Paper Blood

Paper Blood is a work on which Royal Hunt, layering thick keyboard arrangement, hard guitar and powerful vocals, builds dense, dramatic drama. Made welcoming the accomplished Mark Boals, also known from the Yngwie Malmsteen band, as the new vocalist, it is the first work of the new lineup. There are complex, elaborate developments, yet the songs always firmly keep strong melody and a sure rhythmic center. A record where the band’s mature ability shines. From the powerful drive of the opener “Break Your Chains” and the aggression of “Not My Kind” to a cut like “Memory Lane,” every song is engaging, while cuts like “Never Give Up” and “Seven Days” convey the work’s fullness. By shaded, tense parts and widely open choruses appearing in turn, it gives the album a sure rise and fall like a stage. A record letting you fully enjoy Royal Hunt’s own intelligent, weighty world. Mark Boals’s powerful, expressive voice adds yet another new appeal to the band. An engaging, fulfilling work on which the band powerfully maintained its musicality, overcoming the great change of a vocalist swap — a record announcing the start of the new lineup.