Customer Reviews

Clown in the Mirror

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The album sounded exactly like Land of Broken Hearts. Like all Royal Hunt albums it has some great classical compositions, but this album still lacks the sinister DC Cooper.

While it's true that the early Royal Hunt albums pale in comparison to the DC Cooper-era releases, they are still good albums that are unfairly looked over.

Clown in the Mirror was the band's second album, and continues the keyboard-heavy, melodic metal sound established on Land of Broken Hearts. The songs on Clown in the Mirror are a bit uneven. There are some filler tracks on the album, but it also features some of the band's all-time classics, such as Wasted Time, On the Run, Legion of the Damned, Epilogue, and the title track, which is a personal favorite of mine.

Vocalist Henrik Brockmann does an admirable job, but it's hard to see him as anything more than a placeholder for DC Cooper, whose all too brief tenure with Royal Hunt would take the band to new heights of success. Fortunately we got to hear DC Cooper perform some of the album's better songs on the double-live set "1996".

Overall, Clown in the Mirror was another solid album from a band that would continue to improve, and is definitely worth checking out if you're a Royal Hunt fan.

The cover is a little creepy though.

NOTE: There are a number of different versions of Clown in the Mirror. The best is the 1999 SPV reissue, which adds two bonus tracks (Bad Luck and an acoustic versions Kingdom Dark) for a total of 12 tracks.

When most people talk about or bring up Royal Hunt in a conversation, their 1997 album Paradox and vocalist D.C. Cooper are ultimately going to be uttered within the same sentence. It shouldn't come of much of a surprise that Paradox was my first encounter with Royal Hunt, but the real surprise, at least for me, is the band was already churning out excellent tunes prior to 1997 and the addition of D.C. Cooper.

After listening and absolutely falling in love with Paradox (OK, love might be a little to strong of an adjective) I did what I do with any newly discovered band that I like, explore the rest of the band's material/works. I'm glad I did, cause I found a masterpiece hidden in the depths of time.

Clown in the Mirror doesn't have the advantage of being the band's crowning achivement (a title held by Paradox) or containing the excellent vocals of D.C. Cooper, but none of that really matters. While vocalist Henrik Brockmann is no D.C. Cooper or John West, he does an awesome job of bringing the material on Clown to life for the listener, as does the rest of the band. Songs such as the opener "Wasted Time" just ooze so much class it's unbelievible. Follow this up with the emotional power-ballad "Clown in the Mirror", the savage guitar riffs found in "Legion of the Damned", and the one of the best album closing songs ever in the form of "Epilogue," you just know this album was ahead of it's time.

The other thing that impressess me about Clown in the Mirror is the clarity of the backing vocals, considering the album's age and production, which is just good enough to get the job done well.

While I would suggest anyone interested in purchasing Clown in the Mirror to listen to it before purchasing it (due to the hefty price tag), I'd honestly recommend this album to fans of pre-Kotipelto Stratovarius, especially if they like the Strat album Dreamspace (my personal fav). As for me, I've already cashed my ticket for this wonderful album lost in the flow of time.

To get right to the point to review this record i would write this for this one.This is not some of the strongest albums from Royal Hunt, it have all of the proggresive elements in it but it`s a weaker album to the other album they have create. Weaker singer on this one than to the other albums. On this one Henrik Brockmann sings. He has a weaker voice than Dc.Copper and John West.More rougher and darker voice than they an can not get the higher tones quite as god as them. The singers voice set this album in a darker sound than they other album. But othervice it`s many good melodies on this album, some is a little more melancholic than the other songs on the record. But you defently can hear it`s a Royal Hunt album the same ground sound goes on this one to. If you are a tru Royal Hunt fans you can`t miss this one eighter, but if you are locking for the eccencial of Royal Hunt i advice you to listen to Moving Target and Paradox to hear what this guys realy is about.

Unmached musicianship mixed with fantastic classical based melodies creates sheer listening pleasure. This is one of thier neatest albums because Andre experiments with alot of different keyboard sounds, and each song is totally different. The singer is not D.C. Cooper, which most people rave about. I actually prefered the original singer, so who cares? Royal Hunt always has a GIANT guitar sound, like a whole entire orchestra.

I own all of thier albums and they are all suberb. Royal Hunt rocks.