Fans of progressive Metal that leans toward the heavier side of things will find much to enjoy with AUTUMN HOUR's debut album, "Dethroned." Behind the mic of this relatively new band is the relative veteran Alan Tecchio, most known for his work fronting WATCHTOWER. The band is filled out by veteran players who are able to demonstrate their proficiency at their instruments without needless displays of speed.

The seeds for AUTUMN HOUR were planted when vocalist Tecchio and guitarist Justin Jurman wrote 12 somber acoustic songs. These songs were re-worked and revised until they included electric guitars, bass and drums. A theme/concept was written; expanding upon the ideas of Ray Kurzweil about artificial intelligence and its effect on the human race.

Despite this being label as prog-Metal, you aren't going to find many outright displays of virtuosity. There aren't crazy time signatures or tempo changes. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The riffs are heavy and many songs are mid-paced. There are a few sections where everything is dialed back to emphasize atmosphere, which adds a contrast to the heavy guitars.

Alan Tecchio is the star of this album; he has an expressive voice and displays a good sense of range without overdoing it. Justin Jurman works well with Tecchio and together they have written some great music. I really enjoyed "End User" and the title track for their off-kilter rhythms and heavy riffs and how well they work with Tecchio's vocals. A real curve ball appeared in the form of a cover of THE EURYTHMICS' "Here Comes The Rain Again," which not only has been turned in to a surprisingly good Metal song, but is also worked into the story.

Unfortunately, not everything works as well as the aforementioned songs do. There are portions of songs that feel out-of-place and some of the songs suffer from being too similar to others on the album. I honestly would have liked to hear some more lead work and some faster, thrashier parts to break up the relative rhythmic monotony.

That being said, I still enjoyed the album as a whole quite a bit. Part of this enjoyment came from the sole fact that this is pretty different from a good number of the albums in this genre. I certainly hope that AUTUMN HOUR continues to put out albums and that this is not a one-time deal. I also hope to see this band live because I bet they would kill.