Stephen
Long time singer, DC Cooper, finally went back to ROYAL HUNT after 13 years, a big hooray from the fans camp. He has a great vocal, I must admit, but sadly, I don't know why ROYAL HUNT's music didn't fascinate me much, perhaps because they're standing undecided in the middle of prog area and heavy metal, hence I can't really appreciate the big value of Cooper's contribution.
What offered here is basically an old time formula, for those who's familiar with Cooper's earlier era should find this easier to digest. Progressive metal with neoclassical element, but this time looks like they reduced the prog weight a bit and played with more straight forward heavy metal routine. 'One More Day' for example, this is symphonic and heavy metal combo while 'Another Man Down' started slow before building up the tempo, and both are pretty good track.
'An Empty Shell' is the weakest tune here but on the contrary, 'Half Past Loneliness' has the best chorus here and stands up as the greatest song. The sixth track, is the longest but the first half of the song didn't really grab my attention, but after the upbeat instrumental, I can see that this is not a bad track at all.
I found that this album probably will be enjoyed immensely by fans of Cooper and long time ROYAL HUNT fans, but to me, this is quite average and even the best track isn't really memorable by any stretch. You're okay with it, but in no time, it's traceless and you might completely forget about it. 65-70%