After issuing three excellent albums since their formation in 1992,
Nevermore's fourth release "Dead
Heart in A Dead World" really saw them hitting full stride. It's got everything that a modern metal album should have, heavy riffs, lightning fast solos, some of the tightest drumming ever heard and a superb production job by a certain Mr Andy Sneap.
Following on from the slower paced and emotionally heavy Dreaming Neon Black, Dead
Heart explodes from the speakers with its opening track
Narcosynthesis. The first thing that hits you is just how heavy this album is. The riffs are tuned down to maximise the low end and really strike you in the gut. But unlike many newer bands, who try and capture this sound it doesn't end up feeling like a bad hangover from those ugly days when Nu-Metal was considered cutting edge. The song also contains some stunning lead work, which shows why seven-stringer Jeff Loomis (who takes care of every last guitar track on this album single-handedly) is undoubtedly one of metals finest talents today.
Something must also be said for the superb vocals of Warrel Dane. The ex-Sanctuary man sounds in total control of his voice as shown on the next song
We Disintegrate, where he alternates between some terrifying high-pitched screams and low menacing vocals with the greatest of ease. This song also shows off the considerable talents of drummer Van Williams; just listen to that impossibly taut double bass below Warrels soaring vocals in the chorus. Its impressive stuff and it just gets better.
Third track
Behind Four Walls deals with the perceived injustice done by the American Judicial system. It appears to concern a specific person who is jailed for an offence which pales in comparison, but is dealt with just as harshly as more serious crimes. The groove ladened riff provides the perfect backdrop for Warrel to preach on one of his favourite subjects, how absolute power corrupts absolutely. He has no love for the police and courts and at one point extols "Is this justice? Is this the American way? NO!" While this may all seem a little clichéd, it's still certainly an excellent song with a fantastic solo at 2.42.
Evolution 169 slows things down a bit with its chiming melodic guitar parts and pounding drums and the album continues at this the pace with the epic
The River Dragon Has Come. This track's gently picked intro gets crushed under a bruising guitar part which soon gives way to the powerful vocals and drums but is always ready to pounce upon the unsuspecting listener. The head spinning guitar break mid-song is frightingly impressive and the song ends with some more superb high-pitched vocals which send a chill up your spine.
The Heart Collector is a personal favourite of mine. I've always been a sucker for a big fuck-off ballad and this is certainly up there with the best of them. The warm, melodic sound envelops you straight away and the lead guitar parts transport you to a higher plane before being brought back down to earth with the impassioned vocals which scream of heart ache and misery. I love the way that the song rises at the line
"The Heart Collector sings his song that's slowly boiling over" and allows the chorus to hit you with maximum effect. The solo section is again beautifully executed and as the song comes to a halt with its instrumental coda you find yourself reaching for the rewind button to experience it all again.
This song along with the two other ballads
Insignificant and
Believe in Nothing are the main reasons why I love this album. The sheer range of styles on offer is staggering and allows every emotion to be felt, from rage and fury at personal and political decisions that always seem to be beyond the listeners reach as suggested by songs such as
Engines of Hate, which contains spiteful lines like
"The sheep are made to follow, choke back the puke and swallow" and the title track
Dead Heart In a Dead World which prays for the world to
"burn your Gods and kill your King" to the melancholic realisation that nothing you can ever do will change the world (Insignificant). Special mention must go to
Believe in Nothing for being inspiring, beautiful and yet downbeat at the same time. Its more commercial "rock" stylings may seem at odds with the rest of the album to some but it really helps with the ebb and flow of the record as a whole.
One of the heaviest songs on the album is bizarrely a Simon and Garfunkle cover. Not that you would ever realise that's what it was as
Nevermore deconstruct their fellow Americans plaintive acoustic ballad and turn it into something much more ugly and apocalyptic. Warrel really takes lines like
"Hello darkness my old friend" to previously unexplored depths and the gentle strum of the original is replaced with torturous, wrenching guitar parts and crushing drumming. It's perhaps a strange inclusion in the face of it but the themes expressed are similar to those in the bands own songs and its radical reworking justifies its place on a remarkable record.
This album really is a fantastic achievement by a band who still continue to release some of the most innovative, forward thinking metal around. I highly would recommend that every metal fan has a place for it in their collection.
Written by
Stuart Thursday, October 18, 2007
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