive. The tempo continues to shift though. "Legion Of The Damned" is another power ballad-like tune.

So while the material here would have made for a great album if it was all original, it's not. This is a compilation of previously released tracks that have either been re-done in the studio or live.