Deus Ex Alpha

01. Born
02. Final Product
03. My Acid Words
04. Bittersweet Feast
05. Sentient 6
06. Medicated Nation
07. The Holocaust of Thought
08. Sell My Heart for Stones
09. The Psalm of Lydia
10. A Future Uncertain
11. This Godless Endeavor

Smathers wrote:As you continue on your voyage towards musical utopia, on a perpetual search for The Prototype - a musical idea that epitomizes every facet of metal you know and love - you begin to understand what makes a band truly relevant and lasting. Bands that people will remember 15 years down the road - you can rant and rave all you want about novelty acts or your favorite flavor of the month, but it's the bands that stick with you throughout your musical evolution that are the true heroes. Nevermore is one of those bands. I can't claim to have been with them since the beginning (I first saw them live on their '01 tour with Opeth and Angel Dust), nor would they necessarily come up if asked to list off my favorite bands, but my respect and appreciation for their craft is unwavering. "This Godless Endeavor" is every bit as memorable, fusile, majestic, and most importantly, as consistant as anything they've ever done.

Fans that are familiar with this band don't need an aesthetic deconstruction of their sound, so I apologize if I'm stating the obvious. Conceptually, they project the anthemic grandeur and majesty of a classic/power metal band, and yet their actual execution and timbre has a post-thrash/death punch to it that is entirely void of the cheese factor that ultimately subsumes 80% of power/classic metal bands out there. Nevermore have forged a middle ground that thousands of likeminded bands have failed to achieve, and as result simply do NOT sound like anyone else - there is no genre, scene, or label that accurately portrays this band's music.

"This Godless Endeavor" is right on par with everything this band has put out - whether you like this more than "Dead Heart In A Dead World" or "Dreaming Neon Black" ultimately boils down to personal preference. This band has long since found their niche, an approach that is inherently progressive without forcing giant leaps between albums. The consistancy of this band is intimidating, almost to the point where some cynical fans might find their more recent material redundant and uninspiring when juxtaposed with their earth-shattering releases in the late 90's. However, the point is that it simply takes weeks of listening to an album and a dash of nostalgia for it to become a classic, and having already listened to this album for a couple weeks now I can confirm that its lasting power is through the roof, and the mighty choruses and guitar leads are as memorable as ever. I especially can't stop listening to the album's 9-minute title track, a beautiful opus with gradual build-ups, evolving choruses, instrumental bridges, and everything in between - a veritable survey of Nevermore's greatest moments, and a benchmark for comparing this album to their previous works.

Warrel Dane's haunting vocal melodies are as charismatic as ever, particularly in "Born", "Acid Words", and "This Godless Endeavor" - he has this way of grabbing the music below him and leveraging the whole thing into this eerie, serene, and yet epic plateau that is dripping with atmosphere. The power and grandiose of the whole spectacle is great. I can't help but feel like he ends up resorting to the same melodic motifs and snarl placement across several songs, as if I know which note he's about to hit, and yet despite all that, the varied musical concepts across several songs present refreshing varied contexts in which to interpret and contrast his voice. On the instrumental side of things, the drum attack is as adaptive and aggressive as ever, projecting thick, plodding double bass installments, sprinting thrash blasts, and a refreshing straightforwardness with hints of technicality to ultimately not detract from the whirlwind guitars and vocals.

For me, the true hero of "This Godless Endeavor" is guitarist Jeff Loomis ("No duh", you say). Of course the guy doesn't have anything left to prove as a guitarist, but he continues to captivate me with every passing album, and that's coming from a "drum-centered" listener. What amazes me is his sense of both rhythm and melody, for which he is equally adept - as such, he can project flowing Swedish melodic death, American thrash, and even some amazing finger taps that massage the mind. Case and point, listen to the solo in "Final Product" at 2:35, how beautiful is that? The title track also has some incredible fret dancing and tapping from 6:30 to 7:35 that have that flowing waveform texture that Reflux's Abasi does so well, as if Loomis is saying "Yo, I love all your tech wankery, but I've been doing this for years, buddy". Whereas any sane, run-of-the-mill guitarist would otherwise solos for 2 to 4 measures, Loomis develops solos as a song within a song, embarking on a solo as a means to augment the music concept rather than out of necessity.

"This Godless Endeavor" is everything you've come to expect from Nevermore and further solidifies their status as metal legends for the new millenium. Their music has the nostalgic charm of classic thrash/power metal acts, and has the impact and grit of modern metal's heaviest installments. They embody "metal" in the true sense of the word, possessing integrity and originality in their writing that few bands can hold a candle to. That's enough out of me, go buy this album already!

~[A]LTKJAY~ wrote:Others are:
Within Temptation - The Silent Force is coming out.


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