Nevermore

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Nevermore are a Progressive Metal band (with influences from every Metal sub-genre this side of Norway thrown into the mix) formed from the ashes of Power-Metallers Sanctuary in Seattle, 1991. They are noted for the blazing, technical lead guitar playing of Jeff Loomis, as well as frontman Warrel Dane's distinctively atonal and cynical singing style. Difficult to pigeonhole, the band tends towards the darker, more instrumentally complex sides of progressive music - though chaotic and heavy enough to compete with the most aggressive of thrash bands, they retain many more progressive aspects such as acoustic segments, classically influenced guitar arrangements and Dane's vocal delivery.

Vocalist Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard founded the band. They were veterans of Sanctuary, more or less a power metal group with thrash influences. Guitarist Jeff Loomis had recently quit a death metal band because he was sick of the vocal approach, and was accompanied by Guitarist Pat O'Brien, who would later quit to join Cannibal Corpse (his favorite band).

The band debuted in 1991. They then became more progressive with sophomore effort The Politics of Ecstacy, but otherwise, things remained the same.

Dreaming Neon Black took the progressive instrumentalism of TPoE and notched it down a bit, but the lyrics became far more ambitious. The album is a Concept Album, with lyrics about Dane's girlfriend, who got involved and a religious cult and is now Lost Forever.

However, the band's signature sound didn't settle until the release of Dead Heart in a Dead World in 2001, when Loomis busted out the detuned 7-string guitars and increased the pervasiveness of the Black and Death influences in their sound. However, the album was not without it's softer moments, and whilst these moments are generally agreed to fit on the record (and ballad "Believe In Nothing" is even a fan favorite), 2003's Enemies of Reality, the follow-up, is generally agreed to be their heaviest album overall.

Then, the band went for contrast. The result is 2005's This Godless Endeavor, which has soft moments again (The first halves of "Sentient 6", "A Future Uncertain", and the TitleTrack), but the heavy parts of the album (everything else) got even heavier. This album made many Metal Magazines "Top X Albums of the Year" and "Top X Albums of the Decade" lists.

Then they toured for it. And toured for it. And toured for it.

The intense workout they got from having to play all those songs night after night lead to their most recent effort, The Obsidian Conspiracy, which, whilst still plenty Cynical and Heavy, is becoming regarded as something of a Breather Episode.

It would've been interesting to see where the band went next: Softer? Heavier? More progressive? Even lower guitar tunings? But then Loomis and Drummer Van Williams quit, to the fans' dismay.

Singer Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard are the only current members of Nevermore.

Discography:

• Nevermore (1995)
• The Politics Of Ecstasy (1996)
• Dreaming Neon Black (1999)
• Dead Heart In A Dead World (2000)
• Enemies Of Reality (2003)
• This Godless Endeavour (2005)
• The Obsidian Conspiracy (2010)

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Tropes associated with Nevermore:

• Album Title Drop: All of their albums, however, the words "Neon Black" were dropped into the lyrics of their cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence".
• Ballad of X: "Timothy Leary" from The Politics of Ecstacy (which is the title of a Timoth Leary book. The album also has a title track!
• Concept Album: Dreaming Neon Black is this: it's about the supposedly true tale of Dane's ex-girlfriend, who got caught up in a Relgious Cult and was never heard from again.
• Cover Version: "The Sound of Silence" subverts this- the lyrics are the same, but the music is all original. (See In the Style Of below)
• Early Installment Weirdness: This happens to everything from Dreaming Neon Black backwards if someone listens to anything from Dead Heart In A Dead World onward first. The first three albums are best described as Progressive-Post-Thrash. Everything after is that, but Cranked Up To 11. This can also apply toa few tracks on Nevermore, which just sound like really heavy Grunge.
• Epic Rocking: They've had a few long songs - The Politics Of Ecstasy and This Godless Endeavour both have notably extensive title tracks.
• Harsh Vocals: Considering the Extreme metal influences on everything in the post-Dead World-era, this is suprisingly Averted. Played straight on "Born" from This Godless Endeavor.
• In the Style Of: "The Sound of Silence" In The Style Of Nevermore! What.
• Large Ham: Warrel.
• Metal Scream: Dane's been known to pull off a few of the high wails, though they were more common in his Sanctuary days. Recent Nevermore material occasionally showcases more harsh, aggressive vocalization bordering on the kind displayed in extreme metal.
• Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Generally around a 7 or 8, with some material as low as 2 and some sections (particularly on the more recent material) pushing towards 9/10 with brutal 7-string riffs and snarled vocals.
• New Sound Album: Dead Heart In A Dead World. The next album Enemies of Reality Cranks That One Up To Eleven. This Godless Endeavor does the exact same thing to Enemies of Reality.
• Protest Song: A lot of their stuff.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Warrel's lyrics are almost anviliciously cynical, which fits the band's generally dark tone.
• Uncommon Time: Inevitable for a prog metal act. While not as extreme as some, they've pulled off some tricky examples such as the main riff to Psalm Of Lydia.
• Self-Backing Vocalist: Who ELSE can back Warrel Dane? They use samples live for him to harmonize to.
• Self-Titled Album: Their debut album.
• Take That: Their Protest Songs are usually Framed as this towards Government, Religion, and the Advance of Technology.
• The Band Minus the Face: If they do continue, Nevermore will not be the same without Van's drumming, or, more importantly, Jeff Loomis' guitar playing. Thus, this trope arguably comes into play.
• Wham! Episode: Jeff and Van quitting.
• Word Salad Title: "Dreaming Neon Black" amongst many, many others.
• Word Salad Lyrics: Warrel Dane's attempts to put together cryptic but meaningful lyrics fails sometimes.