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Autumn Hour - Dethroned review



Reviewer:
N/A

6 users:
6.83
Band: Autumn Hour
Album: Dethroned
Website: http://autumnhour.com
Release date: May 2009


[Part I: Singularity In The Making]
01. Oblivion
02. End User
03. Techcceleration (The Machine Speaks)
04. Here Comes The Rain Again [Eurythmics cover]

[Part II: Endgame]
05. Fade Out
06. Unbelievable (The Mind Speaks)
07. Dethroned
08. How Were We Supposed To Know?

[Part III: The Machine Kind]
09. Every Day (The Body Speaks)
10. Transcend
11. The Past (The Heart Speaks)

Autumn Hour is not another run-of-the-mill and clichéd metal band. With a firm opening line like that, I'd like to stress the serious (as in mature), well-thought and captivating tone that is set on Dethroned, Autumn Hour's very first album. In consequence, Autumn Hour is a band worth checking out, it's as simple as that.

First things first, Dethroned is a concept album in heart and soul. Now while this may scare away some of you, let me just say that it's also a concept album telling about the near end of mankind... which is always a fun concept of course, so stick around a bit longer. Secondly, while Autumn Hour may seem like a totally new band you never heard of before, you may remember most of the band members from several other highly esteemed bands, like Seven Witches, Hades, Watchtower, Painmuseum and Non-Fiction. Indeed, with a background like that, Autumn Hour is able to draw on a lot of talent and experience to get the job done with a certain level of keenness and quality. And so, Autumn Hour's sound can rightly be called dynamic, bold and fierce (especially at the beginning of the record).

Dethroned is a quite somber and futuristic three-part concept album, "based upon exponential technological growth and its effects in a post-apocalyptic world." It's a story inspired by Ray Kurzweil's theory of the technological singularity and transhumanism. The story line is that of the role accelerating technology plays in the uncertain future of mankind. As I won't ruin it for you by telling more, I strongly recommend reading the booklet and some of the lyrics if this is your kind of story concept.

Evidently, the focus of the album lies on the lyrical theme. However, also the music should pique your interest. You see, the sound is mid-paced and solid, with an unmistakable US heavy/power metal cachet. If you also take Alan Tecchio's powerful and most of all fitting vocals into account, you just now you're in for a hefty portion of good ol' heavy metal. On top of that - as is often the case with intelligent concept albums - the sound is layered with some catchy melodic twists and several tempo/mood changes. These so-called mood changes are part of the unfolding story of course. The album even has a few slightly progressive hooks here and there. In any way, Dethroned is thick, mature and near the end even dark and somber sounding. Due to this peculiar sound and of course the fact we're still dealing with a concept album, Dethroned might seem a tad bit hard to access at first. Nonetheless, somewhere along the line and in one way or another, this album will definitely get under your skin - and if you read the lyrics, that's one fitting conclusion indeed.

Furthermore Autumn Hour has a few more surprises up its sleeve. First of all, the album features some quite remarkable guest appearances. Next to guest vocals of Ryoko from Echostream, it so happens that also family members of both Alan Tecchio and guitarist Justin Jurman do a few guest vocals. The spoken words of Alan Tecchio's little girl, Annabella, are all the more striking as they give the build-up atmosphere both a human and a haunted - almost creepy - character. On top of that, Autumn Hour also made quite the tasteful cover of the Eurythmics' song "Here Comes The Rain Again". Frankly, I kind of hated the song before, but I really dig this cover version of it. What's more, the band succeeded to give this cover song an appropriate place in the story line. "Here Comes The Rain Again" is not just an out of the blue cover song for the sake of doing a cover song; it's all part of the story.
And let us not forget about the beautiful cover artwork, designed by Metal Storm's very own monowasp.

Seriously, everything about this album is so amazingly well-thought, making this a high-value release for sure. The other side of the coin is that more emphasis on an intelligent concept means less emphasis on the music... or so it seems at first sight. This was quite a letdown for me the first couple of spins, as I highly appreciate the US heavy/power metal sound. The talented musicianship is there though (remember the history of some of the members), you just have to look for it a bit longer and more thoroughly. A final remark I want to make is: where will it go from here? You see, just everything about this band revolves around the concept on Dethroned - yes, even the band name. So now that all the ideas have been melted together and now that the whole "Dethroned" concept is over and done, will this be a one-album band or what? Only time will tell. In the meantime we still have this successful concept album to satisfy our appetite.

Written by Thryce | 04.07.2009




Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 78 users
05.07.2009 - 09:03
Fat & Sassy!

Nice review! This album sounds interesting. Might have to check it out!
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06.07.2009 - 20:10
Rating: 9
Derwood

Though I may not have enjoyed the album quite as much as Thryce, I agree with pretty much everything he says about it here. This is definitely and album where the focus is on the whole album and every track was crafted to fit with the rest. I had my doubts about a Eurythmics cover in this context, but after hearing it, it's hard to imagine what else Autumn Hour may have done in its place at that point in the album.

This is a good one and definitely worth checking out if you like concept albums, especially sci-fi ones.
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