LAND OF BROKEN HEARTS

Royl Hunt's first album is quite different from their lattter day effords. Certainly it will take by surprise those fans who heard the band from Paradoxx onwards. The sound here is more on the melodious hard rock side, with little metal or prog influences. Still many of the group classics are here, like their first hit, Running Wild, Stranded and Flight. The production is surprisingly good for such an obscure and unknown act to emerge from Denmark. Russian keboards player, occasional guitarrsit and songwriter Andre Andersen proves he have the knack to write simple, catchy rock songs with a european twist and classical music influences here and there. Singer Henrik Brockmann has a raspy voice that works fine here. I still think that D C Cooper and John West are much more versatile and better singers, but then the music had changed and the vocal approach had to follow.

Unlike Epilogue, their second CD (and last with Brockmann on vocals) this one does not have a single track that hints what Royal Hunt would become in a few years. Looking back, maybe The title track can be seen as a blueprint for the future direction, but that is debatable. Anyway, although I really prefer the newer material, I must say I like this CD. If you like short, good, straight rock songs with a great melodic sense and good arrangements, it is worth a listen

Good Debut Album

I knew this album after I did enjoy (very much) the "Moving Target" as well as "Paradox" albums, plus the "1996 Live". These three CDs made me clear about the music of Royal Hunt and I tried to explore all albums of Royal Hunt. Now, I've got them all. Yes, "Land of Broken Hearts" is their debut album but it's not bad at all. All ingredients that exist in this album would later become major components of their composition. Royal Hunt's key strengths are in touchy melody and harmonies. If I look at composition based on melody, arrangements, harmonies and structural integrity, this album fulfills all with good quality. Hey, in fact I enjoy spinning this CD for a break!

Why do I say they have touchy melodies? It's because of the fact that most of their compositions are song orientated or to be specific: use touchy melodies as the ground for their arrangements, harmonies and structural integrity / cohesiveness. Look at the opening track "Running Wild" which comprises good multi-layered keyboard works, nice melody and good harmonies. It's hard to deny that those who like rock music would not accept this as good rock song. "Easy Rider" even takes simpler approach with less complex arrangements, symphonic-multi-layered keyboards and vocal harmonies, oh yes .. plus good guitar solo!

"Flight" was my chief reason on why I had to purchase the CD. Why? It's because of great performance of this track performed live under their live CD record - it's so wonderful - that stimulated me to find out the studio version. Oh .. yes .. even the studio version is also great! Yeah ... I love it man. Not just the melody that I love but also the keyboard and drums arrangements to accompany the melody move along with the music. It's so excellent and powerful! The lyric is also powerful as well: "Fly forever and try cross over the sky - Feelin' the wind blow" ... oh man ... what an uplifting words!. "Age Gone Wild" gives acoustic guitar fills a chance to contribute at the opening part combined with keyboard and vocal harmonies. It's a mellow and melodic track with nice symphonic keyboard work.

This CD has bonus tracks of acoustic work which all of them are very good for my ears. Overall, I can say that this is a very good debut album that all Royal Hunt fans should own. Okay, the music is much raw in nature than the later works, but all of them have great ingredients for their future reference. Keep on proggin' ..!

"Fly forever and try cross over the sky - Feelin' the wind blow. Cry for losers who died, They watchin' you fly - over the rainbow." - "Flight" by Royal Hunt

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Land of Broken Hearts is the debut full-length studio album by Danish melodic heavy metal/ power metal/ progressive metal act Royal Hunt. The band was founded in 1989 by keyboardist and main composer André Andersen and released this debut album in 1992. The album was originally released by Rondel Records and featured 12 songs. The album has been re-released by Majestic Entertainment and marketed by Steamhammer with 3 additional bonus tracks. The bonus tracks are acoustic versions of 3 of the songs from the album.

The music on Land of Broken Hearts is not progressive metal as I see that genre, but more a power metal/ symphonic heavy metal album with a few progressive leanings. One of the dominant features in the music on this album are the many neo-classical elements. Those elements are mainly played by the keyboard but the guitars ( which on this album are mostly played by André Andersen in addition to him playing the keyboards. The lead guitars are played by Jacob Kjaer though) are also an active player on the album. The tracks are mostly song oriented with big fat ( lots of choir) anthemic power metal like choruses and the instrumental parts which by the way are brilliantly played never overshadows the main focus in the songs which is the song melody.

The musicianship is excellent and tight. Lead vocalist Henrik Brockmann has a great powerful voice that suits the music well.

The production is not a fully professional production to my ears but it´s rather enjoyable anyway. Producer on the album is no other than André Andersen. He seems to have done just about everything on this album. Well almost everything.

Land of Broken Hearts is a good debut album by Royal Hunt and I´m quitesurprised at how much I enjoy this album even though I do find it overall a bit cheesy but I guess that comes with the genre. Some people love it and some people hate it. I´m a bit biased towards those anthemic choruses and the general very simple song structure but as I said above it works pretty well here and while listening to the album for the first couple of times I was actually in doubt if I was gonna rate it 3 or 4 stars but I´ve settled with BIG 3 star rating. A nice surprise.