NEVERMORE — This Godless Endeavor (review)

NEVERMORE — This Godless Endeavor album cover

Album · 2005 · Thrash Metal

5/5 · 2011-06-24
The Angry Scotsman

Nevermore's Magnum Opus

This album is the bands greatest work, and one of the best metal albums I've encountered. Got this album when it came out in 2005 and it was the first time I heard the name Nevermore. I was blown away. The music floored me, and this was also one of my earliest introductions to progressive metal, at a time when I was solely a thrash and death metal head. "This Godless Endeavor" had a major impact on me personally and is an amazing album.

This album is an amalgam of all the band's styles, in a perfectly blended and composed masterpiece. Dubbed "progressive power neo-classical thrash metal" by some of us, this album has it all, but never sounds crammed together or sounds off. It all works together seamlessly, built around lightning fast and crazy guitar work, intense drumming and Dane's unique vocals, (which take on an even more hard edge here and showcase some dark, lower register tones). All of it tempered with progressive song writing and sprinkled with neo classical shred solos. The drumming is amazing, largely European power style chains of double bass, (sometimes at breakneck speed) but also with lots of thrash and healthy heaps of blast beats! Van Williams puts on a good show of extreme drumming, but also great variation. Sometimes melodic, technical, exotic, off tempo, often changing on a dime and always fitting of the music. To this day, one of my favorite drumming performances.

The lyrics are dark: often bleak and bitter criticisms of the media, technology, a drugged up (erm medicated) society, government, religion and humanity in general. Thankfully they are never corny or come off as angry tirades. Though anger is deeply flowing, it's tempered with intriguing vocabulary, (this is metal after all) and vague stanzas that require some thought. Nice change from the unrestrained and amateurish anger often hurled at us from metal bands. "Sentient 6" is about some type of AI being designated to destroy humanity but grows conflicting feelings of inspiration and contempt for humanity. "My Acid Words" ends on a powerful note with Dane bellowing out "It's a one way ride and there's nothing you can do! Not even suicide or my acid words can teach you, anything useful..." One of the more crushing parts of the album.

Every song is good, so I will just say listen to the album. In fact, every song is great, with "Bittersweet Feast" being a tad weaker than the rest. Now it is a good song, but just not quite the standard of the rest. Besides that song, this is a truly perfect album, and without it this would be flawless, probably getting a spot on my mantle of 6 Star Albums.

Besides each song being great, they are each unique and the album has good flow, starting off intense before moving into a more mellow, progressive section and rising back up to bludgeon back home. The album ends with the 9 minute prog metal piece "This Godless Endeavor" that is one of my all time favorite songs.

It's always been my opinion that the best bands are those who truly progress, maintaining but taking steps forward tweaking and refining, rather than "experimenting" by taking wild stabs in the dark or risky and drastic swings. The former is what Nevermore has done culminating in this brilliant piece of progressive metal.

Masterpiece FIVE STARS