Royal Hunt – “Paper Blood”
Just what is the title “Paper Blood” supposed to mean exactly? Blood made of paper? Oh, I see, like the kind they sell at Kinko’s? Royal Hunt’s progressive traditional heavy metal changes from album to album. The only thing with a warranty (ha!) is: classy, talented, musical, proggy, keyboardy, somewhat earthy/gritty heavy metal and great, soulful heavy metal/rock singing. To me, John West sings in the spirit of Glen Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Iommi, etc.), Ian Gillan (Deep Purple, etc.) and Joe Lynn Turner (Deep Purple, Rainbow, etc.). Here’s a hint: John West might like Deep Purple. The guitar is often rocking and uptempo, but just as often it’s proggy and the solos can be fast, as well as slower/bluesy. The keyboards feel omnipresent and can be heard at just about every moment. Sometimes they can sound reminiscent of Deep Purple (big surprise there), Uriah Heep–in other words, like classic rock. At other times, they sound orchestral, symphonic. “Yeah, ok, man, but what about the actual songs?” Well, they are memorable, well executed, speedy rocking moments combined with slower, melodic, multiple-layer/chorus singing. The drumming is often double-bass, speedy drumming, which slows down during the more soulful moments when John is crooning away, singing to the moon. Of course, saying that these are “memorable” songs needs to be qualified with the explanation that this is not really ear candy, like power metal or the Backstreet Boys (power metal is pretty pop, don’t you think?). The music is “catchy” in a coherent, unified whole, that is also a monster.