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Nevermore: The obsidian conspiracy
30/07/10 || Altmer
This is the best album of 2010 so far. I mean it. This is the first album of this year I actually got excited about when I listened to it. This is the first album this year that made me go “YES!!!!!”. This is the album that makes me want to drop my trousers and have a nice, good, old-fashioned wank. Shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of you lot, since everyone with half a brain knows I suck cock for Nevermore, but anyway. That’s how it is, and you’ll have to live with it, bitches.
The reason why? Well, it’s Nevermore, and I’m a fanboy.
No, in all seriousness: it’s because they’ve crafted a bunch of really good songs. Really. Nevermore always wrote very good material (“Beyond Within”, “Born”, “Insignificant”, “Inside Four Walls”, etc), but this is an album full of actual songs and not complex wanking (which is hilarious coming from me, since my favourite album is their most complex one). It’s a bit more open and has a bit more space for Warrel’s vocals, which I’ve always had a soft spot for. Some people think he borders on trying too hard, and I guess I can understand why people think that – but I find his vocal style extremely awesome, and what’s more, he sounds gloomy as all hell (something that is always appreciated by me).
In fact this is some of the best material of their career. “Without Morals”, “She comes in colors”, the title track – it’s all fantastic through and through. The riffs are heavy and awesome deluxe and the vocals are of the highest quality. Bonus points for the super-groovy drumming (no hummingbird-style blast beating here) and the solid bass work, the rhythm section on this album is of an immense caliber. And I mean immense. Like a pyramid kinda immense. The rhythm guitars are what appeal to me most, though – Loomis’ axe-playing completely crushes, mutilates and destroys and it’s seriously one of his best performances to date. The guy is a machine, seriously.
Nevermore’s style might not appeal to everyone, their sometimes confused mix of thrash/death metal with clean vocals being hard to digest in the beginning, but the songs on here are strong enough to cope with any qualms you may have there. In fact, I can’t think of any band off the top of my head that sounds like Nevermore. Sometimes this band reminds me of Candlemass during the slower moments and that can only be a good thing. I have to deny those who decry this “power metal” though – no dragons lyrics, no keyboards, no more falsetto posturing – if the fact they have a clean singer makes it power metal then you are deaf. This is real metal through and through. The only odd thing on is album is the weird chanted “Rise! Rise!” on “Your Poison Throne”, which I am not quite sure suits Warrel’s voice. Other than that, it’s excellent.
The lyrics make everything sound gloomy though. Warrel’s lyrics have always made it sound like he should be institutionalized (come to think of it, he probably should with his delivery, too, he sounds like he’s on the verge of ultimate, total death and destruction). If you listen to this you might end up killing yourself afterwards. But, as Kampfar says – “suicide is old school, go forth and die already”. This is sad-sack metal sometimes – in fact, The Dane reminds me of a cross between an anarchist and Paul Simon (in his 60s era, with Art Garfunkel), lyrically. It’s music to kill yourself to. Peter Steele would have been proud.
If you’re asking “where has the complexity gone”, then I recommend you just go take a listen to “This Godless Endeavor” and be done with it. For me, this is now album of the year so far, and it took me quite a while to find the album this year that really appealed to me on every level. This is that album and I salute the old guard of Nevermore for delivering the goods once again. Also, props for the very cool album cover. It reminds me of the “Dead heart…” one which was awesome too.
Recommendation: Make sure everyone gets a copy of your album and free tickets to a gig of choice. Their lives will be enriched.
- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Century Media
- Website: www.nevermore.tv
- Band
- Warrel Dane: vocals
- Jeff Loomis: guitars
- Jim Sheppard: bass
- Van Williams: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. The Termination Proclamation
- 02. Your Poison Throne
- 03. Moonrise (Through Mirrors of Death)
- 04. And The Maiden Spoke
- 05. Emptiness Unobstructed
- 06. The Blue Marble and the New Soul
- 07. Without Morals
- 08. The Day You Built The Wall
- 09. She Comes In Colors
- 10. The Obsidian Conspiracy
