One of the most inventive, hard music records of the young 2001-year. California's ZERO HOUR's "The Tower Of Avarice"-CD (2nd album after indie-debut) changes the whole Metal-scene once again, offering a indescribable new sound, with stuttering, highly effective, technical FATES WARNING meets SPIRAL ARCHITECT.

While "Tower" looks progressive, with its long jams and a deep conceptual story, passing on it thinking it's just another Prog-band would be a huge mistake. Its a beautiful thing hearing those stop/go layers upon layers of paralysing power-riffs, running amok all over the album. ZERO HOUR evoke some sort of machine march, carving a perfect display of rhythm dense Metal, active bass (think DiGiorgio) and the most convincing kick-ass percussive performance since "Hemisphere" (RUSH), which is played perfectly (I for one can not believe it's a bunch of guys, only one guitarist, it sounds like it was programmed on a computer). The album is distinguished by Erik Rosvold's mighty schizo vocals, bringing the words to life with his seven or so different voices. Only problem is that the album only contains six songs (one song over fifteen minutes, most being closer to seven) and one of the them is some sort of short vocal-track with no guitars, just strange sounds.

"The Towers Of Avarice" is unique in the world of music. Its quite heavy, extremely technical, yet somehow plays into smoothly composed songs of Heavy Metal. Keep your eyes open for it, these guys deserve all the support they can get!!!!!!!