lukretion The name Steen Mogensen should tell something to any serious Royal Hunt fan. The bass player has been a cornerstone of the Danish melodic progressive metal masters since their very early days and until he left the band after the Eyewitness album in 2003. A few years before that, he decided to take a break from his day job and paired up with singer extraordinaire Dougie White to play some classy hard rock under the name Cornerstone. Arrival is their first LP and was released in 2000 via Massacre Records.

On Arrival, Mogensen and White received more than a little help from the bassist’s bandmates in Royal Hunt. Jacob Kjaer (guitars), Allan Sørensen (drums) and André Andersen (keyboards) all feature as guest musicians on the album. Kenny Lübcke (a regular backing vocalist for Royal Hunt) and Henrik Brockmann (Royal Hunt’s singer on their first two records) lend backing vocals. And Toni Rahm (Prime Time, but member of Royal Hunt for a short period in 1990) plays a couple of guitar solos. Altogether, this makes for a high-quality line-up that any fan of Royal Hunt would certainly find appealing and interesting. This is indeed what attracted me to this record back in 2000 when I was a fairly hardcore Royal Hunt fan and I immediately jumped on this record as soon as the line-up was announced. I still remember being very impressed by the slick, classy hard rock style of the LP back then. The album also stood the test of time, as I still find it very pleasant and well-done today, more than 20 years after its initial release.

With Mogensen as the sole songwriter, the music is inevitably not too different from the more hard rock / classic metal material that Royal Hunt released over the years and especially early on in their career. The material is highly melodic, with strong choruses and equally melodic and catchy verses. The songs have simple structures and mostly stay in the mid-tempo range, with occasional faster riffs, giving a majestic but also melancholic tone to the whole album. The arrangements are elegant and sophisticated, with a good interplay between bass grooves (which are much more prominent than on Royal Hunt’s releases), smooth guitar riffs, and delicate keyboard and piano motifs. There are also some great melodic solos provided by Jacob Kjaer (such a classy guitar player, and terribly underrated!) and Toni Rahm. The backing vocals have that vaguely AOR quality that one can also find on Royal Hunt’s releases, perfectly complementing the MASSIVE vocal performance by Dougie White. When it comes to his voice, the man’s CV’s speak for itself (Rainbow, Axel Rudi Pell, Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Schenker, Alcatrazz, and many others) and there is no doubt that he is a superb hard rock / heavy metal singer. His smooth, velvety voice can soothe and caress, but also rip and pierce your ears when he goes full power. The album deserves a listen if nothing else for the singer’s great vocal performance.

With excellent performances all-round, the songwriting is also strong. There are some great tunes on this album, very inspired and with the right dynamics and feel. The opening duo “Arrival” and “Walked on the Water” are nothing short of exhilarating, with huge melodic hooks on the choruses that provide an excellent climax for the tension built in the dark verses. “Jungle” is lighter and more up-tempo, but provides some good melodies and a nice guitar solo too. The album perhaps plods a little bit in the middle, with songs like “Top of the World” and “Gift of Flesh” sounding a tad less inspired and verging on filler. But the bluesy “Grain of Sand” and the epic closer “I’m Alive” set things right again and ensure that the album closes on a high note.

Overall, Arrival is a pretty strong, high-quality and classy hard rock / melodic heavy metal album that will surely please fans of these genres. Anyone following Royal Hunt should also give this LP a spin or two, because there are significant traces of the Danish band on this album too. Cornerstone will continue their career with three more studio albums, also of good quality. But Arrival remains perhaps their most inspired and exciting release.