ZENO - "Zeno", 1986 (EMI)
THE HISTORY: A great deal has been written in heavy psych and Guitar Center circles about Uli Jon Roth, the guitar wizard that took over for Michael Schenker in THE SCORPIONS during the early 1970s. Starting with "Fly To The Rainbow", his contributions to those early SCORPS albums grew to monstrous proportions, manifesting themselves in jaw-dropping collisions of Hendrix and classical guitar like "Sails of Charon" and "Polar Nights".
I remember reading his egotistical self-worshipping comments in Guitar
Player magazine back when his ELECTRIC SUN project was in full swing.
There was actually a full-page ad that screamed, "No matter who your heroes are, you've never heard
anyone as awesome as Uli Jon Roth!" or something like that. His comments
about being able to read, write, and play just about anything
on his custom-made Sky Guitar (with extra frets so he could span additional
high notes) seemed symptomatic of his tendency for excess. I found that 'more
was more' when it came to ELECTRIC SUN. Opera choirs, orchestras and
preposterous amounts of guitar tracks dominate my memories of those
records. But hey, I guess it ain't braggin' if it's true. Indeed, Uli was incredible. But I had no idea he had a brother until the mid 1980s.
Evidently, Zeno Roth spent most of the 70s in and out of Hendrix-inspired projects, playing in German clubs and working with his brother's bands. I remember reading that Zeno was the one to suggest his friend, Matthias Jabs, as a possible replacement when Uli left the SCORPIONS in the late 70s. He assembled a band with Ule Ritgen (bass player for ELECTRIC SUN) and the one-and-only Michael Flexig on vocals. The band's first album was released in 1986 (it came out on EMI/Manhattan in the states). There was a bit of PR for the band - Metalshop played "Signs on the Sky" during their radio show and MTV aired a ridiculous video for "A Little More Love" a couple of times. All I remember is there were knights on horseback, mullets flying everywhere, and some kind of 'life lesson' with a little boy finding the path to enlightenment. Go ahead and Youtube it - I know it's out there somewhere. At any rate, I found enlightenment as well. I had to have this insanely fluffy thing, and made my father drive me to three different stores to find it. My poor father...
The album must not have done very well, although I don't recall any reviews for it. I was expecting the follow-up to eclipse "Styx II" or something like that -- but it never came. Later when I learned that Michael Flexig left the band, it made perfect sense that they ended things. Some recent internet research revealed to me that ZENO reconvened in the early 1990s, and has since released quite a few records that I'll have to get around to investigating. But trust me, there's enough here to keep you busy for quite awhile.
I'll have to issue a warning at this point. If you're one of our readers that lives and dies by crust, death metal, and painful sludge, please skip this article. This disc may actually give you cardiac arrest. This isn't melodic rock. It's a fleecy, downy, cloud-covered, majestic rock frappe that walks on rose petals. It's a heavy metal pedicure smothered in three scoops of Häagen Dazs. Don't say I didn't warn you.
THE MEMBERS: Zeno Roth (guitar), Stuart Elliot (drums), Michael Flexig (vox), Ule Ritgen (bass), and Don Airey (yeah, the RAINBOW guy - on keys).
THE PRODUCTION: There were supposedly a bunch of different producers that were rejected during this one (remember Paul Stanley's '78 solo album? Yeah, like that), but the one that got the credit for reigning them in was ZEP / ZZ TOP sound guru Terry Manning. Of course, the finished product is straight from the lap of the gods, with a touch of angel's breath. Wipe your feet before you even put this on. Ice-droplet keyboards tinkle and flutter, perfect multi-part vocal and guitar harmonies melt together like soft-serve. Tasteful, bass-heavy drum fills echo in the distance. Church organs boom and swell. The overall impression is that of a rock 'n roll wind chime. One thing is obvious - mucho moola was spent to get this type of sound in 1986...mucho, mucho moola. Uli must've been proud.
THE VOCALS: You guys can have your STRATOVARIUS, your KAMELOT, your ANGEL, and your GIUFFRIA. Until you've heard the unbridled grandeur of Michael Flexig, it's all for naught. Vocally speaking, Steve Perry and Michael Bolton are Lemmy and Wino compared to Michael Flexig. Even Freddie Mercury would have assuredly called this business 'limpwristed'. The guy from THE DARKNESS would have to take steroids for years just to compete. This voice will clear your sinuses. It will shatter your front window. In fact, Michael Flexig will set off your goddamn car alarm. When he belts it out following the solo in "Emergency", SWEET's "Stairway to the Stars" sounds like a CATHEDRAL song by comparison. The ultra-harmonized vocals in "A Little More Love" are down right bird-chirpy. But despite the fact that he out-fluffs BON JOVI, there's a distinctive European richness to his voice. If you hang in there, it's more addictive than cocaine.
THE LEADS: As fantastic as Uli is, Zeno is no slouch, either. His tone is sweet and violin-like, quite reminiscent of ERIC JOHNSON, actually. He's out to make the ultimate fly-on-eagle-wings rock album, so there are no extended solos. In fact, he shows marvelous restraint in his lyrical approach to solos, often restating the main chorus with some simple embellishments. He's obviously spent hours studying Hendrix; various points during verses and riffs are bedewed with bluesy bends and classy melodic fills and transitions. It's all done within the context of the song, and the discipline he shows keeping everything in proper context is quite commendable.
HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO KLAUS MEINE? Yeah, I know we usually do Jello Biafra, but I thought we'd try something different for awhile. As far as answering the question, put it this way: this disc is so saccharine-sweet, I played it once at high volume and meine dentist's beeper went off. Badum-chee! Thank you, thank you, I'm here until Thursday. Don't forget to tip your waitresses, folks.
SOME KEY TRACKS: The whole disc is like visiting a restaurant that exclusively serves wedding cake and Dom Perignon in crystal flutes, but here are a few particularly frosty slices:
"Eastern Sun" - What better place to start than the opener, and what a grand salutation it is. The main riff is a hypnotic, sitar-ish pattern, not a minor-key Blackmore ripoff touted by other bands of the genre. With lyrics like "She is the ocean you have to swim across, she is the hot wind you have to cool"...Geoff Barton has a term, "wimp-tastic!" that I think applies here.
"Signs on the Sky" - Probably the strongest track on the record, with it's lush whammy-drops and pealing keys. Both Flexig and Roth weave unfathomable elegance at every turn. The high notes at the outtro will get your pooches howling continuously.
"A Little More Love" - The first single from the record, particularly engrossing due to the Zeus-like guitar command of Roth. The swirling, luscious bends and wails are simply intoxicating. If you visited these guys at their home, you would expect them to answer the door with twin cheetahs on diamond-studded leashes.
AND IN CLOSING: Sure, it ain't "Overkill" or "Melissa", but as pomp records go, this may be the most majestic of all time. It's still a barrel of laughs to spin, considering that most modern Euro-puff AOR wannabes are just pale imitations of albums like this one. Lion Music would probably give their entire Korg RK-100 collection for a band with one-tenth the talent these guys displayed in 1986. 'Til next time, remember: If you can break the seal, everything you dream of will be real.
**The web version of this article can be found at www.peacedogman.com/dtuzen**
