THE TOWERS OF AVARICE

"The Towers of Avarice" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, California based progressive metal act Zero Hour. The album was released through Sensory Records in March 2001. It´s the successor to the independently released eponymously titled debut album from 1999 (reissued by Sensory Records in 2003 titled "Metamorphosis") and features one lineup change since the predecessor as keyboard player Matt Guillory has left. Guillory has not been replaced here, and instead the keyboards on "The Towers of Avarice" are recorded by lead vocalist Erik Rosvold and guitarist Jasun Tipton.

The instrumentation on "The Towers of Avarice" is predominantly pretty stripped down to one guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, and the use of keyboards is sparse and mostly used to enhance atmopshere, which is quite a change from the omnipresence of keyboards on the predecessor. The Dream Theater influence on the debut album which was very much due to how the keyboards were played and how they were placed in the mix, is now completely gone from Zero Hour´s music, and "The Towers of Avarice" features a rather unique progressive metal sound. The music is dark, hard edged and heavy, and the more stripped down instrumentation provides the band´s sound with a raw and organic feel. The guitar riffs vary between fast-paced chromatic notes and crushingly heavy staccato riffs in odd time signatures. The bass has a life of it´s own, and both compliments the guitar, but also locks in with the heavy technical grooves of the drums, and even has some lead type sections. This is definitely in the technical end of the progressive metal spectrum, and it´s artists like Spiral Architect, Twisted Into Form, and Watchtower (and early Sieges Even, and maybe 80s Voivod is valid too), who are references rather than the more melodic and keyboard heavy artists in the genre.

"The Towers of Avarice" is a concept album telling a dark and dramatic sci-fi story with themes of oppression, hopelessness, revolt, and a selfless protagonist hero (a sort of sci-fi/on another planet take on Fritz Lang´s "Metropolis"). The sometimes alien nature of the music and the sci-fi concept story are in perfect symbiosis, and when the lyrics are performed by a world class vocalist like Rosvold, who is not only a great storyteller, but also has a strong and distinct sounding voice, and who is able to sing both melodic, amd more raw and aggressive type of vocals (and some great harmony/choir vocals too), all ends meet and the final product is a high quality technical/progressive metal album.

The tracklist should also be mentioned as "The Towers of Avarice" is consciously structured to feature a couple of strategically placed dark ballad type tracks, which bring some dynamics to an otherwise very hard edged and heavy album. "The Towers of Avarice" opens with the title track, "The Subterranean", and "Stratagem", which are all dark, heavy, and technical progressive metal tracks ("Stratagem" features a very nice and subdued melodic mid-section though), but then comes "Reflections" which is a dark ballad which features a simple non-distorted electric guitar strumming simple notes and chords, while Rosvold sings his paatos filled and melancholic vocals on top. The chorus features some keyboard backing, but that´s about it, and it´s a beautiful song. Then straight into the 15:47 minutes long "Demise and Vestige", which is another brillant technical/progressive metal track. It´s a dynamic track showing both the softer more melodic side of the band´s sound, but also the darker heavy and ultra technical side. "The Towers of Avarice" concludes with another dark ballad type piano/keyboard/vocal driven track in "The Ghosts of Dawn". It´s a dramatic end to the album, featuring a fantastic vocal performance by Rosvold.

"The Towers of Avarice" features a dark, raw, and heavy sounding production, and it´s just another high quality feature to add to the creative songwriting and the jaw-dropping musicianship. It´s not an album that´ll neccesarily click with every progressive metal listener upon initial listen. The sound is pretty unique, and the challenging song structures and sometimes odd chromatic guitar/bass runs are sure to scare off those who crave heavy doses of melody and sing-along choruses in their music, but for those up for a musical challenge and a darker, more raw, and heavy technical take on progressive metal "The Towers of Avarice" is a mandatory listen. A 5 star (100%) rating is deserved.

(Review originally posted on Metal Music Archives)