Steve, I think West's vocals on the latest Royal Hunt disc, 'Fear', are very subdued and the music lacks punch - not a very good album IMO. By far my favorite West album his his second solo album, 'Permanent Mark', which he recorded with the Cosmosquad guys - Jeff Kollman, Shane Gaalaas & Barry Sparks - plus Scott Stine on guitar and Lonnie Park on keys. Sick playing by all the guys (wicked guitars!) and John just belts it out - killer stuff! There are neo-classical leanings but they're nowhere near as prominent as on the Artension stuff (Yngwie-meets-Rainbow/Deep Purple basically). JW did 4 albums with them before leaving to join RH; 'Eye Of The Strom' is probably their best - 'Phoenix Rising' is cool, too. 'Machine', their latest, is kind of disappointing and truth be told the band is really starting to tread water now. The musicianship is ill though - if you get off on the early Yngwie - Jens guitar/key duels then this is probably your bag (although you'd be better off picking up Artension's Vitalji Kuprij's instrumental solo albums where he fights it out with George Bellas (1st album), Greg Howe (2nd - totally sick!), and Tony MacAlpine (3rd), respectively. All these records, including John's solo debut, 'Mind Journey', are on Shrapnel.