Zeno - Runway To The Gods

Published Nov. 04 2006

*=Staff's pick	Fanfares Of Love* Climb The Sky Land Of Illusion* Shades Of Blue* Runway To The Gods Sogno Di Angelo (Mascagni arr. Zeno) Refugees (Longing For Paradise)* I Feel - I Live Purify (Pilgrims Of Remembrance) Do You Feel The Time Sunset Birds Flying Home (Celestial Touchdown)

Genre	Hard Rock	Michael Bormann	Vocals
Tracks	11	Zeno Roth	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	MTM Music	Zeno Roth	Bass
Release	20 Oct. 2006	Zeno Roth	Drums
Country	Germany	Zeno Roth	Keyboards
Similar artists	Jaded Heart, Talisman, House Of Lords

Aah, isn't it great when your old heroes return in good old fashion? In 1986 I was blown away by the debut album from this band, named after Uli Jon Roth's younger brother. It was a full blown feast of extremely melodic AOR/hard rock with an own identity and musical ingredients from the Far East for example. On top of that we were offered original and highly skilled guitar work from Zeno himself and a different sounding vocalist in the shape of Michael Flexig. Despite the fact that this was a fantastic release it didn't reach the commercial success that should have been the case and they were dropped by their record label EMI after only one record. Afterwards nothing really happened until the album was re-released in Japan 1993 and quite incredibly sold over 25.000 copies. The band shortly hereafter teamed up once again and has since then released another three albums.

Now Zeno Roth is back to write another chapter in the band's history book. This time he is handling all the instrumentation himself and for the vocal spot he has recruited no other than Michael Bormann, known for his work in the German band Jaded Heart. Even if Michael Bormann is a great singer I was at first quite sceptical upon this choice since I consider the original voice of Michael Flexig to be one of the biggest trademarks of Zeno. My scepticism however vanished immediately due to the great work of the new singer and it is no question about that the typical sound of Zeno still is there.

Fanfares Of Love is an energetic and worthy opener with melodic guitars all over the place and a chorus that sticks at first listen. Climb The Sky is a bit slower and Mr Bormann really shines on this one. Land Of Illusion that follows has a slow and tasteful verse, that reminds me of the eighties era of Bon Jovi, and leads to very catchy refrain. The strong choruses are by the way something that is constant through the entire album. Shades Of Blue must considered as one of the best tunes and this one together with Refugees (Longing For Paradise) really reminds me of the older days of Zeno. On the last track Do You Feel The Time Zeno Roth himself sings the verse and even if his vocals isn't that bad I would advise him to stay away from the microphone in the future, a fact that gets quite obvious when Michael Bormann replaces him when it's time for the great chorus (yep, once again…).

My expectations were not especially high but they were surpassed big time. The second half of the album is maybe not as strong as the first and some of the melodies and refrains tend to sound alike in the long run, but apart from those details this is a high quality release that every fan of melodic rock/metal should get their hands on.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	8	7,5

Summary
7,5 chalices of 10 - Hawk