So who says progressive metal is dead?<\/p>\n
Rush might be at a temporary standstill due to events out of the
\nband’s hands. Queensryche is in a period of regrouping after the
\ndeparture of Chris DeGarmo. The door is pretty wide open for
\nsomeone else to step forward and move the genre ahead – and that
\nband is Royal Hunt. Their latest effort
\nParadox<\/i> is an album that is sure to challenge your ear, as
\nwell as your views on religion, and is an album that, for the most
\npart, is a success.<\/p>\n
Led by American vocalist D.C. Cooper (who was once considered as
\na finalist to be Judas Priest’s next singer), this Danish
\nfour-piece knows how to work harmony and hook together to create
\nwell-done songs that seem to fly by. However, I often wished I
\nwould have heard Jacob Kjaer’s guitar work take the forefront, not
\njust Andre Andersen’s keyboard work (good as it is, though).<\/p>\n
The bulk of
\nParadox<\/i> is a set of interconnected songs which challenges
\nthe world of religion and beliefs in God – often in stronger terms
\nthan I’ve heard in a long time. The strongest condemnation comes on
\n“Message To God,” where Andersen’s song dares to reject the notion
\nof a “supreme Being”. Using Andersen’s words, Cooper wonders in
\nsong how an all-caring God could allow us to kill each other in His
\nname: “We’re busy burning witches the way we’ve learned from you \/
\nWe’re good at killing creatures, so teach us something new.” Even
\nstronger: “Forget me, you’ve left me.” Whether you agree with the
\nopinions expressed, you can’t help be affected by the emotion in
\nthe words.<\/p>\n
But the pain in feeling deserted by God is nothing compared to
\nthe feeling that the protagonist is being tortured by God, as heard
\nin “Silent Scream” – no, not a song about abortion: “Dear God gave
\nme such a life full of pain, \/ It’s sharp just like a knife \/ I can
\nthink, but I can not tell, \/ What’s life to you to me is hell.”
\nLikewise, our tragic hero awaits his judgment on “It’s Over,”
\ncomparing himself to Jesus: “I’m on the same path to the cross as
\nlast time \/ They’ll crucify me once again – you’ve broken my heart
\n\/ As you did it before \/ Judas I’ll wait, come and knock on my
\ndoor.”<\/p>\n
The disturbing thing about
\nParadox<\/i> is not the rejection of God – or, perhaps more
\ncorrectly, the image we have built of God, it is the fact that
\nsomeone who turns away from the album due to its lyrical content
\nwill miss out on some solid musical performances. Often the songs
\nremind me of artists like Yngwie Malmsteen without the shredding
\nguitar riffs. Allan S\u00f8rensen’s drum work is exceptional,
\nwhile bassist Steen Mogensen doesn’t express himself as much as he
\nprobably should have. Andersen wanted to create his masterpiece
\nwith
\nParadox<\/i>, from the songwriting (only one cut, “The Final
\nLullaby,” wasn’t written by Andersen) to the keyboard work to the
\nproduction – and he succeeds… almost.<\/p>\n
The only real down side to this album is that most of the songs
\nare interwoven, provising little if any break from such a deep
\nmessage. And while the music and songwriting is strong enough to
\npartially overcome this, it would have been nice to get even a few
\nseconds in between tracks to let up from such thought-provoking and
\nthought-challenging words. Still, this is a minor complaint.<\/p>\n
Will
\nParadox<\/i> be the breakthrough for Royal Hunt in America?
\nProbably not – but that’s due to the strong opinions on religion
\nexpressed in 55 minutes. Others who might show some interest in the
\nband may be turned off by the idea that Royal Hunt has written
\ntheme music for wrestlers in Japan. (My thoughts – keep an open
\nmind – it’s not that bad.) Fact is, Royal Hunt has everything going
\nfor them at this point – strong songs and performances. All they
\nneed now is a break. Here’s hoping that enough people give
\nParadox<\/i> that opportunity – it’s not puzzling to understand
\nwhy this band is as good as it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5975],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38695","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-royal-hunt","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38695"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38695"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}