HUMAN ZOO – Eyes Of A Stranger

Scandinavian Human Zoo shares affection with the beauty and purity of an amazing mix between Hard Rock and Melodic Heavy Metal. Moreover, they’ve created a great and sometimes diverse strain of tunes that combine almost everything that is both emotional and punchy at the same time.  This new array of tunes comes from their newly released Eyes Of A Stranger.  The longing for the quality of giants such as Night Ranger, Dokken, Bad Habit, Def Leppard, early Gotthard, and even newer acts like Coldspell, make this new album and band even more desirable. Human Zoo, with their clean, neat, and tight production by Chris Lausmann, delivers Rock and Metal with deep respect to what went on before their time, while patching a few modern attributes in order to spice it up to fit the present. As far as it went, the slight features of modernity haven’t hurt them, and their older discography will tell that story quite easily.

One of the greatest features of Eyes Of A Stranger was the saxophone.  In mainly past decades, that instrument provided a wonderful lead section in Rock N’ Roll. Many artists used it extensively in favor of even the lead guitar.  Human Zoo, throughout their material, doesn’t overuse the sax, and they let the awesome lone guitarist, Ingolf Engler, turn a few heads as well with his performance.  The sax, handled by Boris Matakovic, applies a few smashing lead solos as a replacement to the guitar that provided the rock-solid rhythm.  So as you can see, Human Zoo shaped a sort of a harmony between the two lead roles, yet didn’t stretch the boundaries of the duo and prevented a collision. With the aid of such a spectacular voice in the front by Thomas Seeburger, the harmonic and catchy like choruses (even during the heavier tunes) pinched something inside. “Everything Changes” and “Fall In Love”, two great tracks, sent their shot to the heart that opened the old gates to the once successful USA scene of the ’80s. Furthermore, “Eyes Of A Stranger” and “Welcome To Paradise”, the tracks that ruled this new release, served as this album’s Heavy Metal thunder … yet even the soaring heaviness didn’t step over the line. You might also want to check out “The Answer”, “Gimme Your Time” and the melodious Queen-like “10,000 Years Ago”.

Eyes Of A Stranger is without a doubt a great album, and even though their approach, songwriting style, and attitude have been in existence for years, Human Zoo draws a fine line between emotional Rock music and thunderous Heavy Metal with great success.

Tracklist

1. Amy & Allison’s Memories (intro)
2. The Answer
3. Gimme Your Time
4. To The Top
5. Everything Changes
6. Eyes Of The Stranger
7. Fall In Love
8. World Behind You
9. Hold & Care
10. Want It – Love It – Like It
11. Welcome To Paradise
12. 10.000 Years Ago

Lineup

Thomas Seeburger – Vocals
Ingolf Engler – Guitars
Zarko Mestrovic – Keyboards
Boris Matakovic – Saxophone
Markus Ratheiser – Bass
Kevin Klimesch – Drums