Aeon Zen- The Face of the Unknown

[Harvester]

I am shaking my head in awe at Rich Hinks. He is Aeon Zen essentially. He writes eveyrthing, plays all instruments, and records & produces the music. The dude is only 21 years old.

For those unaware, Aeon Zen falls comfortably into the melodic prog cateogry with plenty of DT influence ala Dreamscape, Circus Maximus, etc. The debut disc, "A Mind's Portrait," was released in 2009 and I thought it was great. "The Face of the Unknown" takes it up a notch further in both the heavieness and prog factor. It's warm & fuzzy stuff with plenty of crunch.

The only thing that it lacks is a permanent vocalist. Regardless of how good those performances are (and there are some stellar moments), that always holds a band back for me. My understand is that the band does perform live, but I would have a hard time hearing songs in a different context from the disc. It's a cover band feeling so to speak.

My favorite cuts on the new disc are:

1. "Salvation"- An Epic 10 minute quintessential track with Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) on vocals.

2. "Crystal Skies"- A beautiful, soaring piece that fits Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard) perfectly.

3. "Your Not Alone"- Rich handles the vocals on this Anathema-ish tune.

 

[Harvester]

Bump as they just added some vocal samples.

 

[zedowns]

Judging by those clips, I don't know why he doesn't just do the vocals on all the tracks. The Eriksen stuff was cool, as was the song with the dude from Frost* but my favorite clip was "Your Not Alone".

 

[imaskinbeater]

Rich is a class act and a phenomenal musician. The new disc is seriously awesome!! I'm looking forward to picking up a copy.