Tuesday, August 30, 2011

HUMAN ZOO: "Eyes Of The Stranger"


Rating: 8/10

Label: Fastball 2011

Review by Kimmo Toivonen

"Third Time's The Charm" they say, and sure enough, the third album has been the cornerstone for several bands, the door to bigger stages. Bon Jovi, Def Leppard... Whether "Eyes Of The Stranger" will be a turning point in Human Zoo's career I don't know, but it certainly is a good album. The band hasn't changed their style, and fans of Gotthard, Bonfire and Pink Cream 69 are very likely going to enjoy these songs. Just like the previous two albums, this isn't an unforgettable classic. Then again, every song has its' place on the album and they've pretty much managed to avoid the pitfall of fillers. Okay, maybe there's one track that could've been saved as the japanese bonustrack or something, that being the slightly tiresome "To The Top" with its' dodgy lyrics about "rocking you tonight" and "making it to the top tonight", but there rest of it is good.

As with their previous albums, the production is exceptionally good, although the production team has changed. The "golden touch" of Dennis Ward has been replaced with that of Chris Lausmann and Zarko Mestrovic, who prove themselves to be just as capable of creating a great sounding album. Thomas Seeburger's vocals remind me a lot of Andi Deris (Helloween, ex-Pink Cream 69), the keyboard work of Zarko Mestrovic is very impressive and the same goes for the rest of the band too. The Zoo's secret weapon, Boris Matakovic's saxophone isn't heavily featured on all the tracks, but rather as a spice here and there, like the ballad "Hold & Care".

Highlights: "The Answer" and "Fall In Love". Yeah, this is good melodic hard rock - nothing more, nothing less. And sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered.

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