The Danes of 'Royal Hunt' now have about thirty years of career and about fifteen albums to their credit which makes a frequency of one album every two years or so, their last opus 'Cast in Stone' dating from 2018. Tagged since the 90s in progressive metal, they have released a new studio recording 'Dystopia' late 2020 and the last two albums took side roads eyeing a neo-classical and symphonic metal with always this talent for heady melodic lines. What about this last Danish baby? First, the period in which we live is conducive to picking up themes from twentieth century science fiction novels because we realize that the writers of the time were often visionaries with a talent for foreseeing the future, starting for example with the novel '1984' by 'George Orwell' published in 1949 with its famous 'Big Brother is watching you'. On this point, 'Royal Hunt' has chosen a novel well known since it is 'Farenheit 451' by 'Ray Bradbury' published in 1953 and which described a pessimistic future based on totalitarianism which rejected culture by burning books (hey, that doesn't remind you of anything quite similar right now!). No need to make you languish, musically, the compositions are at the level of this masterpiece of literature and form an inseparable whole that one could qualify as metal opera and make me think of atmospheres (whether musically or theme level) of 'The Astonishing' from 'Dream Theater'.
The album begins with the symphonic instrumental 'Inception F451' in an epic atmosphere that sets the scene and reminiscent of the great American film productions then, complete change of scenery with the energetic 'Burn' and its fast tempo which offers us a first heady refrain taken up in chorus and remarkable symphonic arrangements in support of the guitar riffs with, here and there, some melodic digressions borrowed from classical music reminiscent of formations like 'Rainbow' of 'Ritchie Blackmore'. Follows the long development 'The Art Of Dying' which borders on 9 minutes and which continues in a classy symphonic metal by unrolling a heavy mid-tempo with a new addictive melody and with a magnificent vocal performance of 'Dc Cooper' well accompanied by choirs of luxury (in total 5 distinguished guests including the former singer of 'Royal Hunt', 'Mark Boals' who has multiples projects in which he sang, 'Shining Black' being the lastest), all this being interspersed with remarkable instrumental sections. The beautiful ballad arrives with the following title 'I Used To Walk Alone' which sees the participation of 'Alexandra Andersen' forming a beautiful vocal duet with 'Dc Cooper' and which can be added to the best metal ballads (see my spotify playlist here), then, the following three titles are very different from each other which helps to make again of 'Dystopia' a very original album : first with 'The Eye Of Oblivion', we come back to a more energetic metal with a remarkable instrumental section with neo-classical sounds, the construction being more conventional, then 'Hound of the Damned' completely changes register with a composition quite far from heavy metal which integrates electronic sounds in a theatrical atmosphere of rock musical comedy and 'The Missing Page' changes again of scenery for a melancholic symphonic instrumental highlighting strings. The end of the album is just as varied because it offers us a new long development, 'Black Butterflies' which takes us on a neo-classical metal saga with beautiful alternations of intensity and rhythm and magnificent melodic lines which never leave you, then, 'Snake Eyes' is a second power ballad just as remarkable as the first and which refers to the technology pushed to its climax in the novel 'Farenheit 451' with this strange machine 'Electric-Eyed Snake' which was invented by the authorities to control the population and the short instrumental 'Midway' closes the album in a tragic atmosphere corresponding well to the end of the novel with the exodus of these men who bear the name of every book they decided to memorize.
In summary, the Danes of 'Royal Hunt' are releasing a remarkable album with very varied compositions which were written and composed with the sole aim of telling 'Farenheit 451' and which have many magnificent arrangements, both at the vocal or instrumental level, which makes of 'Dystopia' an artistic work going beyond a simple metal album which should appeal to a whole audience loving neo-classical rock or metal operas... | |
