Monday, November 26, 2012

ROYAL HUNT: "20th Anniversary - Special Edition"

Rating: - (compilation)

Label: Frontiers 2012
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

To celebrate the band's twentieth anniversary, Royal Hunt and Frontiers have put together a really nice package of greatest hits and rare songs on 3 CDs and a DVD. What you'll get is two discs of Best Of Royal Hunt in chronological order, featuring the "cornerstones" of their career. Okay, "Land Of Broken Hearts" would be one in my books and it's missing from the album, but the video is featured on the DVD.

The third CD contains rare songs and even one new track recorded especially for this package. "Save Me" is the new studio recording, a midtempo track that really doesn't leave much of an impression apart from the strange quitar sounds - the guitar in the intro sounds like a cat growling! Three old Royal Hunt songs are given an "unplugged" treatment, out of which "One By One" and "Restless" work really well. "Bodyguard" isn't that great.

"Bad Luck" originates from a Japanese EP "Clown In The Mirror" and features the original singer Henrik Brockmann. An okay'ish song, if nothing more. "Double Conversation" is a nice instrumental from the "Far Away" EP, while "U-Turn" is from an another EP, "Intermission". It's my favourite of these "rarities". "Sixth Sense" is a newer bonustrack from the album "X", and it's another instrumental. "The Day Is Dawning" is a ballad with John West's fine vocals carrying it nicely.

The DVD wasn't included in the promo download so I cannot comment on that, apparently it includes all the promotional videos the band has made. More value for your money then.

More than just a Best Of package, I think this compilation is much nicer than the usual "all the hits and a new song" packages. It serves as a great introduction to Royal Hunt for the uninitiated yet it's still a worthy buy for those more familiar with the band.

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