![]() Let he who hates a good wank cast the first stone. It may be a bit less gripping than Devil’s Dozen, but it’s still light years ahead of most of their peers and exceptionally easy to love. This is another classy, high-quality outing with few deviations from their tried and true formula. Royal Hunt is about as reliable a prog institution as there is, and they’re second to none at making progressive music feel accessible. There are no winners, only entertained listeners. Larsen helps keep things heavy with meaty riffs, and often engages in dueling wank-o-thons against Andersen. Instead he keeps the tempo up and the rock rolling, leaving enough space for the guitars by Jonas Larsen. Andre Andersen is the band’s founder and keyboard wizard extraordinaire, and though he lavishes much attention on his piano, organ and synthesizer, somehow this never ends up sounding like a theme to an epical LARP campaign. He sounds great here as always and elevates what are already solid songs to a level above. With Royal Hunt he never goes all “metal” and tends to stay in a restrained belt and croon, which suits the gentile material well. He very nearly became the singer of Judas Priest when Rob Halford left to form Fight back in 1992 and the man has some major lung power. I love his work with these cats, Silent Force and Steel Seal. Cooper fanboy, and I won’t bother denying it. The mix is decent, but can get a bit too cluttered when the music gets intense. It’s hardly a failure, but it’s definitely not broadcasting with the same wattage as the other cuts. The only song that doesn’t bowl me over is closer “Save Me II” where the band goes for a country western flavored approach that works at times, but not at others. “Sacrifice” has another chorus large enough to colonize, and “Rest in Peace” is one of the most ballsy songs the band has ever written, charging at you like a raging bull of prog (meaning he’d be wearing a jacket with patches on the elbows). This could almost be a Tobias Sammet composition for Avantasia, it’s so big. D.C.’s powerful voice grabs a lot of the attention and carries the listener along through the oceans of wank without making one seasick or fret-fatigued. The Moog synthesizer that opens “The Last Soul Alive” is a sweet touch, giving way to an aggressive, rocking attack with keyboard flourishes decorating every guitar riff, but somehow the overall sound never gets too…floral. With just 7 tracks running at 50 minutes, there’s some excess and overdrive in the oatmeal, but the writing is so accessible and likable, it doesn’t feel like the songs are as bloated as they are at times. This is the blueprint for the rest of Cast in Stone as well. The bigger than Jesus chorus is something Royal Hunt always excelled at, and they deliver once again in a big way. It’s catchy as hell, and oh so polished and tasteful, but heavy enough to keep metal folks on board. Cooper crooning over the top, giving the music equal doses of silk and steel. It’s the same keyboard-driven prog rockery with the impeccable voice of D.C. Opener “Fistful of Misery” is everything fans could want in a Royal Hunt tune, sounding much like their golden era albums like Paradox 1 and Moving Target. And once again, accessibility goes hand in hand with showmanship, for ear-hooking and air guitar finger spraining good times. This is another slick, polished dose of slightly bombastic, somewhat symphonic prog-metal delivered with enthusiasm by seasoned, highly skilled professionals. With most of the crew returning from 2015s excellent Devil’s Dozen, little has changed in the House of Hunt. This is an approach many prog bands seem to prefer using in reverse, with predictably mixed results. While the band was never afraid to wank and strut their musical stuff, they always wrote a catchy tune first, then packed the showboating in the right places. Over most of that decade spanning career, they’ve stuck to their original formula, taking rock sensibilities and applying them to prog-metal. Royal Hunt has reached the “long running career” stage, with Cast in Stone being their 14th album.
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