Album Review - Royal Hunt - Collision Course - Paradox 2

Mark Boals has not done anything very impressive in quite a few years. His Ring of Fire projects have been atypical of the Euro-power genre, his second stint with Malmsteen largely unexciting - and so forth. It's a shame, because his voice always seemed to be so much better than the songs that attempted to fit with it. Royal Hunt has suffered from such an unattractive fate for nearly a decade as well. Their music has become overly ambitious, playing more on the "essence" of the band's signature sound than trying to do anything useful with it.

Their DC Cooper days yielded albums of such ridiculously high standards, that anything that came after his "dismissal" from RH, has been a devastating disappointment. John West (another singer who never seems to fit the genres he's shoved into) has crooned through the years from "Fear" on for the Royal Hunted-ones, yet the discs have been iffy at best. "Fear" was a scattered assortment of the fading fire (super charged by the glorious "Paradox"), "The Mission" in retrospect was a pompous progressive mess, weighed down by its own self importance and the vocals of West who sounded like he should have been belting AOR melters, not battling it out with complex keyboard arrangements.

So take these two lacklustre entities - Mark Boals - and the band - Royal Hunt, mix them together (and toss out West for good measure) and what would you get? Something pretty flat to continue the floundering downward spiral of a once excellent outfit? Actually, you would get something rather special, something worth hearing, and an excited spark to re-ignite those blazing flames from the past. You get, "Collision Course....Paradox 2".

Yes, this is a direct sequel to the mesmerizing "Paradox" from 1997, and to be directly honest, its nowhere near as splendid as that record was. And that is alright, because no one expected such a remarkable jump from the tedious "Paper Blood" to the marvelous output that is "Collision Course" anyway. The ball is in their court, and the band is absolutely running wild with it. The thumping bass burrowing rhythms through your soul, sparkling keyboards building upon themselves until they threaten to topple over like a crashing tower made of sound, guitars that buzz and whirl dangerously, zig zagging their merry way through the twisting synthesizers, and drums that thunder and keep it all together and respectable. The songs are memorable and the vocals are surprisingly fantastic. Mark breathes a sense of familiarity to the proceedings and has the kind of sweeping, epic voice that easily moves within the instrumentation without becoming lost in the sea of sound. The lyrics center around a dodgy concept of a modern Western world and one sprouted from Eastern religious movements. It's a heavy concept and one that is easily lost in the musical shuffle. For better or for worse. Throw in the added talents of Doogie White, Kenny Lubcke (Jokes Wild) and Ian Parry and you have a disc that also benefits quite immensely from its guest stars. "Collision Course' is daring, its delightful and finally a return to the high bar of quality set so many years ago.

From the first strains of "Principles of Paradox" - a cleansing rain and a stark acoustic guitar, plucking strings in the midst of the rainstorm - you know this is going to be a change for this record, or at least become something that is going to challenge the listener and lay down some excellent melodies while doing so. The progressive strains are there and when Mark finally folds his voice into the music, the nuances and wealth of emotion tapped is pretty amazing.

"The First Rock" is a kick to the head and fills the gaps in with some great musical moments. This is huge - wrapping the listener in an epic atmosphere, carried by Boals and the tornadic music twisting around his groundwork. A quick climb from powerful singing to piercing vibratic screams whips the breath away. "Exit Wound" is dark and festering, piling on powerful melodies and hammering keyboards. Wispy violins and cello give way to ominous keys and spritzes of electrified guitars. It stains the soul and probes the mind. Magnificent in execution and Mark is just the perfect addition. "Divide and Reign" is majestic and thoughtful, an undercurrent of darkness running beneath. "Tears of the Sun" is a pomp-progressive rollercoaster ride that doggedly chases that uptempo til the end.

"Collision Course - Paradox 2" is by far the best creation of Royal Hunt since the first "Paradox". Perhaps the inspiration from the past rekindled their creative flame. Perhaps subtracting John West and adding Mark Boals was the best mathematical decision they could have made for the overall health and future of the band. Maybe it's a mixture of all these things. And even though not every song is golden, there's enough quality here to make up for all the 'middle of the road' clunkers they unleashed upon us in the past. Andre Anderson's Royal Hunt is back for the attack, and in style. A glorious reboot for the band and a worthy release in its own right. It doesn't erase the memories of DC - Hunt, but goes a long way for atoning from their grievious mistake in firing him a decade or so ago. If European flavored melodic hard rock with progressive AND neo-classical twists is your cup of tea, then "Collision" is a must have release.

Written by Alanna
Saturday, March 29, 2008
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Ratings

Alanna: 8/10

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