Royal Hunt - Show Me How To Live review
| Band: | Royal Hunt |
| Album: | Show Me How To Live |
| Style: | Symphonic power metal |
| Release date: | November 2011 |
01. One More Day
02. Another Man Down
03. An Empty Shell
04. Hard Rain's Coming
05. Half Past Loneliness
06. Show Me How to Live
07. Angel's Gone
Doing progressive power successfully has got to be one of the greatest feats in melodic metal. Either one of the genres is not being nearly represented enough in the mix, so the title is misleading, or they're merged in such a way that both the uplifting harmonies of power metal and alien qualities of prog metal get left out of the equation, leaving us with a boring, sterile product. Royal Hunt is one of the many bands that failed doing this the right way.
Of course, it's easy to blame it on poor band chemistry when you look at the band's Metal Storm page - pretty much the only constant member is the keyboardist, guitarist and mastermind André Andersen, and the list of guest, session and former musicians is vast enough to be compared with Haggard's lineup. But for a band that released a truckload of albums, with a lot of prominent members, I frankly expected better ideas and realization. What we have here is a typical "symphonic" parade, with almost zero prog, most sounds emulated from keyboards, a lot of choirs, forced catchiness (as in: it's not really catchy, but we repeat it a lot of times) and a pretty uninspired band fronted by DC Cooper supporting that impression. The fact that they're not actually playing progressive power but rather symphonic power wouldn't be unsettling at all, since they wouldn't be the first band that mislabels themselves, if only the end result was more pleasing.
I had the pleasure of listening to DC lending his voice to Shadow Gallery on "New World Order", a track from their glorious Tyranny, and I held his singing abilities in very high esteem until I heard this album. He sounds very dry and I cannot help but wonder how does a good vocalist manage to be this unconvincing. But he isn't the only one - almost everything here sounds sub-par. It is symphonic, but not epic; old school power metal, but doesn't invite you to sing along; the musicians are fine, but sound very bored, and they aren't even supported by good production. This is doing music just for the sake of doing music, but people are pretty much eating it up because it's "old-school" and the band is acclaimed.
When you hear young guns such as Shadowside making small steps with huge albums, or renowned progsters such as Pagan's Mind switching genres and being incredibly good at it, it makes you wonder how on earth are these exhausted bands ever gonna match that, and you understand why is the collective metal community slowly losing interest in power metal - the good releases don't come often and don't come from places you'd expect them, so people get bored of looking. Maybe this is not as bad as it seems to me, but I've heard this type of metal being done a thousand times, and I can't say I enjoyed it a lot even the first time around.
 | Written on 03.01.2012 by A part of the team since December 2011. 7.0 means the album is good. |
Comments
Comments: 26
Visited by: 286 users
| Susan Smeghead Posts: 6941 From: USA  |
Once again, another incredibly astute review. You really are 100% correct about the genre(s) of power metal and prog/power being drown out by mediocre releases from bigger bands (and many smaller bands, too). It's sad that Royal Hunt and DC Cooper mailed in this performance. They really missed an opportunity here. I am so glad that bands like Shadowside and Pagan's Mind are doing their part to keep this genre alive! And great point about it being symphonic power metal and not prog power. These days, the same album would be prog/power with a male vocalist and symphonic/power with a female vocalist. No, testicles DON'T make your music progressive. 
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 8973 From: Canada  |
Written by Susan on 03.01.2012 at 00:46 heh, you said testicles. any way that being dealt with, I'm not usually a PM fan but this review makes me want to check it out.
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| strade Posts: 677 From: USA  |
Check out The Mission by Royal Hunt, their best album by far. Amazing release. This, I couldn't care less about.
---- My lo-fi synth project: http://luciddreamer.bandcamp.com
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Posts: 21306 From: Canada  |
This review makes me not want to check this out, which means it was written perfectly. 
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Mountain King K i K o Posts: 1361 From: Slovak Republic  |
I still haven't heard this one. I will soon enough, but i wonder if it's as bad as u say. I mean 26 votes with a 8.2 rating is really good. Have u heard Moving Target and Paradox? They are the 2 albums with DC on vocals and they are really good specially Moving Target. Also check DC out with Silent Force who i doubt will release anything again. He is an amazing singer. As for Pagan's Mind, i don't see the similarities between them and Royal Hunt. RH have this orchestral baroque feel unlike Pagan's Mind who have more progy riff based styled Power Metal...
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941 From: Canada  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 03.01.2012 at 01:05 It is surely not your kind of music.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941 From: Canada |
"and you understand why is the collective metal community slowly losing interest in power metal - the good releases don't come often and don't come from places you'd expect them, so people get bored of looking" So true. I didn't listen to the album and I won't bother but your general analysis of Powermetal is spot on, Imo. I already mentioned it on another thread: you write good reviews and, even though I'm not a Powermetal fan at all nowadays and don't enjoy the genre like you, your views on the genre as a whole often match my own views.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| Susan Smeghead Posts: 6941 From: USA |
Written by Mountain King on 03.01.2012 at 02:11 Silent Force's last album was incredible. One of my top for that year. However, just because he was great on that album and on others doesn't mean he's incapable of mailing in a performance now and then. It happens to the best singers and bands from time to time. It's just becoming a trend with more establish power acts, is part of Mora's point I believe.
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Mountain King K i K o Posts: 1361 From: Slovak Republic |
Written by Susan on 03.01.2012 at 02:42 I know, i was just recommending good albums with DC. I still have to hear this album myself to judge...
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| Milena gloom cookie Posts: 4603 From: Norway  |
Written by RavenKing on 03.01.2012 at 02:18 I'm not a big power metal fan myself, but I still check out releases in hope to find awesome stuff like I once did with Kamelot or Lost Horizon or some Firewind albums. Anyway, DC is a terrific singer, but he did sound terribly uninspired 'ere. I'll try and check out previous stuff from the band to see if there is anything better.
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Posts: 18274 From: Sweden  |
I read the entire review, it's good  About the album... I'll believe your words 
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941 From: Canada |
Written by Milena on 03.01.2012 at 03:07 Judging by the bands listed on your profile, you seem to be more a fan of prog, aren't you?
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| Milena gloom cookie Posts: 4603 From: Norway |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 03.01.2012 at 03:09 Well, I think the power metal fans shouldn't avoid this as it's better than some other 2011 stuff I've heard, but I personally am fed up with this kind of thing. I wasted a lot of time with average power metal, just because I needed to hear entire discographies to form proper opinions instead of just staying the fuck away like most people do 
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Milena gloom cookie Posts: 4603 From: Norway |
Written by RavenKing on 03.01.2012 at 03:11 Yeah, but that love is pretty recent, I've been into prog since 2009. Before that I thought a twenty minute song is just too much and I didn't dig a lot of music with harsher vocals either, was just meandering around, listening to awesome side bands of musicians in side bands of "main" Finnish bands, if that makes any sense. And even before that, I listened to a lot of classic metal and was checking out a lot lot of power metal bands. So when I say a power metal release is sub-par... I know what type of music I'm talking about.
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Posts: 18274 From: Sweden |
Written by Milena on 03.01.2012 at 03:14 My first "metal" years were mostly Power Metal so I hardly need to check out an album to know I'm not going to like it  There's nothign wrong with staying the fuck out of shit you just know you won't like.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941 From: Canada |
Written by Milena on 03.01.2012 at 03:18 I see. By the way, just to avoid any misunderstanding, I wasn't implying that you don't have good knowledge about Powermetal. You can explain your point very clearly.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| BlueMobius Account deleted |
BlueMobius
Account deleted Written by X-Ray Rod on 03.01.2012 at 03:20 Yeah, I definitely don't buy or give anything a chance I know that I wouldn't like. With tracks streaming online, hardly any of my buys are bands I don't know or haven't heard and don't already like. That's why my collection has albums mostly rated on the higher end of the spectrum, cause I buy stuff I like.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Posts: 18274 From: Sweden |
Written by Guest on 03.01.2012 at 03:55 Same here, it's not very often I give myself the luxury to take a chance. If I'm spending money, it better be good.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Milena gloom cookie Posts: 4603 From: Norway |
Written by RavenKing on 03.01.2012 at 03:26 That was in for future reference although I doubt I'll be reviewing a lot of it in months to come, save of requests that are forwarded to me.
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| NocturnalStalker Metal Addict Posts: 889 From: Spain  |
I still need to check this album but Royal Hunt weren't able to impress me with their latest albums and I gathered from this review that "Show Me How To Live" is unlikely to turn my impression about the band around... Sad thing, I enjoyed their music a lot in my early metal days... EDIT: I've listened to it. Definitely... It sounds uninspired. The music is not awful but it just doesn't capture my attention.
---- "And we are not who we think we are We are who we're afraid to be" - Lux Occulta "The Opening of Eleventh Sephirah"
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| Demikki Posts: 1 From: Finland |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Posts: 21306 From: Canada |
Pictured above: Mark Boals' mother.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Milena gloom cookie Posts: 4603 From: Norway |
Written by Demikki on 12.01.2012 at 21:26 If you actually read the review instead of skimming over it, you'd notice I made no comparison to the Boals era. But that's okay, happens all the time.
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941 From: Canada |
Written by Demikki on 12.01.2012 at 21:26 Gratuitous and unfair accusations.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2570 From: Czech Republic  |
I don't have good memories of X, so I won't even bother checking this one out. Great job on the review!
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| Milena gloom cookie Posts: 4603 From: Norway |
Written by K✞ulu on 31.01.2012 at 21:19 Thanks dude!
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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