Matricide - 5:21
In Memory - 7:05
Silent Hedges/Double Dare - 4:41
Sorrowed Man - 5:28
Nevermore
in memory
| Optimist or Pessimist - 3:38 Matricide - 5:21 In Memory - 7:05 Silent Hedges/Double Dare - 4:41 Sorrowed Man - 5:28 |
|
| I'm not what you would call an EP man.
Yeah, ok...perhaps I just made up this little term, but in all honesty, I am not someone
who owns a vast library of EP's - this is my only one; several reasons for this
deprivation, some including, for example, that most bands I listen to don't have EP's, and
so forth. But Nevermore being an extremely recent, not to mention pleasant, discovery of
mine, I of course knew that they indeed had an EP out right here in the states. And being
so pleased with both the debut and their newest 'Dreaming Neon Black', I just assumed that
anything in between would not disappoint either. Turns out I was right... 5 songs, and 26:13 minutes of music, the biggest flaw being the production, which quite simply sucks. There's no other word for it - it's bad. 'Dreaming Neon Black' had that cold, sterile thing going for it, and the debut simply sounded clean and crisp - well, none of that here. The sound here is very muddled, and required several extra volume levels to sound discernible; which is a damn shame, really, cause it's pretty much the only thing that keeps the disc from getting a 9+...the other problem is that this is simply too damn short - but what can you do? After all, such is an EP... Music, for one however is certainly not riddled with any problems! Imagine a darker, but more melodic and polished sound of the debut, and you pretty much have it there. There's barely any thrash here at all, nevermind any crazy, moshing madness - what there is however, is deep and very well written music, as only Nevermore would do. This being 1996, Nevermore welcomed a second guitarist into the fold, so you can expect some serious twin guitar attack here. And to top it all off, Dane's vocals are great as usual; no surprise there. |
As I happened to mention,
there are 5 songs here, all of them being up to the point of being considered a highlight.
The pounding "Optimist or Pessimist" starts things off VERY nicely, and is
especially notable for it's fast and groovy chorus and some great, shredding solos. With
"Matricide", we see Nevermore going environmental - but that's no problem - it's
a splendid, melodic mid-tempo piece, not unlike some 80's Megadeth and Metallica. The
title track, at 7+ minutes the longest song on the album, and features numerous pace
changes on top of the driving bass-work; and the last track "Sorrowed Man" is
THE highlight of the album for me - an incredible emotional, acoustic/electric/no drums
power ballad with Dane delivering a particularly yearning performance; terrific song,
quite similar to some of Queensryche's better ballads. My rating - 8.4 |