Progressive RockMetal
Zero Hour release the EP “No Man’s Land” on 16 October, on CD and digitally, through their own label CynNormal Lab Recordings. It holds four tracks: the two new songs, “Codes Of Violence” and the title track, and instrumental versions of both. Each of the two runs past thirteen minutes.
Erik Rosvold sings on it. He had fronted 2001’s “The Towers Of Avarice” and the 2003 re-recording of “Metamorphosis” before leaving straight afterwards. Fred Marshall followed him on 2005’s “A Fragile Mind”, and Chris Salinas sang on “Specs Of Pictures Burnt Beyond” (2006), on “Dark Deceiver” (2008) and on the 2022 return “Agenda 21”, issued by Frontiers. Twenty-three years separate one Rosvold record from the next.
Guitarist Jasun Tipton keeps the line-up that rebuilt the band: Seventh Wonder bassist Andreas Blomqvist on bass, Jeremy Villucci on keyboards and Powerwolf drummer Roel van Helden as a session player. His brother Troy Tipton, the bassist who co-founded the group, stopped playing after an arm injury that broke the band up in 2008 and has not recorded with it since: by Jasun’s account, surgery left him with strength problems that clash with the tapping and legato the material demands.
“The guys and I are very, very excited for the listeners to hear No Man’s Land,” Jasun Tipton says. “Erik, Andreas, and Roel absolutely bring it on ‘Codes Of Violence’ and ‘No Man’s Land.’”
Drums were recorded by Kai Stahlenberg at Kohlekeller Studio, and Matt LaPlant mixed and mastered the EP at Madtown Mix Studio. The cover is by Wayne Joyner, who has worked for Dream Theater, Ayreon and Devin Townsend.
Text by Guillem Cardós