“Show Me How To Live” features the triumphant return of vocalist extraordinaire, DC Cooper to the Royal Hunt family, and what a triumphant return it is! The signature sound of Royal Hunt returns with bombastic arrangements, huge melodies, and of course the amazing voice of Mr. Cooper.

The album starts with the fantastic “One More Day” featuring symphonic keyboard laden verses and a choir singing the chorus. The second track “Another Man Down” has a piano intro and passionate lead vocals from Cooper and a female guest singer (forgive me for not knowing her name, but the liner notes don’t credit her performance). Andre Anderson’s keyboard orchestrations are the perfect compliment to Coopers vocals. The grandiose, neoclassical majesty continues on tracks “An Empty Shell” and “Hard Rain’s Coming”. “Half Past Loneliness” intro features Andreas Passmark’s bass and kicks in with a sweet guitar melody and an anthemic chorus. The 10 minute title track is the centerpiece of the album and takes the term “epic’ to another level. “Angel’s Gone” has an Yngwie-esque classical feel to it and ends the album in grand style.

While the album is a fine return to form for Royal Hunt, with only seven songs, I was a little disappointed with how short the album is and I dropped a couple of ratings points because of it. However, the amazing vocal performance of DC Cooper made up the points taken away by the shortness of the album. For fans of Royal Hunt, especially the DC Cooper era, “Show Me How To Live” is highly recommended! 

Rating: 8.0