{"id":34907,"date":"2013-11-20T22:36:41","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T03:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=34907"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:38:47","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:38:47","slug":"royal-hunt-a-life-to-die-for-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/royal-hunt-a-life-to-die-for-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Hunt | A Life To Die For<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"RoyalDanish melodic\/progressive metal band Royal Hunt is back with a new album, their 12th overall, titled A Life To Die For<\/em>. The band has been busy of late. The last couple of years have seen the return of fan favorite vocalist DC Cooper, a vintage DVD release as well as a career-spanning retrospective to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Now the band enters their third decade with the singer who helped make their first decade so memorable.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the look back at the last 20 years put keyboardist and chief songwriter Andre Andersen in a reflective frame of mind, because A Life To Die For<\/em> seems to capture all of the elements of the Royal Hunt sound over the years. Andersen\u2019s atmospheric keyboards take center stage of course, but guitarist Jonas Larsen cuts loose with some dazzlingly intricate solos. And of course there\u2019s DC Cooper, whose voice was such a huge part of Royal Hunt\u2019s appeal back in the \u201890s. He delivers another rock-solid performance here, and even if he sticks to a midrange to match the overall tone of the songs, it\u2019s still magic to hear him singing alongside Andersen\u2019s keys.<\/p>\n

With just seven songs spanning 46 minutes, A Life To Die For<\/em> is a fairly brief album, but it\u2019s also free of filler. By and large, the songs are all mid-tempo, melodic, feature those signature backup vocals and stick to a 5-6 minute length. The album is bookended by a pair of long songs though, the 9-minute \u201cHell Comes Down From Heaven\u201d and the 8-minute title track, both of which are highlights and really capture that Paradox-style epic Royal Hunt sound. \u201cA Bullet\u2019s Tale\u201d and \u201cWon\u2019t Trust, Won\u2019t Fear, Won\u2019t Beg\u201d are also standouts, especially the latter, which lets Cooper really wail.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t grab you on first listen the way Show Me How To Live<\/em> did, but after a couple of spins the songs on A Life To Die For<\/em> will definitely get their hooks in you. It\u2019s another worthy addition to the Royal Hunt discography, and for fans of the classic era of the band it\u2019s a welcome return to form.<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Metal, Progressive Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nAllan Sorensen (d)
\nAndre Andersen (k)
\nD.C. Cooper (v)
\nAndreas Passmark (b)
\nJonas Larsen (g)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tHell Comes Down From Heaven
\n2.\tA Bullet\u2019s Tale
\n3.\tRunning Out of Tears
\n4.\tOne Minute Left To Live
\n5.\tSign of Yesterday
\n6.\tWon\u2019t Trust, Won\u2019t Fear, Won\u2019t Beg
\n7.\tA Life to Die For<\/p>\n

Label: Frontiers Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.royalhunt.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — Danish melodic\/progressive metal band Royal Hunt is back with a new album, their 12th overall, titled A Life To Die For. The band has been busy of […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":34908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[2317,374,3439,1098,3064],"class_list":{"0":"post-34907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-frontiers-records","10":"tag-melodic-metal","11":"tag-progressive-metal","12":"tag-royal-hunt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}