Genre:  Traditional Progressive Metal

01 Power to Believe
02 Dark Deceiver
03 Inner Spirit
04 Resurrection
05 Tendonitis
06 The Temple Within
07 Lies
08 The Passion of Words
09 Severed Angel

A decade and a half after forming and now into their sixth full-length effort, somehow, one of America's best kept secrets in Zero Hour is still just that...a secret.  Why Zero Hour still hasn't managed to break out amongst other such great prominent American Progressive Metal acts like Blotted Science, Aghora and Gordian Knot is beyond us here at Heathen Harvest, but rest assured like their brethren in Gordian Knot, Zero Hour will get the support they deserve from their house label now throughout their entire career, Sensory Records, with the exception of their first album which was an independent release. 

With Dark Deceiver, Chris Salinas gets to show off what he's really made of with his sophomore effort with the band.  With a voice and vocal experimentation level that would rival the likes of Nevermore's Warrel Dane, its no surprise that he is clearly a rare gem that fits perfect in this chaotic and fractured style of progressive metal.  In the opposite light though, he shows off his ability to be a great classic heavy metal singer as well through acoustic moments like that found in Inner Child.  The tight sound in the music is of course no surprise as well.  Guitarist Jason Tipton and bassist Troy Tipton, besides being obvious relatives, have also joined up for both of Jason's solo releases, the first of which was also a Sensory release. 

Technicality and sophistication meet in the embrace of clean, tight, and open musicianship thanks to this duo, and when you throw in drummer Mike Guy whom has extra experience with the two as well in Industrial metal project Death Machine, it shouldn't be surprising that Zero Hour are on top of their game like they have never been before.  Jason doesn't just serve us up an ice cold serving of technicality with Dark Deceiver though.  There's also a warm amount of atmosphere and chilled-out moods to be found throughout the release to just focus on beauty for a second, which is something all to rare to find in some progressive metal acts today as they fight to out play every other musician in existence.