Zero Hour-Dark Deceiver

Sensory
2008

Is it actually possible for an album to have too much yet not enough at the same time? That was my main thought while absorbing the latest effort from Zero Hour. Their frantic brand of prog metal frequently has an over the top approach at times as you feel like they are throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the mix in order to make you notice them. Some times it works to get you attention and other times it sounds like regrgated Dream Theater bits with only a slightly different arrangement. While in my car I was initially impressed by the opener "Power to believe" with the soaring vocals and strong rhythm section. Yet it began to feel the song should be over because it had wandered on and on yet my stereo still said Track:1 and I had to take it even longer. Zero Hour have somewhar a darker feel to the music than many of the peers and it helps. I appreciate the technical ability of this band and if their knowledge of arrangements and ability to portray genuine emotion was on the same level as their playing ability then they would be pretty special. Yet I don't think this is the case as the arrangements are just to inconsistant to keep my interest for that long. Occasionly their frenzied parts hit and sometimes it just feels messy. What's worse is that sometimes they will have a part early on where they throw everything in real fast and then 2/3 of the way through the same track they get clogged into some repetitive part. It's almost as if they just want to capture you attention early, but they don't quite have the same ideas or energy to sustain the whole song in that manner. It's a decent album due to the band's abilities yet it's far from being a completely satisfying album.

http://www.myspace.com/zerohourband