Nevermore – Review

Nevermore

(Century Media)
by Scott Hefflon

If you read this review before hearing Nevermore for yourself, the full impact of the CD will be lost. Indulge me in reliving my initial responses for your reading pleasure. Folding laundry, or some such mundane task, I decided to preview a bunch of new releases that had just come in.

Century Media is dependably heavy and captivating, perfect for the task at hand, and seeing as how the logo was pretty legible, I guessed it was power metal. Yup. Slow, plodding, driving, and crushing with massive guitars… power metal. The vocalist has a wild snarl and a warble reminiscent of God-knows how many ’80s metal bands. The leads are blistering. The power builds, harmonies entice and by song two, I was digging for the bio to find out who these guys were. Flipping pages, vocals screeching, swooping guitars screaming, dive bombing, scaling the walls and pin-balling around the room… here it is.

Ah, ex-Sanctuary members. To some, that might explain it. I was never a great fan. Their cover of “White Rabbit” was incredible, but it ought to’ve been. Mustaine’s tasty riffs didn’t hurt either. Sanctuary rocked live with Megadeth, but that was ’88 Monsters of Rock and we were all so cranked up to cause bodily harm that we moshed to fuckin’ Warlock. (Did I just lose any shred of credibility I might’ve had?)

So Nevermore has ties with the glory (?) days of metal, but how will they fare in 1995? If the Queensrÿchian “Garden of Grey” is any indication, they should be able to hold their own. Wild tempo changes, hawkish vocals and harmony layering equivalent to King Diamond or Rob Halford: Warrel Dane pushes his screech farther than most would dare, and whoever this Jeff Loomis character is, this guy flies over the fretboard like a madman. This hot-shot is one to watch.

Admittedly, many of the songs stem from the progressive Seattle metal scene that spawned Queensrÿche. But they take it far more into metal than the now-Floydian Q ever did. Dane’s vocal style is guaranteed to keep the crows out of the cornfield.