Album review: ROYAL HUNT – 20th Anniversary: Special Edition

ROYAL HUNT – 20th Anniversary: Special Edition

Frontiers[Release date 23.11.22]

Denmark – home of Hans Christian Andersen, Lego, those rather nice pastries, motor-mouth Lars Ulrich and of course…Royal Hunt.

The title says it all really – this is a celebration of the last 20 years of Royal Hunt and what a mammoth package Frontiers have put together.

First you get a whopping 3 CD’s worth of material including a new track, three live tracks, three reworked acoustic numbers and five hard to find EP/re-issue bonus tracks…and then on top of this you get a DVD of promo clips and an interview as well (not with my copy unfortunately). Quite a package…

The man behind Royal Hunt and its music is keyboard maestro Andre Andersen who formed the band back in 1989 and is the only continuous member through the years. Vocalists have changed through the years starting with Henrik Brockmann and followed by DC Cooper, John West and Mark Boals. DC Cooper has been back on board since there 2011 album “Show Me How to Live”.

The tracks are presented in chronological order which is no bad thing as it shows the band developing through the years. All albums are represented but only live versions of tracks from “The Mission” and “Eyewitness”.

Royal Hunt’s sound is a complete mixture of melodic, progressive and over the top symphonic bombast but they pull it off.

Excellent retrospective of Royal Hunt to date – first 2 CD’s are excellent, third CD starts well enough with the new song “Save Me” and the acoustic renditions are a showcase for DC Cooper’s wonderful vocals but then we have the final five EP/album bonus tracks which is where, unfortunately, the quality drops off…if they weren’t good enough to go on the original album then….

Well worth a spin…  ****

Review by Phil Berisford


Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Josh Taerk Sunday Sessions 2024

Latest session: Sunday 14 April

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio



David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 7 April 2024.


UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 2 April 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com


Power Plays w/c 15 April 2024

ENMY The Ledge (FiXT)
KAROBELA Get Hard (indie)
KATH & THE KICKS Neptune (indie)
THE BEE TELLERS River Poem (Black Sand Records)
LAUREN FREEBIRD Like A Bomb (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 15 April 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)


To see our Tweets you need to be logged in to a Twitter account



Popular (last 10 days)


This entry was posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply