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Nevermore

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For the Queen song of the same name, see Nevermore (song)
For the Edgar Allan Poe poem featuring the word, see "The Raven"
Nevermore

Nevermore is an American metal band from Seattle, Washington assembled in 1991 from the ashes of the power metal band Sanctuary. The band incorporates elements from styles such as thrash, death, progressive and even neo-classical metal into their songs, and also makes use of acoustic guitars and a wide range of vocal styles.

Biography

Nevermore started in the beginning of the 1990s, when the band Sanctuary was pressured by its recording label to change its musical style, switching from heavy metal to grunge, which was obtaining mainstream success at the time due to bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Two members of the band—vocalist Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard—didn't agree with the change, and thus proceeded to create a project of their own: Nevermore.

By the end of 1994, the band assumed a stable line-up, which saw the additions of drummer Van Williams and former Sanctuary touring guitarist Jeff Loomis. In 1995 Nevermore released its debut album through Century Media Records. This album received much attention and specialized review, as its release was followed by a European tour with Blind Guardian and a North American tour with Death, both internationally-renowned bands.

Second guitarist Pat O'Brien joined the band prior to the release of the EP In Memory and also took part in the recording of the subsequent album The Politics of Ecstasy, both from 1996. O'Brien left Nevermore to play in Cannibal Corpse, and guitarist Tim Calvert (who played for the band Forbidden), who had previously contributed to Nevermore through songwriting, replaced O'Brien as Nevermore's guitarist.

Three years without releases followed, but in 1999, the album Dreaming Neon Black was released. Highly acclaimed, the album narrates the story of a man's slow decline into madness, subsequent to the death of the only woman he ever loved. The tracks of this album are varied in style, ranging from slow and melodic to aggressive and progressive. Warrel Dane put much effort in interpretation, emitting varied emotions from his vocals. The album's lyrics are a partially true retelling of the events Dane underwent after the vanishing of his long-time girlfriend.

A long tour with several concerts followed, and Nevermore played together with bands such as Mercyful Fate, Arch Enemy, Iced Earth, and Opeth. After the end of the tour, in 2000, guitarist Tim Calvert announced his departure from the band, subsequent to his marriage. Instead of finding a replacement, the band decided to continue as a quartet, only adding session guitarists for live appearances, such as Curran Murphy (who went on to play in Annihilator) and Jag Panzer's Chris Broderick.

Nevermore proceeded to record Dead Heart in a Dead World, which was followed by tours with several bands, most notably with Savatage in 2001.

The band's fifth album, Enemies of Reality, remained in production for over a year, and was released in 2003. This album faced much criticism for its production and was re-released in 2005, after being remixed by Andy Sneap. On tour, the band was joined by second lead guitarist Steve Smyth, formerly of Vicious Rumors and Testament; Smyth was eventually added to the line-up on a permanent basis.

A sixth album, This Godless Endeavor, was released in July of 2005. Nevermore then toured on Dave Mustaine's Gigantour during the summer of 2005. In 2006 they toured with Disturbed and also as direct support to In Flames on the second leg of its North American tour.

2006 held a bit of bad luck for Nevermore, as bassist Jim Sheppard underwent a procedure for Crohn's disease, which he has suffered from for over 15 years, and guitarist Steve Smyth was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, and had to get a kidney transplant.[1] Warrel Dane had previously developed type 2 diabetes, and the band was forced to cancel their show in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on May 13, 2006, due to an unspecified illness afflicting Dane.

On September 12, 2006, Nevermore was supposed to record its first full length DVD live at the Zeche club in Bochum, Germany. This event was to be captured by 7 cameras and the live recording was to be produced by Andy Sneap. However, according to Nevermore's official website, on the day of the show, Warrel Dane fell ill with an infection, eventually resulting in the necessity of seeing a doctor at a hospital in Dortmund, Germany. Doctors insisted that he be kept at the hospital and the show was canceled that evening. Apologetic to their fans, Nevermore agreed with the local venue to perform the show on October 11, 2006. The double DVD set will also include a Nevermore documentary, all of the band's promo videos and past recordings from their 11 year career. This DVD is expected to be released sometime in 2008. A new album is also being written.

On August 30, 2007, it was announced that Steve Smyth would no longer be a member of the band, citing personal and business reasons for the departure.[2] He stated that he would also be touring with Danish metal band Hatesphere as they supported Behemoth and later Dimmu Borgir, and would also be working on the release of The Esseness Project, an all-instrumental progressive rock album.

At the moment Nevermore seems to be taking a bit of a hiatus, as Jeff Loomis and Warrel Dane are both at work on solo albums, but a new album is apparently on the back burner.

Genre

Nevermore incorporates elements from a variety of genres, which makes it difficult to categorize Nevermore's music.[3][4] Their sound includes elements of power metal, thrash metal, progressive metal, traditional heavy metal, amongst others.[5][6] They also have used death metal traits such as low tuned and fast paced riffing, and the 2005 record This Godless Endeavor occasionally featured vocals clearly influenced by death metal. [7] The press have used several other genres to describe Nevermore's sound including groove metal,[8] technical speed metal,[9] technical thrash metal,[9] progressive power/thrash metal,[4] death/thrash metal,[10] and melodic thrash metal.[10] In an interview at Metalmania in 2006 singer Warrel Dane doesn't explicitly disagree with the many genres the band has been put in over the years, but he does however say "I don't think we're power metal".[11]

Members

Current members

Former members

  • Mark Arrington - drums, percussion (1991–1995)
  • Adam Gardner - alternative percusion (live, 1991–1995)
  • Pat O'Brien - rhythm guitars (1995–1996)
  • Tim Calvert - rhythm guitars (1997–2000)
  • Curran Murphy - rhythm guitars (live, 2002–2004)
  • Steve Smyth - lead & rhythm guitars (2004–2007)

Live Members

Discography

Note: All Nevermore releases are distributed through Century Media Records

Other releases

  • Utopia (demo, 1992)
  • Demo 1994 (demo, 1994)
  • Believe In Nothing (single, 2000)

References

  1. ^ The Official Nevermore website :: This Godless Endeavor
  2. ^ BLABBERMOUTH.NET - Guitarist STEVE SMYTH Parts Ways With NEVERMORE
  3. ^ www.metal-observer.com "NEVERMORE had never been a band that was easy to classify."
  4. ^ a b www.metal-observer.com "If you’re unfamiliar with NEVERMORE’s music, they play…umm…Progressive Power/Thrash Metal? Progressive because they manage to incorporate ‘outside’ influences, odd time signatures, classical influences and strange chords. Power because, Warrel Dane sings (more on that later) and Thrash because of the heaviness. Even then, NEVERMORE still manages to forge their own sound, classifications and genres be damned."
  5. ^ allmusic.com "Nevermore straddles the line between power metal, traditional heavy metal, and the contemporary hard rock scene, eschewing the silly theatrics of the "power scene" in favor of a darker tone, while reaping the rewards of melody and the high-flying vocal range of singer Warrel Dane ... Nevermore entered a Texas studio with producer Andy Sneap and crafted a new album that adeptly blended contemporary heavy sounds with traditional heavy metal."
  6. ^ www.popmatters.com "Steeped heavily in the classic elements of traditional metal, and adding more contemporary touches of post-thrash/post-death metal ... The band's blend of traditional and modern sounds is fascinating: traces of '80s progressive metal greats such as Queensryche, Savatage, and Fates Warning are easily detectable in their compositions ... The resulting sound is one of impressive brutality and technical dexterity, yet it remains remarkably accessible throughout ... Nevermore has not sounded this ferocious in many years, the entire band taking on a death metal form, Dane temporarily eschewing his soaring vocals for a more extreme metal growl ... "A Future Uncertain" begins by hinting at the doom metal of Candlemass, but soon explodes out of the gate at a breakneck thrash metal pace..."
  7. ^ www.metal-observer.com "If you’re a long time fan you’ve probably noticed that their catchy and melodic approach is taking a seat back for every record, for these new songs the Death Metal influences that’s been boiling up inside the band has finally been released, it’s a challenging record even for Warrel who does a few growls or something close to it, yet the catchiness remains and is not forsaken ... More Death Metal choppings become the backbone of the tech thrashing “Psalm Of Lydia” which also has some freakish start/stop timing in the verses. “A Future Uncertain” begins with acoustic guitar oddly taking me back to MAIDEN’s “The X Factor”, how far out is that… oh yes, there’s more Death Metal riffing in the middle of the song."
  8. ^ Encyclopaedia Metallum "Power/thrash metal (early), Groove/progressive metal (later)"
  9. ^ a b www.rockdetector.com "Seattle based, technical Speed Metal outfit NEVERMORE was created in 1992 ... by this stage totally succumbed to NEVERMORE's brand of technical Thrash ..."
  10. ^ a b www.metal-observer.com "Some people would say that NEVERMORE is a Power Metal band, which makes them the biggest laughing stock of all! ... NEVERMORE is a Melodic Thrash sounding mammoth that runs all over you every time they release an album, SANCTUARY may have had more to do with Power Metal ... Pat O’Brien’s (CANNIBAL CORPSE) influence and writing approach makes most of the album sound pretty much like Thrash/Death Metal ... This album also sees the band venturing into progressive song structures (see “The Learning”, “Passenger”, “42147” and the title track)."
  11. ^ [1](Interviewer asks: "What would you classify your music style?" Dane responds:)"I have no idea. people call us thrash metal, people call us power metal, people call us progressive metal, people call us progressive death metal... I don't know what the hell to call us. I think that we pretty much carved out our own niche and I think that it's very tough to categorize what our music does sound like because I've heard so many opinions on what it is. All I know is I don't think we're power metal"
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