Metal Reviews

You're welcome to comment on:


Click here to see the review.

My opinion on this album has been weird. First I thought it was great, then the second time I listened to it was disappointed because i think the new singer is just a standard prog metal singer compared to their last two, who had a much more unique style than Chris does. Overall I'd give it 65 or 70.

Standard? I don't think so at all. I know of no other prog singer that sings with his style, those extended notes that go on and on. Salinas is all over the place—low baritones, high-pitched wails, whispers, screams, aggressive singing, it's all there. He's definitely got a unique style for prog.

I've been a huge fan of all their albums; they all have a very different feel to them, but I think all four of them are outstanding.

I agree.

I loved their first two albums, Towers is one of my all time favourite albums, but this new one feels a bit weak, I'm not sure why but I just haven't gotten into it even after listening to it many many times.

Excellent review, Ken!

I've never listened to them, probably because some of my favorite progressive metal acts have been dissappointing lately, but now I'm going to check these guys out, particularly the new album in order to sample the Tate/Alder/Halford Tornado

Damn! I wish I'd said "Tate/Alder/Halford tornado" in the review!

Listen to the song "Evidence Of The Unseen" at the bottom of the review. The song is amazing, I think.

In that song, he definitely reminds me of Alder. Actually, the song itself reminds me somewhat of Fates Warning's later albums (a bit heavier though). The singer definitely has Alder's gift for laying smooth vocal lines over crazy time signature riffs. Good stuff!

It's wierd how he's done his vocals on this album. I think the reason why noodles and a few others can't get into his vocal style is because the previous two singers kind of spread their vocals out within the music, intertwining, so to speak, while Salinas layers his vocals over the music, not within. It's a little hard to explain, I guess, if you've not heard this new album up against the old albums.

I think both styles work. It just depends on the vocalist's preferences. If you like the kind of work Alder did with songs like Monument by Fates Warning, I think you can appreciate what this vocalist does. If that's not what you would generally listen to though, I can see how it would seem weird.

I've been listening to that song on their MySpace for a while now, and it is an incredible song...I love the guitar intro. I just can't decide whether to get this or Ayreon's Human Equation (I only have enough cash for one CD).

Tough choice. If you like James Labrie, The Human Equation is excellent. And Devin Townsend's vocals rule on that album!

Wow, Evidence of the Unseen is awesome!
Seems like a great album.

I'd go for the Ayreon album, because its 3x as long, and I like it even though I can't stand Dream Theater Labrie! Devin is painfully underused on the album though .

The end of "Loser" blows my mind every time I hear it. Devin is fucking sick on that song!

The musicianship here is fucking great (listen to the bass!!). The vocals can get a bit too....hmm...."varied" in one song for my taste. Then again, I can probably learn to love the vocal style the more I listen. Sure as hell isn't boring though.

I think this is good and it's the first album i have listened from Zero Hour.
It took time for me to appreciate it though.
I'll rate it something like a 75.

I've always respected Ken's opinion on music and got interested in the things he reviewed and liked but with this it's different. I had heard this at a friend's place and didn't really impress me. Then after I read his review I thought I'd give it another go so I ripped the CD into mp3 so I can listen to it more.
First the good. I think the musicians are all awesome. Everybody knows their thing and perform amazingly. No complains there, the singer has a beautiful voice, the drummer makes a dinstict impression and both bass and guitar are technically excellent.
Now my problem is with the music. The compositions feel so immature is hard to listen to 5 minutes of this without getting irritated and feeling the urge to stop the player. I know that this is supposed to be proggressive but that doesn't mean there should be no melody or coherence in the music. At some points I felt I was listening to the same chord for over a whole minute. I tried to perceive the music on different levels and I still can not understand it. It just feels bad, as if the only thing they tried to do was create unconventional noise and not intelligent music.
This is just my opinion, I'm sure other people find something they like in here but not me. I'm just happy I spared the money buying this one (which I almost did).
55/100

No worries. It's definitely not for everyone. Believe it or not, this album got the Best of 2006 tag on tons of webzines out there. That surprised even me, simply because prog bands don't usually get those kind of responses.

I still love it, though. Shit, they just opened for All That Remains, and apparently the metalcore fans fucking loved it!

You might like A Fragile Mind more.

If you like him in Zero Hour check out his former band Power Of Omens... EXCELLENT BAND. I like them more than ZH. Anyways good band with an AMAZING singer.