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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fragile Mind, A Crushing Masterpiece, September 28, 2005
Much time has passed since Zero Hour's undisputable masterpiece The Towers of Avarice. The Tipton brothers are back with their third album along with long-time drummer Mike Guy. There is a newcomer on board, however. Original vocalist Erik Rosvold has been replaced by Fred Marshall who had lots of Zero Hour fans, myself included, anxious, since Erik Rosvold was an integral part of the Zero Hour's unique sound.
Well, Fred Marshall puts all worries aside easily. He has a strong voice, great control, and rich delivery. Moreover he was involved in the songwriting, adding his lyrics and vocal melodies with good results. He does sound different than Rosvold, as he seems to harmonise a lot with his own voice, and moves around in his range continuously. Granted his voice may not come off as original as Rosvold's, Fred Marshall is certainly one of the main reasons why Zero Hour's A Fragile Mind differs from their previous releases. The harmony vocals on "There for Me" are sure new additions to their songmanship, with distinct emphasis on melodic vocal lines. I personally think Marshall's delivery is uncannily similar to Roy Khan's earlier work with Conception and the last Kamelot album, even though Khan isn't mentioned as an influence on their website. The vocal melodies on the complex "Destiny is Sorrow" are amazing, punctuated by sweeping harmonies and atmospheric keyboards. Each song displays another aspect of Marshall's impressive vocal range. He sounds dark and evil on "Brain Surgery", a shorter piece filled with a manic guitar run hidden beneath ferocious bass and power drums, while "Twice the Pain" features great contrast between his softer fragile tone to a more extreme type of voice with thick layers of vocal harmonies. This song also has a very Towers period sound to it, perhaps because of the way the guitar riffs build and Troy's navigating a wicked bass line through labyrinthine passages. I love the vocal melody at the end, maybe Marhall's most effective moment on the album.
This album finds Jasun Tipton making use of more keyboard work, which I assume is to give the album a warmer presence compared to its predecessor. The music is still technical, but borrows more melodic elements in both defining the blueprint of the songs and the vocal style of the new singer. Some of the tunes are accented by moody keyboard sections to match Marshall's deeper vocal register, but they quickly segue into a massive wall of sound courtesy of fluid guitar runs, pounding bass, and forceful drum fills. Troy Tipton's staccato bass and Mike Guy's odd-metered drum beats on "Losing Control" reach their apex when Jasun throws in a bunch of palm-muted guitar riffs into the mix. The two instrumentals also show the band's two most extreme sides. "Somnecrophobia" is brutally heavy, encompassing the band's love for polyrhtmic Meshuggah riffage and Jason Becker meets Death Machine flow in composition. "Intrinsic", on the other hand, is the diametric opposite. It is heavily keyboard-filled with Troy Tipton's bass taking the lead. The song quitens down near the end and dissolves into a long spacy cinematic scenery with various sound effects sealing it. The most critical song is certainly the 12-minute title track, bound to be compared to their previous epic "Demise and Vestige" off The Towers of Avarice. This song is quite different though. It has a slow acoustic build-up with expressive vocals up until 4:00 minutes and then expands upon a somewhat jazzy bass solo that eerily reminds me of Michael Manring. To make things more adventurous, Jasun Tipton lays down a soaring guitar theme over the piece whilst Fred Marshall sings multi-octave hitting melodies. The piece is finished off with Jasun exploring whimsical Egyptian scales on the guitar, rendering it a very solid musical statement on the band's part.
Dino Alden is certainly one of the most amazing producers in the world. He impressively engineered, mixed and recorded the album with vivid bass and drum separation and a very massive guitar sound. Hearing in advance that the new album would be done by Alden was proof enough that it wouldn't disappoint. This band should continue to work with him eternally. Also the album was mastered by another genius Alan Douches (Dillinger Escape Plan) and Travis Smith was once again there to provide the artwork, which reminds me of a cross between the previous Zero Hour and Gordian Knot's Emergent. One of his best works indeed. A Fragile Mind, along with the new Sieges Even, was my most anticipated album of the year and it proved more than amazing to these ears.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sucessful follow up, February 23, 2006
Zero Hour, in my opinion, should have exploded on to the prog metal scene with their 2001 masterpiece The Towers of Avarice. It was the perfect blend of musical complexity and songwriting. It was extremely heavy, atmospheric despite being keyboard-less, and its riffs were oddly hypnotizing. Of course apparently this sort of abstract thinking is not something that all prog metal fans are looking forward apparently, because despite being signed to Sensory, a leading prog metal label, they are not quite ranked besides bands like Dream Theater or Symphony X (even though they should be).
But, luckily for me, a follow up was to be recorded. A Fragile Mind had some fairly significant difficulties leading to its release. A year or so after all of the guitar, bass and drum tracks had been recorded, vocalist Erik Rosvold had only recorded half of the album because of personal difficulties. Their label Sensory said Zero Hour was becoming harder to want to support financially, so they needed a new vocalist. So Ted Marshall was recruited to fill the gap left by Erik Rosvold.
Can Ted Marshall complement Zero Hour's twisting, hypnotic and technical music as well as Erik Rosvold's interesting and abstract style did? Would his melodies sound strained and forced as they do in such bands as Spiral Architect? Those were two thoughts that came to mind when I saw that they had recruited a new singer.
In the end however, Fred Marshall fits the music on A Fragile Mind perfectly. Erik Rosvold's somewhat "outside the box" style suited the more machinelike and heavy The Towers of Avarice, but the music on A Fragile Mind, which is somewhat more atmospheric and less bleak than it's predecessor, almost needed a less abstract singer. That is not to say that Fred Marshall sounds like all of the other prog metal cheesebuckets out there, the music is still quite heavy and he does "heavy" singing perfectly. But he uses more hooks, less strange vocal effects and even incorporates multiple layers to harmonize with himself, adding a powerful accent to certain vocal lines.
As for the music on A Fragile Mind, it is not much different than on their previous album. It is still technical, The Tipton brothers still combine their bass and guitar to create some of the most mesmerizing riffs out there, and Mike Guy gives another great drum performance. The fabulous buildups and their successive decrescendos are there as well as the extraordinary songwriting (something many prog metal bands seem to lack). At the same time the music is fuller, mostly because of the aforementioned background keyboards. The keys never come fully to the front of the mix for a solo or anything, but are noticeable and a nice touch. Fans of full-out technical intensity also get a treat in the form of the instrumental "Somnecrophobia", which sees the band truly embracing its Meshuggah influence with tons of staccato heavy riffs and great shredding from guitarist Jasun Tipton.
Zero Hour are definitely a band to check out as all three of their albums definitely do not tread the same ground while never abandoning the parts of their sound that make them great. It is a pity they are for the most part overlooked by the prog metal world.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
not as good as previous?, December 26, 2006
The advantage of not hearing a groups previous work is I can't compare it to said previous work. Because this is awesome prog metal/rock. I think the singer fits well and overall the musicianship is stellar. I like this better than DT and think it compares well with shadow gallery and fates warning. They keep it interesting, don't bog down in long displays of prog blandness, and are loaded with killer metal guitar. I like it.
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