Fear

By objective measures, John West is a more technically gifted singer than D.C. Cooper. He has a wider vocal range, has sung in a wider variety of styles (blues, country, progressive metal, power metal, symphonic metal, hard rock, classic rock, glam metal, etc. etc.) with aplomb, is out of tune far less frequently, and has far superior diction (though the last is not a hard bar to clear when we're talking about Cooper, really). Not that Cooper--particular 1990's Cooper--is a vocal schlub; as much talent as he lent to Moving Target and Paradox, West has (or theoretically should have, anyway) all that and more.

But, as consistent as Andre Andersen's songwriting and West's vocal prowess tend to be, Fear simply is not a great, or even especially compelling album; in fact, it rates as considerably inferior to the two albums with Cooper that precede it.

Why? It's easy to sense the decline in quality on this disc, but it is more challenging to pinpoint the factors that comprise it. There is no "smoking gun," no element that in itself dropped off a cliff from Paradox to Fear; rather, a number of things about Royal Hunt's sound just lost a step.

One subtle but important alteration here is the overall sound of the disc. The two albums with Cooper had lush arrangements and production, with layers of backing vocals and expansive, reverbed keyboard tones. By comparison, Fear sounds slightly more modern, but also slighter. The backing vocals that worked so well with Cooper start to get a little grating at times here, with Kenny Lubcke's reedy voice cutting through the mix (a problem that would plague basically every single RH release from here on). Many of the guitar solos feature Jacob Kjaer noodling over sparse, non-energetic backdrops, as opposed to the purposeful drive of past albums. West's voice sounds a bit over-processed in places, especially compared to his magnificent performance on Artension's Phoenix Rising two years earlier (and Cooper's vocals on previous RH efforts).

The songwriting, while still of considerable quality, also takes a slight step backward. It's as if Andersen hasn't quite figured out how to write songs for West's voice, as the hooks don't shine through the same way they did with Cooper (or on later, and far superior, West-era albums where Andersen seemingly rectified this problem). Something like "Cold City Lights" would seem to fit Cooper's swaggering baritone more than West's crisp, polished delivery, for example, and Andersen doesn't take as much advantage of West's still-formidable higher registers on this album as he should, keeping him in more of a one-dimensional midrange groove only occasionally punctuated by something different vocally. In addition to the hooks being coming off slightly less bombastically here, there are also occasional lapses of purpose, like the draggy, overlong intros to "Fear" and "Lies" and the pointlessly long midsection of "Follow Me." Kjaer's lead work doesn't go to many interesting places; it didn't in the Cooper era, either, but on those albums, Kjaer's conservative solos fit solidly in the tightly and exceptionally well-written material. Here, they need to be sources of momentum in their own right, and often come up short.

For all his greatness, West does little to elevate this material. Closer "Sea of Time," with its simple yet gloriously catchy riff and clearly hooky chorus, should be a great song, but West undersells the whole thing, focusing more on clarity and precision when he needs to show more charisma and attitude. He doesn't do much in the way of gritty singing, focusing on a very clean approach that has since become his most familiar vocal style, but at the time was quite unusual for him. None of the multidimensionality of his Artension or Cozy Powell performances, etc. comes through here, except he gets off huge high notes at the end of "Lies" and leading into the final chorus of the otherwise unremarkable "Voices." The latter note is one of the most spectacular of West's career, and it provides a jolt of what could have been vocally.

All of these negatives aren't to say Fear sucks. Power ballad "Follow Me" works well with West's delivery, "Lies" has a nice hook and good propulsion once it gets past the overlong intro, and "Cold City Lights" and "Faces of War" are nice tunes. Frankly, there isn't a bad song on the album, though "Fear" isn't worth its runtime and "Sea of Time" is frustratingly lethargic, as noted above. Rather, the numerous minor flaws with Fear simply make it one of the worst places to start with Royal Hunt, or in fact almost anyone involved with this album. If you want great RH music, go to the first Cooper era. If you want great RH music with West, go to The Mission or Paper Blood. If you want great vocals from West, go to Phoenix Rising, Cozy Powell's Especially For You, Feinstein's Third Wish, or West's solo disc Earth Maker, among others. Heck, if you want to hear Kjaer's guitar unleashed in a much more satisfying fashion, check out Missing Tide's stuff. Sure, Fear has its moments, and for RH diehards, it does have a couple of worthy tracks to add to the band's notable work. Given how sonically consistent Royal Hunt is, though, and that the band has thirteen albums and counting to choose from, though, most can afford to be selective with how to approach the band. This album is clearly outside of their top five, and thus it fails to effectively capture the essence of the band's greatness, even that of this particular great lineup.