Published on Dec 29, 2003
The metallers from the deep south (well, Seattle, but that’s
deep to me) return with their most experimental album to date.
I’ve always been a big fan of Nevermore, and this was the album
that really opened my eyes to their musical and lyrical
intricacy.
The album starts on a strange note. The 0:46 intro track is
comprised of whirring helicopters, a heart monitor flatlining, and
a strange voice saying “We’ve been waiting for you.” Finally, we’re
hit with an exploding riff by lead guitarist Jeff Loomis, and the
supremely powerful vocals of Warrel Dane. From then on in, we’re
taken on a wild ride in this semi-concept album. From what I’ve
been able to piece together through painstaking hours of research
(or, more correctly, five minutes on a search engine) was that this
album tells the story of a man who’s love drowns in a lake, and he
slowly goes mad, and starts to blame things like religion and
politics. Finally, in the haunting finale, he commits suicide, by
throwing himself in the same lake his love fell into.
This entire album is very complex, both musically and lyrically.
Dane’s amazing voice can turn from melancholy lamenting over his
lost love, to his stern vocals, usually affiliated with cursing
something, to his fantastic falsettos, all within a matter of
seconds. Jeff Loomis continues to create some of the greatest, most
multilayered solos ever imaginable, and also making some ingenious
riffs.
Of the many highlights of this album, one of the main ones would
be the interesting “ballads”. I call them that simply because they
are not spine-shattering metal assaults. The two on this album
would be the title track, adeptly showcasing Dane’s vocal range,
and Loomis’ guitar virtuosity, and ‘The Lotus Eaters’, a
tear-jerking track, seemingly about a plea to God, with down-tuned
guitars, and Dane’s heart-wrenching singing over top.
But to balance out the album, we’d need to blistering metal!
This comes in almost all of the tracks, but the greats of these
would be ‘I Am the Dog’, a fast-paced track detailing the main
character’s descent into madness (“And everything I used to be/has
spiraled into insanity…”), and ‘Poison Godmachine’, a track
sounding very similar to their previous album, The Politics of
Ecstasy, with powerfully anti-media lyrics.
Much like all concept albums,
Dreaming Neon Black ends with the epic, haunting track
‘Forever’, in which the character decides to “join his love” by
“swimming through her”. His last words are the echoing “I’m
dreaming neon black”. Followed by a seven-minute silence. Finally,
just as the album is about to end, we here the helicopter blades,
and the sinister voice, saying triumphantly “We’ve been waiting for
you”. Simply majestic.
This is by far one of the better metal releases out their.
Loomis’ amazing guitar skills have placed him on many a metal fan’s
top 10 lists, while Dane is a marvelous vocalist. Nevermore does no
wrong with this CD, and by picking it up, you shall do no wrong
either.