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This album is the return of one of the most inventive, promising and mostly original bands of today. Nevermore have offered in the recent past some monumental albums of modern open-minded powerful metal and fairly enough they are considered so big and successful. Three years after their last album, they came up under more tough circumstances this time: their budget was only the 1/3 of normal, because this was their last record with Century Media for the deal to get over (try to figure out this damn logic…). The pressure of the very low budget is unfortunately very obvious on this album. Nevermore have incredible skills and they are a very smart band to handle with such occasions and manage to deal with heavy pressure and they seem to be doing everything possible to keep the level high again. But the truth is that the production of this album is probably the worse they have done; it is weak and flat. Nevermore in this album appear angrier than ever, offering the most aggressive songs they have ever recorded. They continuously keep a tempo of violence through high speeds, thrashy riffs and fast and technical drumming. With the exception of “Tomorrow Turned Into Yesterday” which is a cheesy mellow ballad in the vein of “Believe To Nothing” from their previous work, the rest of the album is incredibly angry, chaotic and really furious. The charismatic vocalist Warrel Dane sounds like never before, far away from the passionate, dramatic and theatrical performances he had been doing in the past with just some exceptions. This way of performance of course suits perfectly on the music, but in my opinion it’s a shame to bury the skills of such a charismatic man just like that. To avoid misunderstandings, the album is pure Nevermore, but it just shows a different face of the band, a face full of anger and rage. There is no problem at all with such a choice, but in this case the interaction with the weak production brings up a result lower than the one Nevermore had got used us in the past. Other bands would have dreamed of making an album like “Enemies Of Reality”, but Nevermore have set some standards for themselves with their marvelous previous works and fortunately or not, these standards are going to hunt them for eternity, just like all successful bands. Some really outstanding songs are included here, though, like “Never Purify”, “I, Voyager” and the last one, “Seed Awakening” which I personally consider it to be one of their best songs ever. But in the end, when the album finishes what I personally feel, is some kind of confusion like I got attacked somehow. Going on a different point of view, the lyrics of Warrel are always remaining very intelligent and caustic, in the same vein he did it even with Sanctuary about 15 years before. Having to close, this album definitely worth attention, but it’s probably not the album that will completely fulfill the fans’ expectations. |
KJP / November 2003 |
