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Royal Hunt - Moving Target

Artist:	Royal Hunt
Title:	Moving Target
Label:	Magna Carta MA-9027-2
Length(s):	50 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1995/1998
Month of review:	09/1998

Line up

Steen Mogensen - bass
Kenneth Olsen - drums
Jacob Kjaer - guitars
D.C. Cooper - lead and backing vocals
Andre Andersen - keyboards, guitars

Tracks

1)	Last Goodbye	6.33
2)	1348	4.32
3)	Makin' A Mess	4.00
4)	Far Away	4.58
5)	Step By Step	5.11
6)	Autograph	3.36
7)	Stay Down	4.21
8)	Give It Up	4.01
9)	Time	4.53
10)	Dar Away (bonus, acoustic)	4.38
11)	Restless (bonus)	3.20

Summary

If you think this was the follow-up to Paradox, you are sadly mistaken. I was warned since a friend of mine already had it. Nowhere on the album is it stated (that I could find) that this release is from 1995, but they do say in some paper with the promo I got that this is the first Royal Hunt disc with D.C. Cooper on the vocals. This is the first release of this album in the States with two tracks added to the original album.

The music

The first track, Last Goodbye opens with the typical sound of Royal Hunt: melodic, varied in tempo, classical stringlike additions, the clear, but slightly accented vocals of D.C. Cooper, both male and female harmonies. The melodic is rather like a merry-go-round, generally quite highspeed and a nice touch of clavecimbel as well. With all this bombasm one might think of bands like Rhapsody here (escpecially because of the classical influence, but this is partly true: Royal Hunt is more AOR oriented, with more catchy melodies, but also less technical. All in all a varied track, but quite accessible as well. During the first notes of the second track, 1348, it really felt like my ears were going right to left and back. A destabilizing condition. It starts out as a rather plain midtempo track, but the instrumental intermezzo features flute and violin and again string classical influences. This ought to be one the best tracks on the album with a recurring and encompassing theme that is taken all the way at the end. They could have waited a while with fading I feel, though. With a title like Makin' A Mess I do not think of the Malmsteenish bombasm that is displayed for our ears right here. The background vocals and harmonies are very typical AOR-like and again lots of scales are being rushed up and down. Far Away is a ballad of the powerful kind with the Royal Hunt touch. Step By Step is again a very catchy tune and the band should take care now, that their consistent style will not kill the album. The most striking features of this track however are the hornsection like synths and the Las Vegas casino piano at the end. Halfway we are as we come to track six, Autograph. This high speed tune can be thought of as the instrumental signature of the band and is a nice change from the vocal tracks. Instrumentally it is still very much like the other tracks, but there need be no concessions to being able to vocalize the track. Give It Up is not a great track, although the beginning is quite nice, the vocal melodies are a bit too trite. In Time, like in some the more recent songs, it seems the band tends to rehash its ideas.

Bonus track number one is the acoustic version of Far Away, while Restless, the second one, adds no new things to the picture.

Conclusion

Halfway between the classicality of Malmsteen and the poppiness of Styx, add plenty of good melodies, good harmony vocals and okay compositions and you get an idea of what this band is like. They can fire away and most of the music on this disc is bombastic and catchy. Still, I feel this band has more to it, not just because of the strong but synthetic classical influences, but also the craftmanship and easy of playing are something to be admired. All in all, an album that didn't sound like anything special at first, but that tended to grow under my critical ears, although it is much of the same and especially towards the end one tends to feel that the band repeats itself. Being often of the singalong type (not meant in any derisatory way) it is doubtful whether this band be considered progressive.