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Zero Hour - Dark Deceiver review



Reviewer:
9.7

48 users:
8.25
Band: Zero Hour
Album: Dark Deceiver
Release date: April 2008


01. Power To Believe
02. Dark Deceiver
03. Inner Spirit
04. Resurrection
05. Tendonitis
06. The Temple Within
07. Lies
08. The Passion Of Words
09. Severed Angel

Zero Hour returns with an intense wall of sound entitled Dark Deceiver. Current vocalist Chris Salinas wails out the name of the album in the title track, equipped with some tremolo (i.e.; like being underwater) along with some added harmonics of his voice dubbed over a bunch of times.

There is one word to sum up this album: hysterical. Many Zero Hour fans are still unsure what to think of the band after the absence of Erik Rosvold in 2004. There are two ways of looking at Zero Hour; the band with Erik and the band without Erik. Zero Hour lost a lot of their melodic progressive qualities after the loss of keyboards. Their last three releases have been a solid wall of out of control down tuned tech metal histrionics. Salinas wails incoherently often throughout Dark Deceiver while the wall of off time crunching pulsates through your brain.

All of what was mentioned is not a bad thing. The songs are structured quite cleverly. The riffs on the album punch a hole through your head, making them quite memorable. It's a full head on attack to the senses. The three players are so tight and create compositions that work so well in a three piece setting. Tipton's bass playing is a whole different category: the things this guy can do with a bass! The guitarist/bassist Tipton brothers come up with some smart pieces of work. Jason flies over Troy's quick bass scaling with various clean guitar effects. Troy's "Tendonitis" piece in the middle of the album - basically, a solo spot featuring some of the bass riffs on other songs in the album, just by themselves - highlights just how hard it is to play what he plays. Dark Deceiver is hard to stop listening to. I highly recommend this one.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 10
Production: 8

Written by Kap'N Korrupt | 19.02.2010




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 52 users
20.03.2010 - 22:45
Rating: 7
K✞ulu
Seeker of Truth
The Passion of Words stands out for me. The rest is too complex I guess. Maybe it needs more time. You described it rather accurately, but unlike you I can't really enjoy this one. 9.7 - unbelievably high as of my current impression.
----
Savor what you feel and what you see
Things that may not seem important now
But may be tomorrow

R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner

Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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21.03.2010 - 05:45
Kap'N Korrupt
Account deleted
@K?ulu: You should listen to it more...I didn't think it was a 9.7 when I first heard it either...
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