Solid but stagnant fifth album
Because Zero Hour has had three different singers on their last three albums, I was a little surprised to hear Chris Salinas was staying with the progressive metal band for his second album, Dark Deceive. Surprised and, at first, a little disappointed; I didn't like the Queensyrychean falsetto that Chris chose to employ for most of Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond as much as Erik Rosvold's creative and powerful delivery on The Towers of Avarice or Fred Marshall's memorable melodies on A Fragile Mind. But after listening to Dark Deceiver it's hard to be disappointed with Chris's vocals. He sounds more comfortable singing with Zero Hour's music and flies all over the place with his vocal chords, from soaring falsettos to various forms of effects and distortion on his voice, while also being more intense and memorable than before. This success is impressive considering the music Chris is given to sing over on Dark Deceiver.
Unlike their singers, Jason Tipton, Troy Tipton, and Mike Guy have remained constant through Zero Hour's five albums, and it shows. They've become so fantastic at their punchy Tool/Dream Theater/Meshuggah-hybrid style riffing that it sounds almost too easy for them. Even though Dark Deceiver is chaotic, aggressive, complex, and often nearly overwhelming, the band always sound in perfect control of what is going on. Unfortunately, the boys sound a little too comfortable with their sound and, other than the short semi-ballad "Resurrection" and the increased complexity, Zero Hour are not covering any new territory on Dark Deceiver. Also, much of the musicianship on here, such as Jason's same-sounding guitar sweeps or the bass solo track "Tendonitis" (which accomplishes little other than showing off the talent I already knew Troy possessed), strays dangerously close to being pointless masturbation.
These flaws are evened out by the improvements to Chris' vocals and, overall, Dark Deceiver is a pretty good piece of progressive metal with a few awesome moments (the first vocals on "The Great Deceiver", the build-up to the end of "Inner Spirit", and the aforementioned "Resurrection" are the main ones that come to mind). Zero Hour have done better in the past, though, and it would be nice to hear them stop "playing it safe" with their current sound, expand their music, and make another album as engaging as The Towers of Avarice or A Fragile Mind.
| Reviewer: Jeff Mcquiggan Added: May 9th 2008 |
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