Cost: $1.00
Each time I go to one particular CD shop, there's usually a single progressive metal CD of some sort in the bargain bin. Whether I'm getting a stack of discs or just the one, the trend has kept up pretty regularly for a couple of years now, and this is one of the more recent finds.
Aeon Zen is essentially a solo project (one Rich Hinks plays all the instruments on the album, and is helped out by several guest vocalists). Especially considering that, the music is rather layered and complex, and I think it easily holds it own against many prog. metal bands with full lineups. So I'm not going to pretend that on a musical or compositional level this isn't impressive stuff. The music is well-balanced for the most part, and never really goes off onto any unpleasant modern or strange tangents. Things do get very melodic ala Dream Theater at times, but it's still very much a progressive METAL album, and there was enough heaviness to satisfy me.
Using guest vocalists was probably a good choice, as I thought the last four songs had the worst vocals (coincidentally these are the vocals with stronger English accents), and two of these have Rich himself singing. His voice isn't terrible, but it's rather plain and better suited to busking than to progressive metal (I noticed there seem to be more prominent effects added to his own vocals compared to the other singers, too). The other two are handled by Jonny Tatum of bands Timefall and Eumeria. Again, it doesn't sound like he's an awful vocalist--he's better than Rich, at least, but his singing just didn't seem to be the best fit for the songs.
I can appreciate what's being done here, but that said, I'm not a huge, huge fan of most progressive metal. This is not an album that changes my stance.
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