Pelata I tell you, if you don’t know what to expect from Zero Hour, it can be a somewhat overwhelming experience. They’ve gotten a new singer since I last heard them (which was the amazing Towers Of Avarice album) and seem to have really cranked up the intensity level. They were already heavier than most other Prog Metal bands out there, at the time, and they seem to have only gotten more so since.This new album Dark Deceiver is a ferocious exercise in controlled chaos.

Technically, it’s absolutely stunning. Throwing convention out the window, the band has delivered an album that comes off as a rabid blend of Nevermore, Meshuggah and Fates Warning. When it’s heavy, it’ll bash your skull in. When it’s technical, it’ll nearly cause seizures. When it’s melodic, it’ll move your soul. Opening cut “Power To Believe” is a mind-scrambling beast of a track. I can’t remember the last time I heard so many notes from a bass guitar. 12-minute epic “Inner Spirit” has tons of twists, turns and more twists from beginning to end, containing simultaneously some of the albums most melodic and most vicious moments. The two instrumentals on offer here, the bass solo “Tendonitis” (aptly named) and full-band freak out “Severed Angel”, are mini-clinics that will either inspire musicians to get better or cause them to give up entirely.

Don’t come here looking for short and sweet hooks. You won’t find them and you’ll end up lost in a wicked, woven labyrinth of creepy melodies, atom-smashing heaviness and triple-jointed musical dexterity. Enter at your own risk, miss at your own peril.