The Angry Scotsman 5 years in the making.

So when I heard about the news, via my brother, I was ecstatic. We both were, since their last album "This Godless Endeavor" was a near flawless masterpiece, and one of the biggest albums in my life.

I was a bit disappointed when I first heard this album, and gave it some time off to separate it from their last. I did get a bit more enjoyment from it over time, but still it left me feeling little. It sounded right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then I found out why. This is honestly the best way to describe the album, (courtesy of Jeff Loomis):

"Obviously, this is a different NEVERMORE album, from our point of view. The music is a little less complex, the songs are more structured, the choruses come in quicker. I mean, it's a more straight-forward album than we've ever done."

And that producer Peter Wichers was very involved with the songwriting, prodding Loomis to "cut the fat" and make the songs "more catchier and hookier" opposed to his usual 7-8 minute songs. I didn't know who Peter Wichers was, so I looked him up to find out he was from Soilwork. Suddenly, it all made sense... (can you guess I'm not really a fan?)

On the first listen it struck me how toned down the prog was. The progressive and complex song structures that I loved so much about "This Godless Endeavor" were largely gone. There was also less use of acoustic guitar and generally less melodic writing. This is a stripped down, straight forward Nevermore album.

So, where does that leave us? This is a decent album. It has a Nevermore feel, some awesome riffing, but is just driving down a straight road. Nothing is weak, but nothing really stands out. The musicianship is awesome, as always, and Dane's vocals come out even more. This was also a conscious effort, with Loomis stating the albums less complex sound was to leave Dane with more space for his vocals. While produced by Wichers, the album was mixed and mastered by long time associate Andy Sneap, thus it has that classic Nevermore sound. Airtight, crisp, heavy. Perfect really, for their style of music. As usual you can hear every note with clarity.

Again, a decent album that should please Nevermore fans enough, and be a good album for most metalheads to rock out with (which is good since this album may be gaining the band much more exposure). Only track that does stand out is the finale, which deserves a place in the thrash metal hall of fame. One intense song that has a good flow and is damn catchy.

Good, not great, album with awesome musicianship restrained by unspectacular and uninspired song structures. While not bad, and still enjoyable to Nevermore fans, some may be pretty let down. I always give kudos to a band for mixing things up, especially at risk of "going mainstream" but I do hope in the future they stick with Sneap and what they are best at.

Two and a Half Stars

bonnek After a long absence and a couple of solo projects, Nevermore returns with an album that should be very satisfactory to their fanbase. The reason being that the album doesn't deviate an inch from the trodden paths on the previous albums.

Despite its qualities, the familiar approach often disappoints me. In the opening track for instance, Warrel Dane fails to come up with vocal lines that he hasn't done countless times before. Also the guitar riffs and chord changes often have a familiar ring to them. Things improve on "Your Position Throne", not that it hold any surprises but the band has found that eerie tone back from their earliest albums, where the influence from Gothic bands such as Bauhaus was still a more important element to their sound than the power-thrash of the 3 last albums.

All goes very well till the track "Emptiness Unobstructed", which also reminds too much of older songs. "The Blue Marble" brings some welcome variation after the preceding onslaught of powerful riffing. It's a nice little ballad that abstains from anthemic metal ballad clichés. Clichés abound on "Without Morals" though, which is another Nevermore track we've heard too much. With "The Day You Built The Wall" the album gets back on track. "She Comes In Colors" and the closing title track especially are also satisfactory thrash epics.

"The Obsidian Conspiracy" is an album that won't disappoint the Nevermore fanbase, it's only nitpickers like myself that have gotten tired of the formulas that Nevermore returns to all too frequently. Overall, a safe but good album.

UMUR "The Obsidian Conspiracy" is the 7th full-length studio album by US, Seattle, Washington based metal act Nevermore. The album was released in May 2010 by Century Media Records. The original version of the album contains 10 tracks while the limited digipack version of the album features 2 bonus tracks. The bonus tracks are a cover version of "The Crystal Ship" by The Doors and a cover version of "Temptation" by The Tea Party. The album was produced by Peter Wichers who also took care of the production on lead vocalist Warrel Dane´s solo album "Praises to the War Machine (2008)".

The music on the album is unmistakably the sound of Nevermore with Warrel Dane´s distinct sounding and strong vocals in front. The style is still a mix of heavy metal, power metal, thrash metal and the occasional nod towards progressive metal. It appears the band have chosen a more straight forward and streamlined songwriting method on "The Obsidian Conspiracy" compared to the more elaborate and challenging releases of the past. This generally means that the tracks are more vers/ chorus oriented and simple than what we´re used to from Nevermore. The polished production by Peter Wichers also means that the tracks are more easily accessible and instantly memorable. The most challenging and progressively tinged tracks on the album are "And the Maiden Spoke", "She Comes in Colors" and the closing title track. Other tracks worth a mention is the powerful opener "The Termination Proclamation", "Emptiness Unobstructed" and the power ballad "The Blue Marble and the New Soul".

The songwriting quality is high throughout the album and there are as such no sub par tracks on the album. The problem is, that there are very few really excellent tracks on the album either. Guitarist extraordinaire Jeff Loomis has toned down his usually blistering guitar style a bit and at times he even sounds anonymous in the soundscape. I think this is the most severe issue on the album but the way too polished sound production and the generally simple structure of the tracks are not featured that I´m fond of either. The two cover tracks on the limited digipack version of the album are a good addition to the 10 regular album tracks. I´m not familiar with The Tea Party version of "Temptation", but Nevermore´s version is decent. Nevermore´s version of "The Crystal Ship" by The Doors is a bit more interesting.

After five years since the release of the masterful "This Godless Endeavor (2005)", I actually find it a bit disappointing that this is all Nevermore could conjure up for the fans. Mind you I´m not saying this is a bad release but it seriously lacks spark and spirit compared to earlier releases. I´ve followed Nevermore right from the release of their self-titled debut album in 1995 (well...actually since the Sanctuary days) and every new release from them has always challenged me and made my blood boil with excitement. This is the first time I´ve felt a bit indifferent towards one of their releases. I simply don´t feel the burning urge to put on the album and listen to it again and again like I did with all the band´s preceeding releases. That´s a clear indication to me that something is wrong or missing on "The Obsidian Conspiracy". But even a sub par effort by Nevermore is of course still a quality product and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Stephen "The Obsidian Conspiracy" is the seventh album of Nevermore, maintaining the "Godless" line up and bringing Peter Wichers (ex-Soilwork) to handle the production and engineering and to collaborate with Andy Sneap from the mixing department. This album also marked their first album to penetrate the Billboard 200 charts and that's a big achievement from a non-mainstream band.

Nevermore has been known to incorporate many elements but on this album, they've tried to unleash a more straight-forward composition by putting a thrashy power metal style to the front and slow down the implementation of progressive and complex structure. "The Termination Proclamation" with its brutal riffs in an uptempo corridor and rebellious yell with heavy riffs of "Your Poison Throne" made a promising start. "Moonrise" pumped the tempo up with some incinerating riffs and dynamic tempo, this is my first fave track of the album. "Emptiness Unobstructed" is quite obvious to be their first single, this is a midtempo and accessible metal track with a wonderful sing-along chorus, definitely their best moment here. Another fave tracks here are the thundering "Without Morals" and the depressive gloomy ballad of "The Blue Marble".

Couple of songs have the potential such as the doomy "And The Maiden Spoke", it has a good chorus texture but the verse could have been better, and the title track, which probably their heaviest song here, is a great headbanging tune but unfortunately lack of something memorable, kicking this track down to decent status. The rest are okay, sometimes moody and can be boring, but I found this album is pretty good and a grower. Travis Smith also has done a marvelous job with the front cover, should have been one of his amazing works of 2010 together with Overkill's "Ironbound" and Heathen's "The Evolution of Chaos".

For me, this album works fine, can be a good starter for new fans, and also a heart-pleasing release for the old fans.