CLOWN IN THE MIRROR

The Clown in the Mirror is the second full-length studio album by Danish symphonic heavy rock/ metal act Royal Hunt. I was quite surprised by the high standard of music on the debut album by the band and even though the music on that album is not usually music to my taste I rather enjoyed myself listening to that one so I was actually looking forward to listening to The Clown in the Mirror.

The music on The Clown in the Mirror continues the style which was initiated on the debut album. melodic and symphonic heavy rock/ metal with neo-progressive elements is the style of music that Royal Hunt plays on the album. There are as many influences from classic hard rock bands from the seventies ( Deep Purple, Rainbow) as there are influences from eighties keyboard driven heavy rock bands like Europe and Bon Jovi but with an additional neo-classical power metal touch ( I´m reminded of Yngwie Malmsteen´s song oriented tracks a couple of times). The music is not progressive to my ears. It follows the vers/ chorus formula pretty strictly and if you strip away the neo-classical element in the music you´ll find that most songs are basicly simple hard rock tunes. All songs are well composed and very well played though and that´s always a pleasure even though this might not be the most innovative music I´ve ever heard. My favorites on the album are the beautiful power ballad Clown in the Mirror and the last song on the album Epilogue which actually smells a bit like prog-related metal. A big part of the album´s sound are the multilayered choirs which are very well arranged. They are an aquired taste though and some might find them a bit too cheesy for comfort.

The musicianship is excellent. It´s hard not to give a special mention to main composer and keyboardist André Anderson when you write a review of a Royal Hunt album and this time it´s no different. He is a very skilled musician and even though his style can seem a bit overblown ( read: Cheesy) at times his parts are always well played. The rest of the band are also very skilled musicians and lead vocalist Henrik Brockmann has a strong and powerful voice.

The production isn´t as good as it could be IMO. The sound quality on the debut wasn´t that good either and it seems that it hasn´t changed here. Allright but not really good.

The Clown in the Mirror is a good and enjoyable album if you enjoy this kind of music and allthough it´s not an exceptional album IMO it´s well worth a 3 star rating.