Customer Reviews

Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Following Zero Hour's indisputable 2001 masterpiece The Towers of Avarice, we had to wait four years for a follow-up. Sadly, by then, the band had parted ways with their amazing singer Erik Rosvold and had hired Fred Marshall for the A Fragile Mind sessions. In many ways a combination of the band's first two discs, A Fragile Mind saw the band utilising heavier keyboard work and a stronger focus on melodic vocal lines. That, of course, meant less guitar crunch and technical arrangements. I still stand by my opinion that A Fragile Mind is a very strong effort, but with the replacement of Marshall with former Power of Omens vocalist Chris Salinas, it was perfectly obvious that their next release would be a step forward in a heavier and more aggressive direction.

Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond will be a huge surprise to those that discovered Zero Hour on their previous disc, but those who love Metamorphosis and especially The Towers of Avarice will rejoice. The band is back in action full force. Keyboards are almost non-existent; the music is once again formulated by the Tipton brothers' unmistakable rhythms and Mike Guy's forceful drum beats. Chris Salinas is a very different singer than both Rosvold and Marshall. Coming from the Geoff Tate school, I was curious how he would fit in Zero Hour's style. The songs on this album have definitely been written with Salinas in mind. Salinas not only wrote the lyrics for most of the songs together with Troy Tipton, he also has excellent vocal harmonies and melodies on this disc. However, don't go expecting he is constantly screaming or doing high register singing. On the contrary, this is easily his most versatile vocal performance ever.

On the first two songs, "Face the Fear" and "The Falcon's Cry", the new Zero Hour sound is successfully introduced. Filled with chaotic bass and smashing rhythms, "Face the Fear" is highlighted by an incredible drum performance - perhaps Mike Guy's best in his recording career. His timing is so precise and tone so solid that it forms the backbone to the Tipton brothers' ferocious rhythm syncopation and Chris Salinas' powerful delivery. Moving from thunderous guitar passages to calm acoustic sections allows Salinas to showcase his spoken and whisper-like singing as well as his unique vocal phrases. As the music seethes and the guitars pick up momentum, Salinas shifts into agressive screams to enrich the dynamics. However, the song is far from single-minded aggression, as it's broken up by nice arpegeggiated acoustic sequences and chiming cymbal work. At the very end of the piece, when Salinas sings the line "The end is here" atop a dreamy melody, I get goose bumps, and I am convinced Chris Salinas is the future of Zero Hour.

"The Falcon's Cry" is arguably the best prog song of the year. Its brutal riffage and solid bass lines strung across thick drum beats continue through the song's first half until an invigorating vocal section arrives. Salinas sings the lyrics in a way only the likes of Keith Sudano and Daniel Gildenlow could manage; his tone is deep and confident, almost mechanical. However, when it comes to one particular line, he shifts to an extremely melodic and emotionally damaging tone, saying "The water runs the falcon cries" only to return to his calm, withdrawn tone. It is simply awe-inspiring that he is capable of alternating like this in the blink of an eye. Also, his "Something's gonna die!" screams and the tenacious bass accompaniment throughout the whole song are spectacular.

The two instrumentals "Embrace" and "Zero Hour" underscore the Tipton brothers' compositional skills. "Embrace" is almost entirely acoustic guitar-driven, and somewhat recalls the material on Jasun Tipton's solo album. However, the recording is a lot more advanced, highlighting the doubled guitar work where the melody is draped over beautiful acoustic chords. Strangely, I have to think of Jason Becker when I listen to Tipton's playing; his warm and expressive playing is totally unique though. On "Zero Hour", Jasun is joined by his brother and the duo create harmonic brilliance, merging icy electric leads and big, angry bass notes. Replete with unexpected chord progressions and an enchanting bass solo, the piece takes on a slightly fusion-inspired flavour at the very end, which is sublime.

On the heavier front, the title track is perhaps the heaviest song they have composed. The riffing is merciless - and perhaps makes a nod to their material on Towers - and the drum and bass playing rumbles violently, plowing through the whole seven-plus minutes. Plenty of staccato riffs a la Meshuggah and dramatic vocals, which are significantly higher than the other songs, dissolve into idiomatic silences before Jasun Tipton unleashes a sick, terrifying electric solo. You have never heard him shred like this before. Likewise, the last song "Evidence of the Unseen", perfects the band's crude brutality, churning out waves of distortion and discordant guitar effects. The pulsing drum beat only serves to thicken the whole sound, rendering it unbreakable. The ending of the song is particularly striking, as the bass and guitar tandem thunder endlessly, up until the last second when Salinas simply remarks: "You are the evidence of the unseen."

There is also a great acoustic ballad on the album. "I Am Here" finds Salinas returning to his Geoff Tate circa Empire and Promised Land phase, singing passionately and relaying very personal lyrics. Needless to say, this track is vital in that it bridges the band's busy, complex instrumental frenzy and the album's breathtaking finale.

Dino Alden is quickly becoming the most amazing producer in metal. Anything he touches turns to gold; and his work on Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond is no exception. Sonically, this album has more of a Towers vibe happening, but some of the warmth of A Fragile Mind has also been carried over. The best thing about it is that you can still discover a whole new range of dimension when listening to it at rather low volumes. When cranked up, however, the CD will become all the more rewarding and powerful.

It seems I cannot praise this album enough, so I'll sum it up. This is the best release of the year. It has surpassed Vanden Plas' Christ 0 for me and found its place in Zero Hour's never-disappointing catalog.

This is a tricky album to review for Zero Hour because, while clearly the band is still Zero Hour as previously known (with a different vocalist, again), there's a different kind of "feel" from previous albums. For one thing, this album seems very much of a piece; it's in a particular musical zone that seems different from other Zero Hour albums, in exactly the same way that Led Zeppelin's "Presence" is very Zeppelinesque, while simultaneously being like nothing they had ever done, or would again. And like "Presence," what this album exhibits (sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much so) is a particular obsessiveness of groove.

For instance, the exceptionally captivating (hell, I'll say it, the brilliant) title track is an intense, relentless crunch fest. At the beginning, mid-tempo linear guitar lines skitter around, while the bass and drums have already established a brutal, ceaseless *thump-thump-thump* that characterizes almost all of the song. After only 60 seconds of this introduction, the main crunching rift settles in, with Chris Salinas alternating between the familiar kind of Zero Hour vocals one expects, and very definitely King Diamond-inspired falsetto-growl oscillations. I think the "high notes" one reviewer complained of must be these. But I'm telling you, it's almost chilling and fantastically effective. If title tracks indicate high points on albums, then this certainly proves it. There's of course the risk here, for impatient listeners, that the band spends too much time just beating away on those same few chords--there are in fact more variations than I might be giving the impression of, but the music does stick very closely to a single idea here, with the variations only making the return of the main grinding that much more satisfying. And, again, Salinas' vocals are all over the map, in a great way. Finally, after five minutes, there's a quiet interlude (that seems to refer to the opening song vaguely), followed by a slithery delicious mayhem of arpeggios to finish this off. Very. Satisfying. For this song alone am I glad I bought the disc.

The album opens with "Face the Fear," one of those familiar 9 minute long prog-metal epics. Lots of jagged, skittery guitar lines--with Salinas' vocals coming in with the expected kind of prog-metal sound. One could compare vocal styles with others, but at a bare minimum, he certainly gets the job done well enough. Only two minutes into the song, the first introspective quasi-acoustic section of the album starts--and one really gets a first taste of the "stuck in the groove" sensibility that generally so strongly characterizes this album. I apologise for having to say this, but you really do kind of have to hear how the durations in these songs pull out longer than they should, but nevertheless work, to really get the "thing" of this album. In theory, these repetitions should grow boring, but they're so carefully modulated (most of the time) that that proves not to be the case. At five minutes, the skittery lines return--very satisfying after the introspective interlude. Once again, this only lasts about two minutes, and then its back to the introspective bit for just a handful of seconds. As the opening licks are reprised toward the end, the song does seem to flag a bit--it's easy to get lost in it, since there is no recognizable verse or chorus structure. It ends with a bass line that will haunt the album throughout.

"The Falcon's Cry" at 8'00" starts off very promisingly--crunching chords, alternating high and low vocals by Salinas, and a skittery guitar flourish that definitely resembles the opening song. It's like bits and pieces from the first have been reassembled into a completely different song. The secret, again, seems to be the reliability of the repeating bass and guitar lines, which allow Salinas to just get all unhinged over, in, and under the music. Very nice. Around three minutes, introspective guitar section #2 on the album starts, with the standard arpeggiated chords; Salinas here opts for a kind of loungy, throaty sound for the main part of his vocals, intercut with whispery asides. Although this is largely the same approach as the first song, I find the drawing out of the introspective section not so satisfying, and the return to heavier, crunching guitars not as exhilarating. At this point, it seems like the verse-chorus structure of conventional music, has been replaced with "fast" and "slow" contrasts. In all, this song might benefit from being further away from the opener.

"Embrace," at a mere 2'24" is a guitar & acoustic study in arpeggios, with some rather buried vocal wailing in the background--a moody little gesture, it sits very nicely between the last song and the title track, which is about to come blistering along. Repetition is still very apparent here, yet still put to fairly effective use.

"Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond" (described above) is followed by another short piece, "Zero Hour" at 2'27". If there was any doubt about the overall cohesiveness of this album, this song dispels it, by starting once again with the lick from the end of "Face the Fear" and found also in "Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond." Here the variation is with a straight up guitar-line version of it, interspersed with a quieter, bass only edition of the theme also. This get even more frantic at the end, and then veers off into a metallic-nasal lick to wrap up this brief, but wide-ranging little journey. A fine decompression after the title track, as well as a set up to the next song.

"I am Here," at 4'58", starts off with introspective acoustic guitar section #3 (and in fact sticks with it throughout). Salinas skips the lounge-tones here, thankfully, and goes after a kind of subdued profundity instead. It's a ballad all the way through, and not the most inspiring or soulful one ever committed to tape. It's at least a contrast with the rest of the album.

"Evidence of the Unseen," at 8'44", is the album's last track, and the other particularly fine prog-metal epic. (Mind you, this is prog-metal with no keyboards at all). All of the gestures, or bits, come together in this culminating song. Starting with a rolling, slightly uptempo guitar line, it suddenly breaks to something like the metallic-nasal bit, then just as quickly drops into the *thump-thump-thump* found throughout the album. Crazy little arpeggios flourish float over the mix as Salinas' vocals get more and more impassioned, and the guitars and drums get fatter and fatter--a very cool crescendo, that breaks off into an introspective bit declaring, "You are, you are alive," as kind of a response to the "I am here" of the previous song. A high wail, and the power chords return, beating away and reprising the opening again. (All of this in 3 minutes; the song really covers a lot of territory, and very ably). The song then breaks into a series of varied linear guitar lines, mixed together, and variously crooned, wailed and whispered over and through by Salinas. It's particularly apparent that what's being created here is more of a particularly well-evoked texture or atmosphere, than a song in the usual sense of the word. Headphones also help to really pull out details throughout, as the end particularly relentlessly sticks to its guns as different vocal flourishes sneak around the wall of sound.

I think this is an album best played all the way through (almost as if a single song), and at loud volume. It has a particularly obsessive vision that is rare for prog-metal albums (more so even than "Pleasant Shade of Gray"), and definitely makes itself felt. The lyrics certainly help also to tie the album together as a whole. If nothing else, the title track, and "Evidence of the Unseen" easily make the disc worth the asking price.

I have been a fan of the relatively obscure progressive metal band Zero Hour since the release of their amazing concept album, "The Towers of Avarice", and have not been disappionted by any of their subsequent releases. The band has suffered from an inability to retain a singer for more than one album, which can dramatically alter a band's sound for better or worse. Prog-metal bands, in particular, often depend on a vocalist's range and style to deliver the goods. Witness the difference between Dream Theater's "When Dream and Day Unite" and the uber-classic "Images and Words" after the addition of new vocalist James La Brie. Upon hearing that Zero Hour's new singer would be the former vocalist of the avant-garde Power of Omens, I was disappointed in the extreme, because I had purchased a Power of Omens album and didn't like it at all, especially the vocals. I was happily mistaken, though, because after a few spins I have come to the conclusion that Chris Salinas is the best vocalist this band has ever employed. He has unbelievable range and power, but often employs subtlety and emotion to get the point across as well, making it apparent to me that his amazing voice is simply utilized much more effectively and melodically in this band than on the Power of Omens release.

The core of the group, of course, has alway been the powerhouse duo of the Tipton brothers on guitar and bass, and their performance on this album is mind-blowing! This album is all about full-throttle shred, and Zero Hour's staccato, rhythmically challenging tendencies are actually kicked up a notch on this album compared to the relatively more cinematic and hook-oriented approach of their previous release, "A Fragile Mind".

That having been said, the reason I am reluctant to give it five stars is the fact that I actually think their previous effort was overall a better album as a whole, with a better balance of progressive elements and cohesive songwriting and a more cinematic, "whole package" conceptual approach which I came to really appreciate. I think that the never ending barrage of (admittedly very cool) riffs and time changes on this album simply don't stick in your head and make as much of an impression as "A Fragile Mind" did, although it is cool to see them push the boundaries of the band's technical proficiency. Still, it is basically one of the best progressive metal releases in years. Highly recommended!

The American band Zero Hour didn't had a easy time the last few years.
After their very successful second 2001 album, The Towers of Avarice, original singer Erik Rosvold left the band in September 2004. The band was then already waiting for 3 years to hear his contribution on what would have become their new album. A year later Zero Hour would release the album A Fragile Mind with singer Fred Marshall.

The album was well received but did not get the same positive reactions as "Towers". It soon became clear that the bands also knew that something was not well because as just fast as Marshall was hired he was out of the band again. Then on February the 4th of this year we heard the news that ex-Power of Omens vocalist Chris Salinas would be the permanent singer.

For those who don't know, Power of Omens was a very progressive metal band from Texas who's 1998 debut album was a classic in the prog-metal genre. However the question was if Chris Salinas with his sensitive Geoff Tate like voice would fit with the band. Because Zero Hour plays very technical metal with intense walls of sounds and staccato riffs that now and then sound like Fear Factory. But when I heard the album, all fears were put to rest, this time the band has made the right choice.

It is noticeable that the band has put a lot more quiet sometimes almost jazz-like passages in their songs, which makes sure that the quiet and atmospheric voice of Salinas is given space to shine. I trust that I won't have to tell to anyone that this does wonders for the dynamics of the album. Once you get used to the intense style of Zero Hour, you are rewarded with an fantastic album that will draw you in completely. There are only 7 songs on this 45 minutes and 8 seconds lasting album, but each song shines like a jewel.

Really beautiful are those passages where bassist Troy Tipton, Guitarist Jasun Tipton, yes they are twin-brothers, and drummer Mike Guy build up the tension in the songs, from quiet to intense, from wild to calm. Like, for example, in Evidence Of The Unseen, The Falcon's Cry or the beautiful album opener Face The Fear.

Chris Salinas whispers, talks, sings and screams himself through this album in a magnificent manner and proves that he is the perfect vocalist for Zero Hour. The diverse compositions and the fact that they have been written like real songs makes sure that this album is endlessly intriguing. There are new things to hear time after time and the album keeps on growing. This is what makes listening to Specs Of Pictures Burned Beyond a mesmerizing and addictive experience.

Its very likely that this album will top my year list at the end of 2006. It's a metal classic and thus a fantastic achievement of this young and promising band.

If your already a Zero Hour fan you know what they are capable of. This CD surpasses all they have done in the past, even TOWERS. Listen to this CD three times and i guarantee it will be your favorite. The aggression of the music along with Salinas' vocals will overwhelm your senses and leave you wanting to hear them live. This is a CD you need to set aside time for.

man, vocalist chris salinas is pretty awesome! after going through a couple of vocalists, it appears bay area tech-metalers ZERO HOUR have found their man. he range is quite vast but i never feel like he sounds too outrageous, which is good. generally, his vocal melodies keep to a reasonable register- but then sometimes he'll throw in these shrill but melodic cries and it's sounds so fun! i just bob my head and pump my fist all the harder. though former vocalist erik rosvold certainly brought some song-writing abilities to the table, i think salinas has brought a freshness to the music. though _tower of avarice_ is heralded by many as the quinessential ZERO HOUR album, i found it- at times- stuffy and a little too cold and calculated. i think with _specs of pictures burnt beyond_ the music and playing has really opened up like a good wine. and that's not to say the band's signature tech-metal doesn't have a burning presence, because this album burns, man. make no mistake, this is a tech-metal album- it's just not as confusing as some of the bands ZERO HOUR is compared to. and of course, ZERO HOUR has always been conscious of writing good songs- not just giving us demonstrations in how technical they can play. i think what really separates ZERO HOUR from the pack though and shows their personality as a band is: one, their super-mechanized guitar riffs; and two and three, a very prominant rhythm section given top priority on the final mix coupled with consistently large studio productions. with these three things working in sync this album can really pound you. i'll tell you: when i listen to the final track, "evidence of the unseen," my personal favorite, i'm about ready to run through a wall.

All I can say is... OMG! This CD is Progressive Metal at its finest. This is the first CD to feature vocalist Chris Salinas (Ex- Power of Omens). If you're a fan of Dream Theater and Heavy Metal, then you'll love this. They are heavier than Dream Theater, but not as melodic (most of the time), The vocals are more aggressive, and the bass is absolutely phenominal! Best bass player I've ever heard! The drums are probably equal, and both DT's drummer and ZH's drummer are named Mike! Sometimes the music can be so complicated and crazy it's hard to follow, but that's just how amazing Zero Hour is! I highly reccommend this to anyone who likes: Dream Theater, Circus Maximus, Thought Chamber, Meshuggah, Redemption, Nevermore, or Into Eternity! One of the best bands in my collection! Metamorphosis and A Fragile Mind are other good CDs by ZH!

I'll keep it simple....if you like your Progressive Music with a lot of time changes and intricate, then this is the cd for you. Not to say it does'nt have some hook drivin melodies. The vocals on this is Amazing! there are moments of heaviness to the likes of Pantera, Dream Theater, Fates Warning & Symphony X. This is definetly not a "pop" progressive cd.

Zero Hour have created a masterpiece with Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond. Jasun and Troy Tipton are the most amazing musicians you will ever hear and with the addition of the great Chris Salinas belting out the his incredible vocal gymnastics Zero Hour are a force! This one takes several listens to digest and learn but once you put in the effort you are rewarded heavily. WHAT A GREAT ALBUM!!

Jasun, Troy, Mike, and Chris rule! This is one of the finer additions to the Zero Hour catalogue. My personal favorite is still Metamorphasis but the savage odd meter riffing on this album just blew me away. If you're already a fan your gonna like it. If your not a fan YET then check this out and pick up Metamorphasis while your at it.