Nevermore – This Godless Endeavor
Author: Dan Roem
This Godless Endeavor is pure nihilism at its finest, darkest, ugliest, and most epic.
Many long-time Nevermore fans may look at This Godless Endeavor as the logical follow-up to Dreaming Neon Black they have long waited for. New fans may see this album as just myriad of swirling melodies neatly twisting and weaving their ways around the absolutely punishing seven-string majesty of the driving rhythm guitars. “Born” opens with a pounding snare drum courtesy of Van Williams, machine-gun guitars by Jeff Loomis and former Testament axeman Steve Smyth, and a rock-solid bottom line bass thanks to band co-founder Jim Sheppard. Nevermore explore new areas here, as vocalist Warrel Dane actually lays down *gasp* harsh vocals! They quickly end though, at which point the album turns into classic Nevermore – a huge chorus, crisp, well-mechanized drum beats, and an overall “thud” that raises the hairs on arms.
As a whole, This Godless Endeavor explores the best of Nevermore’s past while incorporating fresh ideas and does it thoroughly. “Final Product” is exactly what Neverheadz would hope for from the band – apocalyptic lyrics calling out the media, the government, and religion, blistering-fast double bass into a Clydesdale-stomp rhythm, and possibly one of Loomis’ finest solos since The Death of Passion. Lyrically, Sentient6 picks up where The Learning, the final opus from 1996’s The Politics of Ecstasy, ended, with a machine obtaining consciousness. However, the machine turns on his creators (man) after realizing they are not perfect, at which point Sentient number six goes on a genocidal killing spree. In other words – classic Nevermore. Musically, the sound is of its own, with a dark, heavy, and eerie piano opening. The rhythm section starts slow, but eventually builds to a mighty climax that even stops at a moment as Dane drops some backwards lyrics, in the same creepy way Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd did back in the day.
The main highlight of the latter half of the album before the mandatory self-titled monster closer comes with Sell My Heart for Stones. Lyrically and musically, this track is straight-up Dreaming Neon Black in every way one could imagine, though oddly enough, it was not even written by Loomis; it was written by new-comer Smyth. Melancholy, gothic, and down-right depressing, this despair-ridden song seems to harp back to the prevailing sadness of the middle Dreaming Neon Black tracks, yet it inspires as much awe today as those tracks did six years ago. This Godless Endeavor’s grand finale is more or less Warrel’s vision for the apocalypse; the struggle of humanity to find something it can identify with. Over all, it’s a conscience-shaker that may make the queasier Nevermore fans still holding dogmatic faith to stutter before reciting the refrain (”Godless are we”). An acoustic beginning diving into a familiar Nevermore crunch after a minute or so treats the listener at first, but savagery similar to the brute force displayed on the self-titled track from Dead Heart in a Dead World rattles its ugly head when the song eventually kicks into high gear. The grandiose ending brings back a high-pitch shrill last heard on “Poison Godmachine”, but it comes out in a “Believe in Nothing” type of way.
Virtually every metal critic in the business praises this album, giving it the highest of high marks in most cases. There’s a reason for this – this album is quite possibly the defining masterpiece of this band’s storied career. If it wasn’t for the fact that Nevermore’s past works (The Politics of Ecstasy and Dreaming Neon Black in particular) were just such classics in their own rights, this could be called the quintessential, modern-day, American metal album. Any which way you slice it, one thing remains constant – just when you think Nevermore couldn’t get any better, they release an absolutely triumphant epic that kicks you in the dick for being so na�ve.
10/10
Website: www.nevermore.tk
Label: Century Media
(+10 rating, 2 votes)
