Royal Hunt

The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. The name Royal Hunt appeared for the first time in 1989; a brainchild of André Andersen (main songwriter in the band) this outfit was created in order to combine basic values of Classic Rock with progressive, current musical elements. Today, after selling around 1.7 million albums and touring the world numerous times, the band’s still going strong… here’s the story: After countless local club tours the band secured their first record deal with Teichiku Records, Japan (Panasonic branch), a management deal with Majestic Entertainment (USA) and a world wide publishing agreement with Warner Chappell. Debut album – “Land of Broken Hearts” came out in 1991 and sold 35 000 copies in Japan alone; soon it’s been out in USA (through Rondell Records), where it created a buzz through a net of college radio stations. An instrumental piece from the album – “Martial Arts” – was picked as a theme tune by Japanese Wrestling Federation and still is the best selling “sports single” in the country (passed 150 000 copies). Another tour followed bringing the band to Japan as well, where some unplugged performances created a demand for an “exclusive” release – “The Maxi Single” (1992), which contained 4 unplugged versions of songs from the debut album and two new tracks. Right after the tour the band’s got their first “hit”, releasing an EP containing 4 live tracks and a new song – “Far Away” (1995) – which went on top of Japanese rock charts and stayed there for a while, pushing the sells figures up to 70 000 units… a longer promo tour brought the band to the SE Asia and most of the Northern Europe. Next studio album – “Moving Target” (1995), recorded/mixed at Medley Studio (DK) with Lars Overgaard behind the desk – was the first one to be released world wide (Royal Hunt has finally inked the deal with Long Island Records in Europe) and paved the way to a 72-dates world tour, selling around 120 000 copies. Various rock publications throughout the world honoured Royal Hunt as “the best live band of the year” as well as “the best album of the year”. Next year saw the band releasing a double live album – “1996” – accompanied by a “8-cameras-shot-full length VHS” (the concert was filmed/recorded in a prestigious, sold out 5000 seater Gotanda U-port Hall, Japan)… a combination which is still regarded as one of the best live releases of the decade. In 1999 the band released their next studio album – “Fear”, this time through SPV (Europe), Pony Canyon (Japan and SE Asia) and Magna Carta (USA). As usual the world tour followed, this time bringing the band to some new territories – Korea and Russia – and ending on the main stage of Germany s Wacken Open Air festival in front of 55 000 people. Royal Hunt – again and again – rewarded with assorted awards for “best live performance”/”album of the year” from various media outlets. Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles became a basis for a concept trilogy released in 2001: a single “Intervention”, a full length album “The Mission” and an EP “The Watchers” (claimed to be “the longest EP in history”, containing over 70 minutes of material). The following tour stretched over a period of 6 months, including a headliner slot at Pusan Open Air festival (attendance: 25 000, sold out) and Russia (where the band signed a separate record deal with AMG Records for Russia and CIS). “Paper Blood” came out in the spring of 2005 and created a substantial stir among the fans and the press by it’s simplified, aggressive nature and was followed by not one, but two full blown tours; as a celebration of Royal Hunt’s first double live