UMUR "This Godless Endeavor" is the 6th full-length studio album by US power/thrash metal act Nevermore. The album was released through Century Media Records in July 2005. It´s the successor to "Enemies of Reality" from 2003 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as Steve Smyth has joined as a second guitarist. Smyth was at the time fresh out of a stint touring with Testament, but he had also played with both Vicious Rumors and Dragonlord before that. It was always the band´s intention to have two guitarists in the lineup, but they struggled throughout their career to find a permanent solution to compliment Jeff Loomis, which meant that the guitar parts on several of Nevermore´s albums were solely recorded by Jeff Loomis (among them the two direct predecessors to this album).

"Enemies of Reality (2003)" was recorded on a relatively small budget, as a consequence of being the last album Nevermore owed Century Media Records under their original contract, and many fans/critics felt especially the production standards of the album weren´t up to par with the Andy Sneap produced "Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000)" ("Enemies of Reality (2003)" was produced by former Queensrÿche guitarist Kelly Gray). The situation created a bad working relationship between band and label and the recording and promotion of "Enemies of Reality (2003)" suffered from it (not that it´s a bad quality album by any means). Nevermore and Century Media Records were however able to patch up their differences and a new deal was signed, and Nevermore were able to bring back producer Andy Sneap for the recording of "This Godless Endeavor".

The change of producer is audible right from the first notes of opening track "Born". The dark, gritty, and raw sound production of the predecessor has been replaced by a clear, fat, and crushingly heavy sound production, which has Sneap´s signature written all over it. It´s an incredibly well sounding production and it´s hard to argue against Sneap and Nevermore being a match made in heaven...

Nevermore have released several strong albums in their career, but "This Godless Endeavor" stand as one of their crowning achievements. Not only is the sound production perfect for the music, the musicianship are also on an incredibly high level on all posts. The drumming is strong, organic, and powerful, the bass is heavy and helps drive the music forward, and the guitars produce one killer riff and blazing shredding solo after another, while lead vocalist Warrel Dane sings his paatos filled and powerful vocals with great passion and bite. The music can be labelled the most thrashy and heavy US power metal you´ve ever heard, or US power metal influenced thrash metal with a great heavy groove. It´s both heavy and fast, and both edgy and more melodic. The icing on the cake are the intelligent and thought provoking lyrics dealing with subjects like religion, philosophy, society, and artificial intelligence. The latter subject matter is dealt with on "Sentient 6" which is one of the album highlights. It´s an unconventional and actually quite progressive power ballad (or at least it opens in powel ballad fashion), which opens with ominous sounding piano notes and Dane telling a story about a sentinent who´s mission it is to kill humanity, but at the same time it envies human´s ability to dream, because it longs to be more than a machine. About half way through the track, it gets both very heavy, but also very epic.

Other tracks on the album deserving a special mention are "Final Product" (the lyrics dealing with the commercial exploitation of a dead celebrity) and the closing 8:55 minutes long multi suite title track, but there´s nothing on the album which is sub par, and it is one of those very rare albums where every track is of a high quality and feels right on the tracklist. "This Godless Endeavor" is just through and through a high quality release and it has definite "album of the year" potential. Upon conclusion a 5 star (100%) rating is deserved.

SilentScream213 This is an interesting transition from their USPM sound. The Politics of Ecstasy is by far the heaviest album the crew had released at that point, adopting a much chuggier and more rhythmic approach. It’s kind of hard to classify this; while the technicality on show is close to Progressive Metal, it also has a very Tech-Thrash-Lite feel to it. Despite being labeled as Thrash, it sounds quite different from what most people associate with the genre, almost playing like speedy Groove Metal instead, with rhythmic riffs and mid-tempo double bass playing in semi-complex polyrhythms.

Admittedly, I feel mixed about this new direction, as rhythmic riffing usually doesn’t sit well with me as opposed to more melodic Heavy Metal or sharp, twisting conventional Thrash, but the music is still very high quality. The album also has a few great surprises as well; Passenger is a Doom Metal song with a monstrous main riff and great vocals, and 42147 has more conventional Thrashing and near-Melodeath riffing that adds some much needed energy and aggression to the flow of the album.

Overall I can’t say I prefer this to their older Thrash influenced USPM sound, but it’s still great stuff, surprisingly heavy for the band and carrying a decent amount of variety in the approaches to songwriting.

UMUR "Enemies of Reality" is the 5th full-length studio album by US power/thrash metal act Nevermore. The album was released through Century Media Records in July 2003. It´s the successor to "Dead Heart in a Dead World" from 2000 and features the same four-piece lineup who recorded the predecessor. Throughout their career Nevermore were never able to recruit a long lasting second guitarist to compliment Jeff Loomis, although the band´s music was always intented to be played by two guitarists.

"Enemies of Reality" was recorded on a relatively small budget, as a consequence of being the last album Nevermore owed Century Media Records under their original contract. The label wanted the band to sign a new contract before recording the album, while the band wanted to record the album, and then shop around for a new label deal. The situation went on to become frustrating for both band and label, and eventually Century Media Records cut the band´s recording budget to a minimum, which meant Nevermore had to act fast to find a producer and studio time corresponding to the budget they had been given. They brought in former Queensrÿche guitarist Kelly Gray to produce "Enemies of Reality", and it´s one of those producer choices which divides the waters completely.

Both Neil Kernon (who produced the band´s first three albums) and Andy Sneap (who produced "Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000)") were almost universally lauded for their contributions to the preceding album releases, while many fans and critics felt that Gray had created a sub par sound production on "Enemies of Reality". And indeed it is a much more raw and unpolished release than especially its direct predecessor. It´s to the point of being a bit noisy, and even messy sounding, but to my ears it´s not without its charm. In fact I think the chaotic and raw sound production suits the material featured on the album really well. The critics got their will a few years later though when in 2005 "Enemies of Reality" was remixed by Andy Sneap. The remix features a vastly different and more polished mix and it´s pretty surely an aquired taste if you prefer the original sound production or the remixed version of the album. Personally I would never have altered the original as I feel it brought exactly the right rawness to the material...

...material which in most cases are angry, raw, and fast-paced thrashy tracks (except for "Tomorrow Turned Into Yesterday", "Who Decides", and "Noumenon". The two former being power ballads, and the latter being a slow and dark track). As always Nevermore´s music can´t be put into a box, and while there are plenty of powerful thrashy riffs and rhythms featured on the album, it´s a bit more nuanced than that. The music also features melodic US power metal traits and elements from progressive metal. It´s quite dynamic music too featuring both loud heavy parts and more mellow acoustic sections. The musicianship are on a high level on all posts. The rhythm section are rock solid and deliver tight yet organic playing, Loomis is a world class guitarist, able to both shred with the best but also deliver beautiful melodic parts, and Warrel Dane is the icing on the cake. Paatos filled, commanding, and extremely skillfully delivered vocals by the man with the great voice. His vocal lines are often a bit less melodic than on the predecessor, but it probably has a lot to do with the more immediate recording process (many vocal tracks were recorded immediately after recording the instrumental parts for a track, rather than recording all vocals for all tracks, at the end of the recording session).

Upon conclusion "Enemies of Reality" is a bit of the "odd one out" album in the band´s discography. Especially considering the two more successful and lauded albums which bookend it. Personally I always thought it was a nice aggressive kick in the balls (with a few really nice melodic moments to spice things up), at just the right time in Nevermore´s career. They needed to get this album out of their system, to be able to write and record an album as fully developed as "This Godless Endeavor (2005)". I wouldn´t call "Enemies of Reality" Nevermore´s best album, but it´s still a high quality release showing a creative and raw side of the band which works well. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Dead Heart in a Dead World" is the 4th full-length studio album by US power/thrash metal act Nevermore. The album was released through Century Media Records in October 2000. It´s the successor to "Dreaming Neon Black" from 1999 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Tim Calvert has left after a relatively short stint with the band. Calvert has not been replaced here, and therefore Jeff Loomis handles all guitars on the album (the first Nevermore album where he played seven-string guitars). There´s been a change in the producer chair too as Neil Kernon (who worked with the band on all previous releases did not work with the band on "Dead Heart in a Dead World". Instead Nevermore brought in former Sabbat guitarist Andy Sneap to produce the album.

"Dreaming Neon Black" is a dark and heavy album featuring a bleak concept story based on the real life disappearance of lead vocalist Warrel Dane´s old girlfriend after she entered a religious cult. In comparison "Dead Heart in a Dead World" is a bit different, as it features individual tracks with no conceptual connection other than the often heavy topic political/social lyrics (covering subjects like criticism of drug possession penalties and religion, love, loss, and humanity´s place in the universe). The heavy and quite brilliant cover of "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel fits perfectly within the context of the rest of the material. It´s always dangerous (or at least a bold move) to cover a track as iconic as "The Sound of Silence", but Nevermore pull it off in great style and make the song their own.

"Dead Heart in a Dead World" is a relatively diverse release featuring both crushingly heavy US power/thrash metal tracks like "Narcosynthesis", "Engines of Hate", and "We Disintegrate", a groove laden heavy track like "Inside Four Walls", the relatively slow and heavy "Evolution 169" and "Insignificant", epic power balleds like "The Heart Collector" and "Believe in Nothing", and a fast-paced thrasher like the closing title track. Nevermore always understood the importance of variation to make an album as effectful and intriguing as possible, but "Dead Heart in a Dead World" may be their most diverse album of the bunch.

Andy Sneap has created a powerful dry sound production which suits the material perfectly. It´s a bit more polished and less raw than the preceding Neil Kernon productions, but it´s a professional and well sounding production. It´s not always a bad choice to chose a new producer after sticking to the "safe" choice for a while. And that´s not a critique of Kernon, who did a great job on the early releases by Nevermore, but at this point in time, Sneap was the perfect fit for them.

The musicianship are on a high level on all posts. The rhythm section of drummer Van Williams and bassist Jim Sheppard deliver one powerful and skillfully executed rhythmic assault after another, guitarist Jeff Loomis shines as always with brutal sharp riffs and blistering solo work, and lead vocalist Warrel Dane is a singer extraordinaire. He has an instantly recognisable voice and a powerful paatos filled delivery, which brings that extra to the music, that only really great vocalists are able to.

So upon conclusion "Dead Heart in a Dead World" is another high quality release by Nevermore. The sound production is as mentioned a bit more polished than on the preceding releases and it makes the album slightly more accessible and catchy, but the actual music is as raw and powerful as ever. Nevermore´s ability to combine US power metal, thrash metal, and progressive metal elements to a unique sound is quite impressive. There really aren´t any other acts out there, who sound even remotely like Nevermore. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

Necrotica Even more than any other Nevermore album, Dreaming Neon Black always seemed to have a darkness and intensity that was all its own. This is some potent, dense thrash that fully revels in its progressive nature, as well as the twisted story the late Warrel Dane weaves along the way. The concept, according to Dane himself, deals with a man who gradually succumbs to insanity after he loses his lover to a religious cult. Eventually this insanity becomes all sorts of various tragedies surrounding our main character. Sounds happy, right? Believe me, though, this stuff is the perfect base for the incredibly creepy and depressing moods the music itself creates. You really feel the conviction of the band right from the opening thrasher (aside from the intro) "Beyond Within," which seamlessly blends the intense drive of Jeff Loomis' riffing with a variety of tempo shifts for every mood the song wants to convey. And there are several; from one song alone, we get rage, desperation, anxiety, and futility all in this track. Simply put, this is the most emotional album Nevermore ever put out.

And the greatest thing about this is that there's so much sincerity and even beauty lurking in the record's uninviting outer shell. If I were to pick Dreaming Neon Black's centerpiece in this regard, it's definitely the bleak title track. This is one of the rare ballads we get to hear from the band, and the doomy chorus constantly gives off the feeling of drowning in Dane's personal abyss. Even the faster numbers on the album usually exhibit some interesting experiments that further the atmosphere, such as the wonderful classical guitar leads that kick off "No More Will" or the bizarrely off-kilter rhythms and atonal guitar chugs that define how uncomfortable the mood of "The Death of Passion" is. Even more interesting are the softer segments, such as the strange note-bending in "All Play Dead" or the minimalist clean guitar that closes the album with "Forever." More traditional Nevermore numbers come in the form of the straightforward melodic thrash of "I Am the Dog" and the intricately performed media-bashing prog/thrash combo heard in "Poison Godmachine." But even then, these still serve to advance the story and inject their own form of energy into a deeply affecting piece of metal music. Dreaming Neon Black is the most consistent Nevermore album from a songwriting standpoint, and it also happens be the most emotionally resonant one at the same time. How much more could you want out of one of the most impressive metal bands of both the 90s and 2000s?

~Rest in peace, Warrel Dane. 1961-2017~