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The Towers of AvariceZero Hour |
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The San Franciscan story-tellers breakthrough with their monumental six song masterpiece "The Towers of Avarice," a richly detailed and highly technical Prog-Metal offering that recalls the traditionally-based virtuosic talent of the many great bands of our past whose music didn't simply entertain, but contained a depth of such character so as to intrigue and enlighten all at once. I've never been big on "Progressive" as a term. In the past, such a word always signified the end of an era for one talent or another in favor of "growth," or "change" which often meant they no longer knew their own identity and an exhaustible series of exploratory work would follow all but abandoning the listener in an array of directional disarray. However there are those who've beheld that temperamental tradition of what "Progressive" music entails and on the Heavy Metal front, there are always those who will raise their level above the many fallen, and poise themselves to become a durable fixture in a genre that's not always accepting of untried new talent. Zero Hour's bold new statement, a fictional account of man succumbing to this all-powerful "tower-like" structure and his displacement in the world is built upon solid traditionally acceptable Metal foundations with the many melodic intricacies and varied tempo structures to stretch the pathways of each subsequent scene as it unfolds. Imagine later versions of Fates Warning or Dream Theater, the differences are few, and the demeanor very much in tune. A lengthy passage like "Stratagem," which speaks of the hero who'll set upon to save mankind from this dreaded "Tower," contains so many varied routes so as to all at once lead the listener into a world of fascination while avoiding that brick wall of redundancy that's been known to prevail now and again-that which comprises the whole gets drawn in and lost in favor of virtuosic self-absorption and creates too many moments of confusion and eventual denial. "Reflections" is the first real instance where the heavy hitting overlays gracefully bow out to an instrumental interlude as the scene calls for a gentler moment of aloneness-an aria-like ballad that by its very nature bridges earlier part of the story to the last, and here again we may draw another comparison, this time with Queensryche, in recent years better known for their own emotive compositions of this very nature rather than what we're bound to follow here, in the aftermath. The return to turbulence is found with "Demise and Vestige," definitely the best overall song on the record and one that at fourteen plus minutes, is amongst the bolder of developments. "The Tower of Avarice" shows great potential for Zero Hour, a well-directed and determined band drawn upon the merits of their own beliefs and breathing new life into what once was a dying breed of music, embarks on the beginnings of what should be a long and welcoming career. Released by Sensory Records Review by Vinnie
Apicella [va85@columbia.edu] |