Royal Hunt – 20TH ANNIVERSARY – SPECIAL EDITION (3CD+DVD) Review

A nice long and worthwhile package with plenty of bang for your buck if you're a die hard fan of this great band, a complete retrospect of one of...

royal hunt 20th anniversary box set cover

Released by: Frontiers Records

Release Date: January 22nd, 2013

Genre: Progressive Metal

Links: http://www.royalhunt.com

 

Line Up:

– André Andersen / keyboards, guitars (occasional)

– D. C. Cooper / lead vocals

– Jonas Larsen / guitar

– Andreas Passmark / bass

– Allan Sørensen / drums

 

Guest musicians:

– Kenny Lubcke, Alexandra Popova / additional vocals

 

Former members:

– Henrik Brockmann / vocals (1990-1994)

– Mark Boals / vocals (2007-2011)

– John West / vocals (1999-2007)

– Kenneth Olsen / drums (1989-1996; 2004-2007)

– Jacob Kjaer / guitars (1992-2003)

– Marcus Jidell / guitars (2004-2011)

– Steen Mogensen / bass (1989-2003)

– Per Schelander / bass (2005-2009)

– Allan Tschicaja / session drums on Eyewitness/tour (2002-2003)

 

Boxset/Compilation, released in 2012

 

Songs / Tracks Listing

CD 1

1. Flight (4:00)

2. Kingdom Dark (4:29)

3. Stranded (4:41)

4. Clown In The Mirror (4:36)

5. Wasted Time (4:36)

6. Epilogue (6:01)

7. Time (4:56)

8. Far Away (4:59)

9. 1348 (4:33)

10. River Of Pain (7:15)

11. Tearing Down The World (5:32)

12. Message To God (6:42)

 

Total time 62:20

 

 

CD 2

1. Cold City Lights (5:24)

2. Follow Me (6:22)

3. Surrender (Live version) (5:15)

4. The Mission (Live version) (5:36)

5. Can’t Let Go (Live version) (4:41)

6. Paper Blood (5:08)

7. Season’s Change (4:55)

8. The First Rock (4:47)

9. Tears Of The Sun (6:00)

10. The Well (4:52)

11. Shadowman (5:36)

12. Hard Rain’s Coming (5:15)

13. Half Past Loneliness (5:39)

 

Total time 69:30

 

 

CD 3

1. Save Me (New song) (3:48)

2. One By One (New recording, acoustic version) (4:42)

3. Bodyguard (New recording, acoustic version) (4:06)

4. Restless (New recording, acoustic version) (3:19)

5. Bad Luck (From “The Maxi EP”) (3:15)

6. Double Conversion (From “Far Away EP”) (4:18)

7. U-Turn (From “Intervention EP”) (7:25)

8. Sixth Sense (European bonus track for “X”) (4:24)

9. Day Is Dawning (Japanese bonus track for “Eyewitness”) (3:45)

 

Total time 39:05

 

 

DVD (1993 – 1997)

1. Land Of Broken Hearts (Video clip)

2. Day In Day Out (Video clip)

3. Clown In The Mirror (Acoustic)

4. Far Away (Acoustic)

5. Last Goodbye (Video clip)

6. Stay Down (Video clip)

7. River Of Pain (Video clip)

8. Tearing Down The World (Video clip)

9. Martial Arts (Video clip)

10. Third Stage (Live)

11. Wasted Time (Live)

12. Message To God (video clip)

 

The Danish Progressive Metallers Royal Hunt are getting the “royal” treatment from Frontiers Record. In 2011 when the band reunited back with one of their most celebrated singers in American D.C Cooper and actually laid out a road map of how they could still release great music they also hinted as some of the past material compiling a career recap was in the works. They also released a double DVD set from older recordings in which it showed the band performing with Cooper and covering live shows from the mid 90’s titled “Future Coming from the Past”. Now after a fine return to the genre we have another greatest hit/ box set of sorts aptly named “20th ANNIVERSARY – SPECIAL EDITION” celebrating the band’s 20th anniversary of existence. This package contains 3 cd’s and 1 dvd the first three compiling some of the greatest hits the band has released since their inception with original lead singer Henrik Brockmann, all the way through Jon West era of Hunt as well as a new song they recorded for this set specifically and some other goodies.

The DVD disc has all the promotional videos that the band has ever shot and released an added bonus to die hard Hunt fans. Before I even go on here I have to admit my respect and fan boy appreciation for this band since I first discovered them with DC taking over vocal helms on the record “Moving Target”. Later to release one of my favorite albums of all time in “Paradox”. I have followed their career ever since and even after they parted ways with Cooper, they welcome John West to the fold and against some odds simply because West just had a different style of voice then Cooper and heck replacing the pipes of DC is not an easy task, yet they still released some underrated material the likes of “Fear” and “The Mission” and “Paper Blood”.  Course later they brought in Mark Boals only to finally welcome back Cooper once more.

Whew it feels like the band has finally come full circle and with this package they hope to introduce old and new fans alike who may not be familiar with their older material. As far as disc one you have some nice numbers although I was never a big fan of Brockmann on vocals, the songs “Stranded” and “Clown in the Mirror  are alright and give you an early entry into the mind of Andre Andersen and their future sound. The disc rounds up with excellent numbers of the DC era in “River of Pain”, “Time”, “Far Away” and the classic “Message To God”.

Disc 2 enters the John West era with some underrated cuts the like of “The Mission” and “Can’t Let Go” which are both live versions, as well as the awesome groove of “Seasons Change” from the the killer “Paper Blood” album. Disc 3 has some nice EP cuts as well as acoustic tunes which are newly recorded. Also it features Day Is Dawning (Japanese bonus track for “Eyewitness”).

A nice long and worthwhile package with plenty of bang for your buck if you’re a die hard fan of this great band, a complete retrospect of one of the most underrated bands around that are still going strong even to this day. This box set/greatest hits set is something I would recommend without hesitation to anyone looking to expand on the back catalog of these Dutch masters as well as to appreciate they’re complete discography with music that truly represents their style and craft. Hope a new album is in the works and yes rumors has it there is, as well as some an LP release of this very same package with more limited material,  but for now plenty to wrap your ears around with this extensive package. Very well recommended!!!

 

Written by Denys

Ratings    Denys    9/10

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