Nevermore

Nevermore have always been a polarizing band. In the liner notes to "The Politics of Ecstasy," Warrel Dane attributes this to Nevermore's juxtaposition of heavy music and sung, melodic vocals. I think that is an oversimplification. My theory is that it's not just the mixture of heaviness and melody, but a mixture of Dane's venomous and agonized vocals (which are polarizing in their own right) and the gunmetal grey, machine-like quality of the guitar work. It's fitting for the band, who's lyrics often deal with an individual's struggles against the larger society, but it's a very specific aesthetic that simply doesn't click with everyone.

Nevermore's self-titled debut contains the band in an embryonic stage of their career. The elements I described above and the elements that would define Nevermore in the future, both good and bad, are already present here, but they are not as refined as they would later come to be.

Warrel Dane delivers an enthusiastic and impressive vocal performance. His voice on this album is somewhere between the high-pitched power metal vocals of his time in Sanctuary (the power metal shrieks do make the occasional appearance,) and the deeper, lower sound he would later become known for. Already present is the high-low layering of dual vocal tracks that Nevermore would make great use of later on, but here it's just not as effective and doesn't mix as well as it could.

The lyrics found here are also indicative of what Nevermore would spend the rest of their careers focusing on (sometimes to a fault). Criticism of religion, society, and government, drug abuse, and the like. They are generally well written but, apart from some particularly powerful passages, tend to fade in the mix unless careful attention is being paid.

The music is very large and powerful throughout, with varying tempo. Nevermore do a very good job conveying a brooding atmosphere and they leaned into it for this album. Unfortunately, there are times when the band seems to think sounding sufficiently miserable makes up for lack of anything interesting happening musically. There is a lot of filler and a lot of meandering. Nevermore is one of my favorite bands, but even I have to admit that they suffered from this curse from the very beginning, and although they got much better after this, they never shook this off completely (coming very close on This Godless Endeavor a decade after this album).

For those that have heard Nevermore's later albums and liked them, this album has enough satisfying moments and some truly excellent songs that would make it worthwhile to listen to. For those that don't like Nevermore's later work, this album is not going to convert them. And if you've never listened to this band before and are wondering where to start, I'd dive into their later work before coming back to this.

Highlights: The Sanity Assassin, The Hurting Words, Godmoney.

I must say that I don’t really listen to heavy metal too much (and when I do, then they’re only the true classics LPs and bands like Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate / King Diamond, Running Wild or Metallica) and even less I listen to power metal. I mention these styles, as Nevermore is always described as groovy / power / heavy metal band, with strong progressive touch. And usually I wouldn’t even bother to check such band out, if I already didn’t know that such description doesn’t really give a justice to Nevermore, as music wise they’re just far different and more aggressive than the usual band of this sort. You know, personally seeing such description I would think about Savatage. But Nevermore is different and way more interesting, to the point that even myself, a fan of more extreme styles of metal, finds their music as very appealing and exciting. Where does the secret lay? Well, first of all I must mention Warrel Dane, the vocalist. His way of singing is far more interesting than the usual heavy metal vocalist. When I hear him I have a feeling like this is the voice of madman, some lunatic. This vocalist is very strong and charismatic, sometimes he screams like crazy, other time he operates with more calm, tranquil voice… It is very varied and always very emotional, what fits the music perfectly. Speaking of which… Nevermore is definitely more aggressive and heavier than the usual power / heavy metal band and their riffs sometimes could even match the riffs of technical thrash and death metal bands (especially Death and Chuck’s Control Denied – which I think was hugely influenced by Nevermore) and this is also one of the main reasons, why I like their music so much. There are many twisted, technical fragments, some very unusual patterns here and there, what obviously there is a great work done by the guitar maestro Jeff Loomis. His playing is just phenomenal and I love many riffs and leads he plays. The whole playing is very modern metal, maybe even it may be similar to bands like Pantera and Machine Head on “Burn Their Eyes” LP, but for me Nevermore is just better and more interesting.

So, having two such exceptional musicians on the boards like Dane and Loomis (not to forget about great drumming by Van Williams and Mark Arrington, who play on the album’s half of the songs each) Nevermore became very unique and original band. “Nevermore” is their 1995 debut full length album and I must say that I like it ever since I have heard it for the first time and till today it belongs to my favourite Nevermore albums (thanks Steve for introducing it to me back in 2004!). The songwriting on it is just exceptional and “Nevermore” contains some of the most memorable and best songs which this band has composed. Already the first four songs – one after another – are like a great collection of some of my favourite Nevermore tunes. “What Tomorrow Knows” is such a phenomenal heavy song, with great vocal passages (which are the main strength of this track) and catchy, simple, groovy riffing… It is one of the most memorable songs of the album for sure. Then we have “C.B.F.” (which belongs to the most aggressive and also challenging – due to its technique and twisted parts - songs of the album) and finally the music leads us to two great masterpieces “The Sanity Assassin” and “Garden of Gray” – both have some outstanding melodic and calm passages, both have truly remarkable and memorable choruses and are just great anthems of such progressive, groovy heavy / thrash metal. These songs are epic half ballads, but they won’t give you time to breath, as so much is happening in them that you just swallow these sounds with your whole heart and mind, capturing their emotions fully. And maybe because these songs were so damn awesome I always feel like “Sea of Possibilities” doesn’t reach that quality so much, even though I still like it. Anyway, this is my least favourite track from the album, even if it also is the fastest and most aggressive song. Further on we have another highlight and another half ballad “The Hurting Words”. One more song is worth being mention and it is “Timothy Leary”. And that’s pretty much it.

OK, something more I need to say is that I have a 2006 Century Media CD reissue of “Nevermore” and it is very interesting as not only the booklet has some liner notes, where Warrel and Jeff speak about the times of recording the album, but more so the CD contains a strong dose of bonus tracks, which make it even more exceptional. While the original edition had just eight songs, here we have five bonus tracks, including a Japan only song “The System is Failing” as well as four songs from the 1992 “Utopia” demo. I do admit that these songs are not as good as the main part of the album – “The System is Failing” certainly sounds like an out take and doesn’t reach the quality of “Nevermore”, while the demo songs are just weak… The riffing in them is not that good, even Warrel’s vocals sometimes annoy me, as he sings some false notes here and there… but anyway, it is nice addition to the whole album, as this way we can hear what the beginnings of Nevermore were like and more so, it is also good that those Japs don’t have the monopoly for exclusive songs anymore and “The System is Failing” can finally be heard also on the European edition of the album.
Standout tracks: “What Tomorrow Knows”, “The Sanity Assassin”, “Garden of Gray”, “The Hurting Words”
Final rate: 85/100

There is a longstanding misconception regarding Nevermore’s overlooked and somewhat underrated self-titled debut, and that is that it is some sort of a power metal album that explores new territory. Both of these assertions speak to a general lack of knowledge on the differing sub-genres of metal at large, either on the part of the media, or more likely on the part of their obsessive fan base. Perhaps this mistake could be attributed to the fact that Warrel Dane hasn’t fully ripped his own voice apart and still carries some of the majestic qualities of his Sanctuary days, but power metal is not the only genre out there staking a claim to wide ranged, Geoff Tate oriented singers. But regardless of the slight nuances separating this from more overt groove outfits like Machine Head and Pantera, more educated ears will quickly recognize this as being a full fledged half-thrash/groove metal album that has some slight tendencies towards Parallels era Fates Warning, and that is precisely how it should be approached.

Within the context of being a half-thrash album, Nevermore does a fairly decent job at maintaining enough of the stylistic characteristics of thrash to avoid becoming the grungy mess that Burn My Eyes tended towards. The riff work tends to fall somewhere between a slowed down version of Souls Of Black meets a meandering Into The Mirror Black. At times it manages to really cook and reminisces of better days for metal, while at others it seems unable to make up its own mind on where it wants to go. A prime example of the latter all but smacks the listener right in the face in “What Tomorrow Knows”, which essentially pounds the same riff over and over for about 80% of its duration, yet somehow manages to suggest that something more is going to come and yet never does. It listens largely like a musical narrative, and is all but content to simply plod along and let the singer tell the story, and unfortunately Dane is beginning to show signs of that revolting tough guy character that would plunge this band’s next 3 offerings right into the toilet.

As this album unfolds, it becomes pretty evident that there are two versions of this band that are at war with each other. One of them is the Nevermore that everyone is more familiar with, consisting of stagnant chug riffs and lighter atmospheric interludes that attempt to compensate for themselves with frequent and often abrupt change ups. This can be observed on “C.B.F.” and “Sea Of Possibilities”, but contains an element of charm in that they are saturated with lead guitar acrobatics and contain elements of Warrel’s metallic philosopher with a powerful falsetto vocal character. The other Nevermore is the more traditionally oriented one with elements held over from Sanctuary, and the one that would ultimately disappear after this album. It is typified in the catchy and mid-tempo thrasher “Garden Of Gray”, as well as the twisted yet methodical “Godmoney”, both of which are pretty far removed from either the glory of the Bay Area scene, or the blazing majesty of speed metal/USPM bands such as Agent Steel or Helstar, but are still fairly accessible to anyone who likes either of those two schools of metal. This duality seems largely due to the musical disconnect between 1992 and 1994, of which these two songs fell into the former year, while much of the rest of this album popped during the latter. Nonetheless, elements of both eras of the band’s independent days intermingle with each other and hint at an incremental changeover away from Warrel and Jim’s 80s roots.

While definitely not a bad album, this clearly suffers from a general lack of consistency, and ultimately fails at maintaining the necessary balance between virtuosity and musicality that made Sanctuary a superior band. There are a couple of exceptional moments on here and a fair share of good ones, but unfortunately the sound tends to straddle the 80s to 90s musical divide with a slight preference to the latter, and it shows in the lackluster songwriting. It fails at being fun and catchy the way that Cowboys From Hell was, and doesn’t dedicate itself enough to the slight progressive metal ideals it flirts with at times to dazzle the ears into that intellectual euphoria that Perfect Symmetry and Images And Words accomplishes. It functions well as an occasional listen, but doesn’t lend itself to classic status and as something worthy of throwing the horns in the hair over while in public.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on March 29, 2010.

What we have here is a solid debut, and this one wastes no time before punching you in the face. Kicking the album off with "What Tomorrow Knows" and "C.B.F." this doesn't even give you a chance to breathe. Warrel Dane's vocals hit hard, and have a unique style I've yet to hear duplicated, while the guitar-work of Jeff Loomis isn't exactly bringing the band down either. He has a very progressive style to his playing, with complex riffage throughout, and he spends no time slouching during verses at all, there's always something interesting going on with his playing.

However, after the start of this album, they come back a couple steps and slow down for "The Sanity Assassin," which has some very good lyrics describing someone losing their mind as if it's being taken from them by force. The opening guitar interlude into this song has a great harmony to it with double acoustics, and almost reminds you of something off an Annihilator album. Speaking of that, there's not really a specific genre that this album seems to fit into. This can work for and against the band at times. On the one hand, the regular changes throughout this album keep the listener on their toes and are quite interesting and impressive considering what they can do in different styles. On the other, some points in this album are so strong that you find yourself wanting more, and you get something that might feel like a different band altogether (not to say it can't still be good).

That brings me to the reason this album falls short of being considered great. To be held in such high regard, an album should be more cohesive as a whole, and this jumps around a bit and tends to lag towards the end. With "Timothy Leary" and "Godmoney" the band just doesn't finish strong enough, and there doesn't seem to be a lot going on in these songs comparatively to the rest of the album. They're pretty straightforward, and that's where Nevermore loses some points. Nevertheless, this is a solid effort for any band, and a great launching pad into their work in the future. They just hadn't quite found their niche at this point, and I think they looked at this album as an experiment to figure out where to go next more than anything.

Nevermore's first. If you've heard their later material, this one won't blow your mind; rather, it sort of serves as foreshadowing of their future endeavors. However, if this is your first Nevermore album (as it was mine), their self-titled makes for an impressive example of how a modern metal band can choose to innovate rather than replicate, a methodology that has allowed Nevermore to stand out from among their peers.

Nevermore's modern sound is easily their most notorious turn-off. The casual listener is undoubtedly quick to write them off as another shameless metalcore clone, primarily due to the thick distortion on the guitars and the mid-paced groove of many of the riffs (although Jeff Loomis didn't start playing 7-string guitars until the Dead Heart in a Dead World album). Rest assured, this album is a considerable bit more intricate than that. The talent of the band members is undeniable. Jeff Loomis is one of the mightiest axemen to hit scene in the last decade and he doesn't hold back here. His riffing isn't as complex here as it would be in the future, but his guitar solos are inspiring. Every solo is original, melodic, and technically challenging, pretty much what a guitar solo should be. Warrell Dane's vocals are refreshing amidst the horrible screamo-oriented singing of pretty much every other band heralded as the "new gods of heavy metal!!" Dane's voice is quite unique, ranging from a haunting low register to a hellish falsetto. Van Williams is one hell of a progressive drummer and his playing is an important aspect to Nevermore's innate heaviness. Jim Sheppard doesn't warrant the attention that the other members generally receive, but his playing is tight and essential to the riffing. You'd be hard pressed to find a more talented group, and this is only their debut album.

And the talent does not go to waste in poor songwriting. Each song here is memorable in its own right. Many songs fuse mellower, atmospheric elements to counterpoint the outright heaviness that is generally dominant. Lyrics are intelligent and well-versed, and expertly sung by Dane. There's only a few faster moments, namely those in "C.B.F." and "Sea of Possibilities," but they're memorable.

It's this variation that makes it difficult to assign Nevermore a specific genre. A lot of the riffs are thrash-influenced, especially on this album, which feels more like Sanctuary than Nevermore. The song structures and lyrics hint at progressive metal foundations, and occasionally there are parts that are reminiscent of power metal. Regardless, I think fans of all these genres should be able to appreciate this album. It's far from the glorified, talent-feigning metalcore that retains public admiration (Children of Bodom, for instance). Just a solid, original, modern metal album worthy of respectable praise.

Combining the ultra-doomy vibrations of Candlemass and Trouble with more traditional heavy metal elements in order to bring forth an uncompromisingly brawny presence, this self-titled debut gave vocalist Warrel Dane life after the ill-fated, but nonetheless, highly influential Seattle metal ensemble Sanctuary.

Although Nevermore is an album that contains more than its share of battering rhythms and finely honed, razor-edged riffing, the vocal acrobatics of Dane are solely in the spotlight on compelling symphonies of sludgy, operatic metal like the monstrous leadoff cut, “What Tomorrow Knows” and the chillingly thunderous “The Sanity Assassin.” With this piece, listeners will find an epic that is largely reflective of the early sound of Nevermore. Its patently theatric dramatic elements are sufficient to arouse headbanging sensations, while refined enough to meet the discriminating tastes of the “thinking man” breed of heavy metal fan.

At times, this group can pull off a song that is far more commercial sounding than you might expect from a band with such an overwhelmingly significant sound. “Garden Of Gray” finds Nevermore musically approaching the post-Rhoads riffing of the Ozzy Osbourne band. On this track specifically, Dane succeeds with his dueling vocal styles as the singer alternates between strength-laden operatic sounds and snickering, evil sneers with an ominous presence.

For those listeners who have been more recently acquainted with this highly relevant group, it may serve you well to discover that the fruits of the band’s efforts in 2005 are the result of these substantially superb roots. It is here that you will uncover some of the most crucial metal hymns of the mid-nineties, on an album that wears quite well with time and remains a deeply engaging, crucial metal experience.

The very first Nevermore album came as something of a surprise when it first appeared in 1995.At the time, straight metal was considered outdated and old. In that environment, this album came as a breath of fresh air and was a valuable addition to the musical spectrum.

Warren Dane had revealed his magnificent voice in 80´s metal hopefuls Sanctuary, yet it is with Nevermore that he has truly excelled. His voice fits perfectly in this band which has a special sort of sometimes intricate riffing, a suitable mix of tempos in their repertoire and quality song-writing to top it all off.

This album kicks off with the top number, “What tomorrow knows”, a heavyweight monster of a riff leading the way for some great vocals, a song that could just go on and on and you wouldn’t want it to stop. Unfortunately it does. No need for despair though, after a while track three, “The sanity assassin” comes along to bring you to life again with a great chorus that really gets you going.

“Garden of gray” also makes the grade, but can’t match the opening tracks in terms of sheer quality. From here on the album holds up well, without having the absolute highs reached on the first half but still oozing of confidence and well-constructed tunes. The closing track “Godmoney” brings the album to a fine end, and you can’t help being impressed once again with Dane’s magnificent voice.

This album is well representative of what Nevermore is about, solid metal with great vocals.

It seems that this Nevermore debut is completely forgotten by many of their fans, because it doesn't sound much like their later albums and is sort of viewed as a black sheep. I can also see why Nevermore was sometimes referred to as power metal, because this album has a few strong falsettos there and there. But the label 'power metal' in regards to Nevermore is not correct. Neither is 'thrash metal' too. They're simply "modern" band in every sense of the word.

However,half of this album is not so hideously modern as Nevermore's later albums like 'Dead Heart In A Dead World'. The songs like 'Sea Of Possibilities' and 'Godmoney' tend to have catchy groove in them and well executed midpaced riffs, as do slightly slower songs like 'Garden Of Grey' (with nice female back-up vocals that add a lot to the song) and 'Timothy Leary' with much slower groovy riffage that's done effectively. And most of all, these songs don't tend to drag and move along at an efficient pace. The solos are good too. Not overtly technical, but memorable enough for most part.

In addition, there are also boring songs like 'What Tomorrow Knows', which is a pedestrian groove-filled song that doesn't go anywhere and boring ballad
'The Hurting Words'. Although the other ballad 'The Sanity Assassin' is decent, though it tends to drag quite a bit in the middle.

Nevertheless, therein lies the main problem in this album - THE VOCALS. By this point 5 years after the release of 'Into The Mirror Black' (by Sanctuary)and formation of Nevermore, we can see that Warrel Dane's voice have gradually gotten worse. He no longer possesses the fantastic range and delivery he had on 'Refuge Denied'. Instead his vocal performance can be described best as an inconsistent off-key warbling. In other words, he tries damn too hard to sound like an emotional and tortured man, but comes off sounding pretty dang weak.

For instance, the song C.B.F. (Chrome Black Future) shows really well how inconsistent and weak his vocal performance is. There are falsettos which are done very well, but there are also normal clean vocals, which often fluctuate between passable singing and just plain whining. Case and point - the final chorus, where Warrel sings in a great falsetto "Another life is wayyysstteeeeeeddddd....". Then it simply goes PFFFFFTTTTT with that horrible vocal line "awwwaaaayyyyyy", which is done in an awful whiny voice. Bleeegghhh.

And that's pretty much a paradigm for the whole album in terms of vocal performance. If the album had a better singer like Russ Anderson, then it could vastly improve in quality and actually become listenable. Otherwise, it's simply avoidable.

Overview - Strong shades of Sanctuary are shown on this, Nevermore's first release, and they still plant themselves firmly in the category of power metal. This does have a thicker sound than Sanctuary though and it makes the songs pack a bit more of a punch. Not as ripping and thrashing as Nevermore will become at times in the future, but a nice plodding metal ride. The exception to this rule may be Sea Of Possibilities which points in a direction yet to come.'

The Good News - More solid progression in the sound of the band as it becomes thicker and more punishing. This album comes off as considerably 'heavier' than Into The Mirror Black and the band benefits from this. Warrel is also becoming more comfortable with his style and really lets the emotion flow from his sweet and sour, almost tortured voice. Garden Of Gray is an early Nevermore staple and features a great bass chug feel with an incredibly catchy chorus. The Nevermore ballad is also born here with The Sanity Assassin showing the band's capability in that arena.

The Bad News - I find it hard to say a bad word about Nevermore. All I can say here is that there is more intensity and ripping axe work yet to come. This is probably a little more 'simple' than some of their later works, but enjoyable none the less.