Zeno
Zenology

Zeno Roth: U' frat di Uli John Roth, without any warning or hinting at anything, in 1995 quietly emerges, unexpectedly, with a masterpiece of Hard Rock/A.O.R, which, naturally, gets sucked into the giant trending genres of the time: Grunge and New Metal. A record that only a handful of people (fans of the genre) pay attention to. We are in years of misfortune for sweet melodies, airy stadium anthems, beautiful singing, and rock positivity. Thus, a record that in 1987 would have topped the charts, ends up shining in the sky for just a moment, and blessed are those who look towards it at the right moment. Our Zeno, however, is not without fault; the songs had been ready for some years (late '80s), but he waited and waited, and only completed it in 1994. 

Too late.

At that point, only the Japanese were still interested in this type of mass production and distribution, and Zeno bows to the laws of the market. The qualities of the album are nevertheless enormous, and in 1995 "99th floor" decides to produce the European version, naively hoping for word of mouth. The result is as described at the beginning. Flop.

If you are fans of this genre, go immediately to recover this gem. Zeno avails himself of the collaboration of singers with a Class A pedigree: Michael Flexing, Tommy Heart, Helge Engelke. Singers who excel on beautiful and tastefully refined songs. Zeno's touch on his guitar is simply magical and enchanting, recognizable among a thousand others.

For all fans of this genre a mandatory listen, for everyone else there's Mastercard of Puppets, amen.