Music

Album Review: Nevermore ‘The Obsidian Conspiracy’

Published

14 years ago

June 8, 2010

Five years ago, an album came out that took over my CD player for the better half of the summer: ‘This Godless Endeavor’ by Seattle, Washington metal band Nevermore. To this day, it is considered to be one of the bands finest albums and I still blast it on the college campus, scaring the students (hey, it gives me a sick thrill, okay?). So, to say that I was excited for a new Nevermore album after a five-year wait is somewhat of an understatement. So, my thoughts on the album, you ask? Well, head on past the jump to find out!

The album starts out with ‘Termination Proclamation’, which opens up with a chaotic whirlwind of guitar riffing and drums that sound all over the place. It’s 25 seconds of pure, unadulterated fury. Suddenly, at the 26-second mark, all the music comes together with frightening clarity and precision to create what is sure to become a mosh pit event at all future Nevermore concerts. Warrel Dane’s soaring, theatrical vocals are just as powerful and commanding. The only way to describe how Warrel sings is to explain that it is like listening to Morgan Freeman or Christopher Lee tell a story: Either one could be talking about the most mundane subject and you would still be rapt with attention. It is one hell of a track that is a perfect way to start off ‘The Obsidian Conspiracy’: Nevermore is definitely back.

The production on the album is nigh well impeccable. Andy Sneap (Opeth, Megadeth, Killswitch Engage) reprised his mixing and mastering skills on this album just as he did with ‘Dead Heart in a Dead World’, ‘This Godless Endeavor’ and the reissue of ‘Enemies of Reality’. The 7-string guitars sound thick and enormous, the bass is present as a wall of low end that never muddies up the sound and still leaves room for the boom and thud of the drum toms and bass drum to come through with sharp clarity. Warrel’s vocals are beautifully tracked and the harmonies are mixed so well that it’s hard to hear them as separate entities. The album is also mixed very spaciously so, if you have good headphones, ease back and enjoy.

So, with all of these glowing comments, is there anything wrong with the album? Well, as fun and intense as these songs are, I feel that they don’t have the same ‘grab you by the throat’ feeling that ‘This Godless Endeavor’ gave me. It’s apparent that these guys know how to rock and anyone who says they can’t play is obviously completely unaware of how instruments work and the theory behind the music. But after five years, I was expecting something just a bit more ferocious. Perhaps I hyped myself up too much: I’m perfectly okay with believing that this is a possibility.

Overall, this album is a necessity for metal heads. It’s a great album to blast as you’re driving but be careful of the first 30 seconds of the title track: If it doesn’t get your blood boiling and the hair on the back of your neck to stand on end, you are quite obviously dead.

4.5 out of 5

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

1 week ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…