Nevermore - Enemies Of Reality
Century Media
Heavy / Thrash Metal
9 songs (40'49)
Release year: 2003
Nevermore, Century Media
Reviewed by Marty
Album of the month
With a title taken from a line in a David Cronenberg movie, Seattle's Nevermore presents us with Enemies Of Reality, their 5th full-length album. Clocking in at just over 40 minutes in length, this band proves that quality is always better than quantity as far their music goes. This long awaited follow up to the band's highly successful Dead Heart In A Dead World should silence any who doubted the band could ever top (or equal) that album. Enemies Of Reality is darker and even heavier than the band's last couple of releases and sees them getting back to more of the style of the Politics Of Ecstasy album. Produced by Kelly Gray (Queensryche), Nevermore proves that they can have a somewhat modern sound but still produce heavy metal music in it's purist form.

Every track is a virtual riff-fest with guitarist Jeff Loomis showing off his talents not only as a songwriter and rhythm guitarist but also as a great lead guitarist as well. Lots of shredding leads and other wild and fast riff changes can be found on almost every track. The band has maintained their trademark killer heavy but very abstract sound and Warrel Dane's performance is as good if not better than ever. I love his very charismatic scowl and prophetic vocal delivery that just seems to cut right through the band's wall of sound.

The opening track, the title track, Enemies Of Reality has a very wild and chaotic de-tuned wall of sound with awesome and fast drumming. I love the way Warrel delivers a great melodic chorus amidst all the chaos of the riffing. Ambivalent sees the band continuing the chaos with more fast riffing and very fast drumming. The song has some great riff breaks and more great shredding lead guitar and is in a word...intense! Never Purify has a catchiness to it all the while keeping with the extremely heavy and intense pace. The arrangements for this song are killer and it has a great chorus. The one song where the band slows down a bit and turns out a very melancholy performance is Tomorrow Turned Into Yesterday. This song is the equivalent of Believe In Nothing from the Dead Heart In A Dead World album and shows the band delivering one of the finest and catchiest songs they've ever done. This song is classic Nevermore with it's slowly building sound, great lyrics and phrasing and is instantly likeable. I, Voyager gets back to the fast riffing and lightning fast double bass drumming. Warrel Dane uses a slower tempo for the vocals over a killer fast musical tempo that is really fantastic. Create The Infinite sees the band playing very angry and heavy with chunky Metallica, Iced Earth style riffs. Who Decides is yet another intense and heavy track which uses some nice guitar harmonies and mixes of acoustic and rhythm guitar and sees Warrel asking questions about fate and the path of life that we are given or choose to take. The song breaks into some great fast speedy riffs towards the end of the track. Noumenon has an Eastern feel with it's speed effect on a narrative voice. Overall, it has more of a psychedelic and different tone to it with the endless chants of "There's no stronger drug than reality". A somewhat strange song and if I had to pick out a weaker track, this one would be it. The album ends with Seed Awakening and sees the use of the line "enemies of reality" again (something that's heard throughout the album). This is a great speed and thrash metal song that is both chaotic and melodic at the same time. The song also contains some mellower abstract interludes and a very melancholic style for the chorus.

This album has all the right accents on the riffs and vocal lines, lots of very fast changes and the word monotonous never enters your mind while listening to it. Overall, it's a very angry and intense album that really requires several listens to fully appreciate. The only real fault I can find with this album is with the production. It's somewhat muddy quality at times detracts a bit from what is otherwise a truly remarkable album. Nevermore is one of those bands that has such a characteristic sound that they are instantly recognizable. It's hard to say whether this is the band's best album. Whether or not it is, it's more than a worthy successor to Dead Heart In A Dead World and sees the band delivering time and time again, another great album and one more step closer to perfecting their craft. This album should finally put these guys into the big leagues. They've done their job time and time again, now it's time for the promotion of this band to be stepped up a notch. They deserve to be on a headlining tour instead of continuously opening for other bands. I'd say right now that Nevermore is just about heavy metal at it's finest. Combining a modern sound with classic metal elements and having one of the most charismatic vocalists in the business, they are at the top of their game.

Killing Songs :
Enemies Of Reality, Ambivalent, Never Purify, Tomorrow Turned Into Yesterday, I, Voyager and Who Decides
Marty quoted 92 / 100
Dylan quoted 95 / 100
Jeff quoted 75 / 100
Alex quoted 77 / 100
Jay quoted 82 / 100
Mike quoted 76 / 100
Aleksie quoted 90 / 100
Other albums by Nevermore that we have reviewed:
Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy reviewed by Aleksie and quoted 96 / 100
Nevermore - In Memory reviewed by Aleksie and quoted no quote
Nevermore - This Godless Endeavour reviewed by Aleksie and quoted 98 / 100
Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy reviewed by Brent and quoted 90 / 100
Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black reviewed by Aleksie and quoted 99 / 100
To see all 8 reviews click here
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