Search - Nevermore :: Enemies of Reality

Is the DVD Bonus Material Worth It?

Snow Leopard | Urbana, IL | 12/10/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Before reviewing the music on this disc, a couple of housekeeping items are necessary.



First, this album was released in 2003 with mastering that nearly everyone found bad. In 2005, it was remastered, and re-released. Whatever the merits of either disc, the reason to bring this up here is so you know there are two versions.



Second, there are four versions of this disc listed at Amazon, and their editorial descriptions seem more confusing than helpful. This particular version is the re-mixed version and includes bonus materials (supposedly 3 videos + 2 songs), but what those videos might be is hard to determine. (Even Nevermore's site doesn't seem to have an answer.) Also, as an import, it's really rather expensive. If the 2008 re-release happens to have the same five extra items, that'd be a much less expensive investment. But, just be sure to confirm that they are the same. (It's the exorbitant price that knocks this item down two stars; by all means, get the music, just not in this pressing.)



However, with that said:



"Enemies of Reality" is typically thought of as Nevermore's "pure thrash" album--all killer, no filler, and clocking in at barely over 40 minutes. And while it is true that it is short and does have some of the fastest shredding by Nevermore, it really is more than merely a thrash album. Also, this tends to be hardcore fan's least favorite Nevermore album, because of how "narrowly" it focuses on its project here. This is not a criticism, of course, but if you are looking forward to "Dead Heart in a Dead World II" or "Dreaming Neon Black Again," then you may be setting yourself up not to like this disc.



"Enemies of Reality," at 5'11", opens with a slow, chaotic sounding fade in, but once it arrives, throws down the gauntlet immediately, launching into frantic riff that almost immediately gives way to a rolling triplet kind of guitar line that will be a staple of this disc. (There are short solos and moments of crushing bridge work all over this disc, such as 1'26" here). The chorus, however, is broad, melodic and not the pure thrash one might expect from this album's reputation. When the main riff returns, with its aggression amped up at 2'20", Dane's lyrics are appropriately even more unhinged. At 3'08" comes the album's first solo (complete, as always with a new, grind-tripleted riff to accompany it). Loomis wastes no time and provides an earful of what he can do. That proves to be the "soulful" solo, however. The music jumps over to agonized howling by Dane, and then gets out of the way of the "fast" solo starts, with the drummer seemingly matching Loomis' blazing notes on double bass. The line is a jagged, ultra-fast descending thing, that Loomis then doubles--and not only is it a clear tour de force, it also sounds cool.



"Ambivalent," at 4'12", starts with ripping descending guitar lines, then plays with start/stop lines and a band-harmonized coda before returning to pure pummeling. The solo is in three parts here: a racing linear line over the main riff, which then becomes (the riff does) pounded chords with gaps. It's a great, unexpected transition and the solo rails over the top of it, just slightly Eastern and convincingly grand. The music returns to the opening again, but the solo doesn't stop and goes on over relentlessly pummeling drums and blistering rhythm guitar.



"Never Purify," at 4'03", seems to drop into the middle of a song already underway, with an almost hymn-like chorus, that gives way to an alternating heavy, linear/bent guitar line and crazed arpeggios. The solo (introduced by a bridge with too many ideas to describe) sets up another racing solo with some of the longest arpeggios I have ever heard (longest meaning from low to high notes). The formula here is one Loomis will display on his solo album extensively as well (introducing numerous ideas, and then recombining them in various ways), it's just that the ideas come so fast and frequently that there's never time to settle in or become bored.



"Tomorrow Turned into Yesterday," at 4'35", slows things down considerably, and is about as close to a ballad as this disc manages (save for "Who Decides"), with Dane down in his Layne Staley range. The band hangs out in this mood surprisingly long, until at 2'52" a new, nastier riff is introduced for the guitar solo, which continues over a vocal-less verse. This is definitely not one of the better songs on the disc, even with the wicked final (new) riff that ends it.



"I, Voyager," at 5'48", drops immediately into a classic warp-speed thrash, but then as the vocals come in, somehow there's a change that makes the whole thing become almost epic in scope (bass, guitar, and drums all conspire as Dane's harmonized vocals float above). A pre-chorus sets up another melodic chorus, then slides back off to the gorgeous monstrousness of the main riff. At 3'06", the riff for the chorus dissonantly smashes into things, with the solo itself alternating high and low on the guitar neck (it sounds like it should only be playable on separate tracks, but Loomis probably played it in one take). Verse chorus to the end. Awesome.



"Create the Infinite," at 3'38", is one of the shortest, yet most satisfying songs on this disc. It opens with a crazy quasi-arpeggiated "melody," then gives way to especially harsh and unhinged stop/start guitar line that pummels along as Dane sneeringly delivers his lyrics, belligerently avoiding any relationship to the music now and in the chorus. Along the way, Loomis keeps reinventing the licks he's already laid down, only adding yet more interest to an already ridiculously captivating song. And then the solo, suddenly an acoustic miasma, totally unexpected, but giving way satisfyingly to another brutal, circular riff. Wicked. Wicked, wicked, wicked.



"Who Decides," at 4'15", starts with unsettling eeriness, blasts to pieces, and then just as quickly becomes a slow, ballad-like epic. The verse opts for minor key acoustic guitar, with the chorus in slow, very down-tuned guitars, with Dane's voice lushly harmonized. Very gorgeous, and cleverly smashed at the end by some sudden, purely wicked thrash, totally dispelling the mood of the song in its last 27 seconds.



"Noumenon," at 4'37", which begins with a sitar to indicate psychedelia, is perhaps the oddest song Nevermore has ever done. Definitely not thrash, and shifting through acoustic classical bits, wild dissonance, and obscure, mystic lyrics and moods, heavy guitar accents, and nervous jittery "shivering" guitars, plus one of the fastest solos on the disc, almost wholly lost in the mix, this is almost a pastiche more than a song, and yet it hangs together anyway. ("There is no stronger drug than reality.") Noumenon means, by the way, "a posited object or event as it appears in itself independent of perception or senses"; it is the "opposite" of a phenomenon.



"Seed Awakening," at 4"30", starts with another masterpiece of wiggy guitar. From the harsh opening, the music starts to fill out, only to go back to simple again at the verse. Clarity and distortion then alternate, with the solo coming on at 250 miles per hour. At 3'59" the song ends officially, but a cutesy sitar and echoing bass drum noodle a bit on the bade-out to end the album.



This is a powerful kicker of an album. Although short, there are probably more notes in it than most full-length discs. I enthusiastically recommend it, just be sure you're getting the one you expect beforehand, and don't expect it to sound like "Politics of Ecstasy" or "This Godless Endeavor".

"