Customer Reviews

Nevermore: The Year of the Voyager

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a huge Nevermore fan I was really excited over the release of this DVD, which is also why it kills me to give what I believe to be the best band out there today 1 star for this release. I had pre-ordered it along with the double CD of the show as well. I listened to the audio discs first and thought the performance was great. I brought the video over to a friends house on Thanksgiving to watch it on his 52" flat panel. I decided to watch the footage for "I Am the Dog" first and I lasted two minutes through the hyper-editing cuts that plague this release. If anyone has seen Iron Maiden's "Rock in Rio" then you will know what I am talking about. I don't know why anyone would ever edit a video this way because it's certainly not how you would see it if you were there in person. It's extremely distracting since you can't get a good view of anything since it cuts away every 2 seconds and it just makes it a chore to watch. The only positive I could give is that the audio is excellent, but you could just buy the double CD for that.

Okay, I'm only giving this 4 stars because on the second disc with the festivals I felt that the songs could have been a little more diverse. Other than that it's awesome. Some people are irritated by the camera work, I thought it was a good way to try to capture all that is going on. Plus, being a fellow guitar player I greatly appreciated the close-up angles for the solos. Definitely a must have for all Nevermore fans.

This "Year of the Voyager" DVD by Nevermore is by far their best stuff for dvds. Quality in audio & video was top notch. Camera angles were very good for the solos. Warrel Dane and the gang played really well live. I didn't have any gripe over the dvd setlist and why would anybody with that setlist?
Anyways, other things I liked from the dvd were the bonus material which ranged to music videos to interviews and much more. I recommend every band have bonus features on the level Nevermore has. Anyhow, its all I got to say. Top notch stuff. Thumbs up to NEVERMORE!!!

I have all of Nevermore's music, but I didn't realize how good they are live. The production of the DVD is great, and so are the menus. Jeff Loomis gets to showcase how much of a class guitarist that he is. The lone gripe I have is not enogh interviews with the band. Hopefully this year their c.d. will come out and hopefully another DVD of this quality will come out.

Man, I can't believe it's been two years since I first read of a Nevermore dvd in the works. 2006 wasn't a great year for Nevermore due to illnesses left and right, the worst being former guitarist Steve Smyth experiencing kidney failure due to a congenital birth defect. This show was originally set for September 12 in Bochum, Germany. Unfortunately, Warrel had an infection, and had to be hospitalized. The show was later rescheduled for October 11. After it was filmed, the last thing I remember reading was a post online from Jeff Loomis talking about the show and possibly doing some post-production touchups here and there. Nothing new came up after that. Two years later, it resurfaced not only as a 2-dvd set, but as a 2-cd set for those that want listen to it in the car, or on their walkman or ipod. Of course, the meat of it all is the main concert filmed in Germany. 20 songs from all of the band's albums spanning their career, plus you get to catch guitar-shreddage from Jeff Loomis, who was joined by Jag Panzer guitarist Chris Broderick before he left to join Megadeth. As expected, the live audio is crisp, clear, and super loud thanks to Andy Sneap (Arch Enemy, Exodus, Testament). Some may be turned off a little by some fancy editing, but as long as it sounds killer, should you really care?!? The extras on disc 2 are kinda simple: additional live footage including Gigantour in Montreal, Canada in 2005 (from the first Gigantour dvd), the Metal Mania Festival in Katowice, Poland in 2006, Wacken Open Air 2006, and the Century Media USA 10th Anniversary Party in Los Angeles in 2001 (from the Century Media USA 10th Anniversary Party dvd), all of the band's music videos, and an interview with Warrel Dane. Sadly, what's lacking is a documentary on the band's history from starting out to where they are today. Because I am a fan of the band, and the concert is so awesome, I can overlook this. This has been a long time coming as I've always thought they should have a live dvd, so to finally see this is a wish granted. If you're looking for sonic insanity, get both the dvd and cd now.

Amazing content on these two DVD's! Yes, it's true the video editing is very changing on the main show, but I realized that, even if the editing is quite disturbing, at the same time the constant changes emphasize certain details of the songs you would have overlooked otherwise -- sometimes it's a drums break which you get aware of, and sometimes it's just a little "thrill" on the guitar that gets on screen for one second for you to notice it. Also, when the guitars are soloing they get a lot of screen time anyway, which is a very good thing to me. So, I think this kind of video editing serves to one purpose (even if yes, it is distressing): getting closer to each band member's contributions when they play their parts.

Besides that, I love the setlist. It covers every single album from Nevermore, and in addition the band's performance is spot-on -- and the sound is excellent (good for Andy Sneap!)

About the musicians now, I was impressed by the voice of Warrell Dane live. He rocks! Another special mention goes to the awesome Chris Broderick (ex-Jag Panzer, currently with Megadeth), as he is a monster player who shares like no other the lead guitar duties with Jeff Loomis -- actually, I spent some time comparing the live arrangements when they play with other guitarists (the bonus DVD has several shows with other axemen playing with Nevermore), and Chris Broderick does solo like nobody else. I guess that's why Warrell Dane says on the interview (included in the second DVD) that Chris is the number one in their list.

I'm also glad we got in the second disc two songs from the Gigantour DVD. They were filmed in Montreal and I was there in that show. By watching that footage I confirmed that Steve Smyth (ex-Dragonlord, ex-Testament) is a true stage demon. Warrell can say that Chris Broderick still is their first choice as a second guitar player (and I understand why), but Smyth and Loomis used to play really great together, didn't they? The show from Metalmania is also with Smyth and the man is just another monster player -- well, after all you have to be if you're going to play with Jeff Loomis... :-)

To conclude, I'll say that these two DVD's are of a great value and deserve five stars without hesitation. I like Nevermore a lot, and it is great getting all their promotional videos and a lot of quality live footage (excepting the 2001 gig, which is almost bootleg-quality, but still cool) for a fair price. Nevermore delivers as a live band and metal fans will be extremely pleased. The production is in addition excellent, as well as the content. So, go buy this release now, and thus support a band that shows a high level of respect to its followers. We deserved this, right? Ok, so they deserve now some money back for this superb job -- and that's why I purchased this release as soon as it came out, because it's my way of saying "Thank you, Nevermore!" ROCK ON!

This is a fantastic DVD from a great heavy metal band. After 8 albums, Nevermore have made a DVD which does justice to the quality of the music that they make.

The main show on the first DVD is amazing. The set list is excellent. The musicianship superb! Many fans of the band I'm sure would agree that with the addition of the incredible Chris Broderick on guitar (now in Megadeth), this was one of the band's finest line ups. This show, captured in Bochum Germany, is something special. The first DVD is mixed by Andy Sneap, who creates one of the best sounding DVD's I have ever seen for a live concert. I disagree with other reviewers who didn't like the video editing, I thought it was fine - an intimate show brilliantly captured and edited was my first and final impressions.

The second DVD contains various footage from other shows and festivals, including an amazing set captured live at Wacken Open Air in 2006.

Nevermore fans, you should get this dvd now! It really is something special.

1 star ratings?!?... I dunno... I don't get it. I guess it really bugs me for when people rate a DVD for what it COULD have been or what THEY WANTED it to be - but if you rate this DVD for what it IS, I don't see how you can possibly give it one star... or really any less than four stars. I could see maybe taking one star away for the quick edits, etc.

The sound is great (I'll take "sounds too much like the album" over the tin-can sound most concert DVD's have any day), the editing isn't THAT bad (I personally enjoyed it), and most-importantly, the video is clear enough to see the true energy Warrel puts into his vocal performances! And as a guitarist, of course I enjoy seeing the fretboard wizardry of Jeff and Chris.

The main concert would have made the DVD enough of a value, but then add the other concerts, the promo videos, and the Warrel interview (kind of surprising to see how shy he is in front of a camera after being a performer for so many years) all makes this an incredible value for even a casual Nevermore fan.

Highly recommended!

Holy crap, best dvd ever.
When I was watching the previews before this came out, I thought the editing was annoying, but now watching the whole thing on a big screen it seems to work. The actual performance is fantastic. If you haven't heard much of Nevermore's stuff, and are looking to get into them, start with this. Partly because there are songs from every album, and party because they are just so damn good live. Anyway, buy this. It's worth far more than the AU$50 I paid for it.

I've waited for a year to get this dvd and I disapointed with how the camera angle's would change in every 2 secs and it also shows black and white colour every once in a while , this is really stupid. The mixing, you might say its good but to me Andy Sneap has fix too much thing to make it almost exactly sounds like the album. The guitar tone, i even think that it might be taken out from the album, on certain occasion you could hear that.