EYEWITNESS

What's wrong with this album? Sometimes when you spot an ugly cover it´s bad news. And surely Eyewitness is one. It's my least favorite CD of the entire Royal Hunt diiscography. Well, nothing's really wrong, when you hear it with hindsight. The problem is, after the Mission and The Watchers you'd expect them to produce a more progressive sound and that's exactly what you don't get with Eyewitness. It seems that the band reached a point where they did not really know what to do next. And the concept album about the (bad) press turned out to be an almost totally power metal CD, with very little prog on it. Strives inside the band may be a reason for this rather disjointed result (original bassist Steen Mogensen and guitar player Jacob Kjaer both quit at the same time Eyewitness was released, after a decade playing in RH) .

It looked like Andre Andersen tried to do something different this time to hold things together, and that may explains such an awkward song as Wicked Lounge to be included here, with its piano bar sound and saxophone solo. The rest of the tunes are actually good but, at the time, quite a disapointement since it sounded a lot like a (or two) step back in terms of style and compositions. They certainly have done better CDs, before and after. Still, I must say I liked it, and I still enjoy it when I'm in the mood to hear some fine power metal songs with great keyboards arrangements and the usual powerful vocal delivery by John West. But it is highly different from their other works, and hardly adds anything to their history.

If you like that style fo music I recommend it, but this is definitly not the CD to start with this great band. Rating: something between 2 and 2 and half stars.