ENIGMA

Aeon Zen's "Enigma" has enough progressive metal to satiate the palate of respective headbangers and yet retains some very melodic songs with exceptional singing. At times the band launch into full blown death metal complete with deep devilish growls on 'Divinity', 'Eternal Snow' or 'Downfall', but they mainly opt for the Dream Theater style of keyboard drenched melodies with metal blasts and crystal clear vocals such as on 'Artificial Soul'. The softer side of the group is a delight and can be heard on the dreamy 'Seven Hills', that has a wonderful synth trumpet sound and multilayered harmonies.

Rich Hinks on guitar and bass has exceptional style as does fellow guitarist Matt Shephard. Andi Kravljaca handles the vocals well and there are some excellent drum figures at the hands of Steve Burton. Shaz is fabulous on keyboards, and often lends a rather ambient atmosphere in tracks such as the instrumental opener 'Enter the Enigma' and the intro of 'Warning'. This latter track also has a dense distorted metal riff that locks in and the melody and style reminded me of a Devin Townsend song. There are some nice sax tones heard on 'Downfall' that break up the frenetic metal blastbeats, and the vocals are always appealing and especially the killer lead guitar frenzies such as on 'Eternal Snow' or 'Still Human'.

Overall this is a great album, that will appeal to prog metal addicts, especially those who prefer the melodic side similar to Threshold, Haken, or Dream Theater.