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Royal Hunt is another one of those bands that I have heard a lot of talk about but never actually heard anything from. Well after listening to this album I will definitely have to rectify that situation. The band has been around as Royal Hunt since 1989 and has 7 releases including this one, which is supposed to be a companion piece to their last studio album "The Mission".

This album is a good album for those of you who are not familiar with the band. It includes one song, which is a continuation of their last album, which was a concept album about Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. The new song is a 14-minute epic entitled "Intervention" and since this was my first exposure to the band I can say I was more than a little impressed. Along with the new song are 4 live tracks recorded in the summer of 2000 and 4 re recorded tracks from the bands first 2 albums which are a little difficult to get a hold of here in the US. The music is mainly progressive but with plenty of melodic epic style power metal to go around. Excellent musicianship and songwriting team up to create some very memorable songs that sticks in your mind after only a few spins of the disc.

The only real problem I can see is the timing of the release. It is coming out at the same general time as some of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year in Blind Guardian and Arch Enemy, which could easily overshadow this release. It really is a shame since this is some excellent music that really deserves to get some recognition. Any fans of power or progressive metal will definitely find this of interest and something that you may definitely not want to pass up. Highly Recommended.