Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dead heart in a deaf world, April 7, 2005
For several years now I have found myself increasingly irritated that a band of this quality is barely able to live from its music. If ever there was an injustice in the music world, Nevermore would be top of the list of cases to be reviewed. For over ten years these four musicians (occasionally five with in and out second guitarists) have released some of the best metal around and yet singer Warrel Dane - to name but one - still has to work as a chef to make ends meet. This makes Nevermore's dedication all the more commendable.
Nevermore provides some of the most intense, heavy riffing this side of death metal. It provides beutifully intricate guitar work during lead breaks or more moody moments. Jeff Loomis (guitars) must be the world's most underrated guitarist playing in the world's most underrated band. The rhythm section are a public menace and Warrel's vocals are the most versatile and passionate your likely to hear in the genre. Oh, and the lyrics are to cry for - or is it die for? A Nevermore album has a tendancy to leave the listener an emotional and physical wreck. Dead Heart is no exception. The atmosphere is heavy - often angry, often cynical and occasionally melancholic. Compositions are complex, yet catchy and the numerous melodic moments and slower time changes amongst the whirling tornado of guitars and drums provide desperately needed oxygen to survive the instensity being showcased here.
This album sees Nevermore at the top of its game, which is scary when one considers the impressiveness of all that has preceded from the eponymously titled debut to Politics of Ecstasy to Dreaming Neon Black. On this disc, instead of the usual classic build up into each song, Nevermore tend to go for an 'in your face' approach, generally attacking with a barrage of riffs and kick drums, rattling out like machine guns before taking the song through various, mezmerising twists and turns and mood breaks. Highlights are many. Indeed, it's impossible to single out tracks such is the overall standard on display.
No metal fan can omit Nevermore from his or her collection, especially not this album, without doing a serious injustice to the band members and to the metal movement generally. I'm just wondering when people will wake up and ensure that this band reaps some well overdue rewards for services rendered to music.
If all this sounds like a terrible exaggeration, I challenge you to pick this disc up and tell me I'm off target ...
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The words of the prophet were written on the subway walls..., April 5, 2005
Just for a little bit of background information, Nevermore were founded in the early 90's in Seattle. They are made up in part of former members of the thrash metal band Sanctuary, and one of the guys even tried out for Megadeth many years ago.
Nevermore's (I want to say) fourth masterpiece, 2000's Dead Heart in a Dead World, is hands down one of the top five albums in my CD collection. Very rarely does metal get better than this. One of the many things I love about this band is that they don't fall in to any particular genre - except for maybe very dark and very evil heavy metal. I've heard them labeled as many things - progressive, thrash, and even power metal - but none of those titles do the music justice. Sure, you have the ultra-melodic (but very wicked) vocals of Warrel Dane, which at times can also be very beautiful, but the distortion of the downtuned riffing coupled with the melodic soloing just discards any misconceptions about what the music is. It's just Nevermore. The closest thing you'll find is Iced Earth - but this band is a bit heavier, maybe a tad more raw. The guitar duties are handled by Jeff Loomis - and man is this guy awesome. He does a very beautiful, thrilling solo on "Believe in Nothing" that everyone simply must hear - but you also have to acknowledge his down-tuned riffing. Usually this is just a gimmicky effect nu-metal bands use to make their music sound heavy and raw - but Loomis spirals and weaves the technique into a work of art. I think their next album uses this a bit more than Dead..., but there's enough of it here (see "Inside Four Walls") to give you a taste of distortion done right.
The songs themselves are very powerful. I don't think there's a weak track on this album, despite the fact that some stand out more than others. These would probably be opener "Narcosynthesis" - a fast, wicked headbanger that features a truly remarkable chorus ("Turn my blood to sand..."). On first listen, my overall favorite was "Inside Four Walls", a very heavy song whose lyrics describe a faulty judicial system that put their friend in jail for drug possession. We also have accessible tracks like "Evolution 169" and "We Disintegrate" - both very heavy and melodic, two adjectives Nevermore are known for combining perfectly. The two more dramatic moments of DHIADW are probably the ballads - "Believe in Nothing", which I believe was chosen as a single and features a killer solo towards the end, and also one of my personal favorites, "The Heart Collector", a very dark melancholic type of song that also contains some memorable moments ("Nevermore to feel the pain/the Heart Collector sang"). Another very impressive moment is the Simon & Garfunkel cover of "The Sound of Silence" - which I believe was covered by another band also (I think it was Atrocity). Nevermore turn this song into a full-blown metalfest, and just hearing Dane scream ("the words of the prophet were written on the subway walls") is enough to hit the repeat button.
Overall, this is just a great experience that no metal fan should be without. I hope to get Enemies of Reality soon and if it's half as good as this I'll probably love it.
10/10
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not all bands from Seattle suck, October 25, 2004
Nevermore is a Metal band from Seattle. They became very popular after the release of the album Dead Heart In A Dead World. Although Nevermore is often described as a Power Metal band, labelling the music as Power Metal is far from correct. The music of Nevermore sounds to groovy, heavy and distorted to be compared with Power Metal bands such as Iced Earth. On one hand Dead Heart In A Dead World contains songs that are heavier than anything they have written before. On the other hand there are also plenty of songs that musically sound like ballads. Because the music is so diverse, it is fortunate that the vocals are also very diverse. Vocalist Warel Dane uses clean vocals, but his vocals range from high to low and from melodic to distorted. Jeff Loomis is a excellent guitar player. On the album he plays with a lot of groove, and also likes to play distorted riffs. The seven string guitars and the great production make this album sound heavier than earlier albums.
The songs are more vocal orientated than on previous albums. Fortunately the vocals and vocal-melodies are better than on earlier records. There is still a lot of musical firework. Just listen to the fast and technical melodic solos. These solo's are perfectly incorporated into the songs and therefore improve the songs. One of the standout tracks is "Inside For Walls". It is an up-tempo groovy song with catchy vocals and contains one of the best solos on the album. I also really like the power ballad "Believe In Nothing". The song "The Sound Of Silence" is a fast and furious played cover from Simon & Garfunkel. If you are interested in getting into Nevermore, then check out Dead Heart In A Dead World. It is their best album so far.
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