*Gonzo* style review of: Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor ***(see below review for a brief discription of GONZO type writing, reporting, etc)***
-track ONE, BORN: Intro, Motor head. Lemmy would be proud. A bit of a sanctuary sound going at times..The solo is AWSOME...but extremely short. A great song all in all.
Vox, nothing less than amazing, WD, I salute you, you have a whole shave case full of voices dont you. How do you have room for your razors, cream, and after shave?
-track TWO, FINAL PRODUCT: Intro, Typical Jeff sound since DHIADW. 2nd Riff pretty much crushes ass, the third is a goody as well. Around 1:55 a super kick ass triplet riff pops out from nowhere to kill all. The solo around 2:40 is typical since DHIADW, good though, i like the use of the whammy. WD, you are the man. The outro riff smokes pot.
-track THREE, MY ACID WORDS: Best intro thus far. Very nice on that one. Alas, then we go back to the DHIADW sound again. Goddamn, that verse riff will yank your spine right from between your shoulder blades hey! Around 3:25 starts a super riff...far out if i may say..then, once agaion the DHIADW virus comes back and infests itself in jeff...again. But the solo thats over the riff, is pretty damn good, but short. Whats up Jeff, play a solo, not just a lead fill. Great outro, and WD, as usual, your a God.
-track FOUR, BITTERSWEET FEAST: Intro reminds me of The Learning (very good stuff). The volumn swell on the rythem axe is a great addition. Very doomy sounding riff coming from the axes..The way the axes at times puke the chords is awsome...BLAAAAH BLAAAH...The Vox is nothing short of amazing...two WD's are better than one it seems.Great Riff around 2:55. SUPURB solo, the squielch thing is a great sound, works well with the rest oif the instruments. Very clever of WD to mention HOLOCAUST OF THOUGHT a few numbers before you hear it...The outro, well. its lacking in everyway possible, im left a bit disapointed on the end.
-track FIVE, SENTIET SIX: Nice, creepy little intro, i like it. Very impressive lyrics, Oh yeah, WD once again steels a line from the late sixties, and makes it his own. The vox is as always, WD, nuff said on that. The lead around 3:10 one of the best thus far on this dics, even if it once again....TO FUCKING SHORT. Then to the keys, sounds good to me. The backward vox thing...nice. What? hahahaha....is that Hawkwind, Fu Man Chu, or Monster Magnet hahaha Good shit on the little space rock riff. hahaha. Ahh, but it is now progressivly mutateing on to a crusher of a riff. Good outro with the little PoE era style leads hanging onto the shirt tail of the number. Oh yeah, it sounds as if Van is beating the drum heads with fucking baseball bats. Well done Van, you O'l Sod you.
-track SIX, MEDICATED NATION: Intro, Am i lisening to DHIADW again? Ahh, the snake hiss sounding vox eh? And A whisper to boot, cant go wrong there W.Nice doomy sounding riff, really stands out. Wait a minute, WD, what the fuck? "All you feel and all you do, the med controls you" That line is lacking in every way possible. CHEESE SPREAD. The kind that comes in the aerosal can to boot. Plastic, fragile, beneath you Warrel, the line is. You should be ashamed of yourself. solo around 2:20, very nice, well done, progresses right along, the riff underneath the solo is top shelf. At times this one reminds me of RIVERDRAGON.....progressive in short spurts...kinda like the leads on this one...short spurts. I AM I AM IAM...is that AXL ROSE? Sounds good though. Nice touch WD. Terrible outro.
track SEVEN, THE HOLOCAUST OF THOUGHT: good stuff thru and thru. Death, TestAmenT, and Nevermore all rolled up on one. The best leads so far on the album....clear, creative, clever, etc..backbone on those chops...overall, it,much like the solos on this album, could have been much longer. But hey, its JIMS little solo piece, Perhaps Jeff is starting him out SLOW.
track EIGHT, SELL MY HEART FOR STONES: Ahhh, nice intro here...(i like intros and outros...and longer solos) well done.WD, your the best singer alive. Nice little flamingo lead fill. NIce job on the cymbols Van. Around 2:34 we find a great sounding solo, short....again, and a killer riff backing it up. Great stuff just after solo and into the verse. This one takes me back to the PoE and IM era. Good outro.
track NINE, THE PSALM OF LYDIA: Intro, Very nice, Super, Killer. Good lead fill, very good. KILLER verse riff, this is going somewhere.Great vox, supurb lyrics, you are a master WD. This tune is choked full...TO THE TEETH, with only the best riffage imaginable, good job all around. VELVET SLEEP, i loved it on DnB, i love it even more on this one. I do love that phrase. Love it. Wait, whats this? Am i on track 8 or 9...? Yeah, track 9. JEFF, WHY DID YOU FEEL the need to stick two flamingo type leads on two songs on the same album? Whats more is, the two aongs are back to back....you slipped on that one dude. You should have chucked the flamingo thingy on Sell my heart for......Jeff jeff jeff....The solo around 2:30 is PoE and beyond. That shit around 3:00 kicks ass too. Anyway, this one should have been the title track. "Nevermore, The Psalm Of Lydia" Yeah, i can see that. This track, is one of the best ever. A true Nevermore classic. The axes, the drums, the premise, WD, the whole 9 yrds, is top shelf. This one ranks right up there with The late great PoE. AMAZING number.
track TEN, A FUTUIRE UNCERTAIN: Nice, oh yeah (even if that great riff does sound as if Jeff had been listening to OPETH just before he plucked the strings on this one) WD, super...as always. ahh, i love the way WD calls back on SEED AWAKENING..nice touch. The WD duet with WD works rather well IMO. BtW, that little acoustic sounding 80's POP (yes POP) riff is a great intro to the heavy part of the number. Nice job, crushes. Haha "World Unborn", can anyone say DEMO from not a thousand winters ago, but a few....This is a really good song. Vox is top notch, lyrics well done, good job guys. Around 3:50 we a finde a very nice solo, which seems to clock in a bit longer than the norm for this album, jeffs fingers must not have been sore when he ripped this one. And then Nevermore does the Iced Earth slow sound, But much better than Fuck face Jon could ever pull off with his band of useless over rated cronies. but hey everyone knows iced earth, for the most part have only written one song, and they ripped it from Iron Maiden, who wrote only 3 songs. Anyway, back to what is important. Good song. Its a ballad, a crusher, a driver, etc good tunes good lyrics. Good drums as well.
track ELEVEN, THIS GODLESS ENDEAVOR: Reminds me of DHIADW title track subtract WD singing on this intro, subtract the scratchy record sound, and add a bit of Sabbaths Sab bloody Sab. Good deal. Good vox, oh yeah, its WD. Wait a minute, whats this line ive come accross here? WD, never let Jeff help you write lyrics, that guitar bleeding part, man, thats corny. Its not you. Does not sound like you, its just not. The first verse is outstanding though, heavy part very good yet familiar. WD says FUCK on two albums in a row...Whats up with that? Your more intellegant than that WD, im sure you could have came up with an alternative. SMYTH, Good solo, did Jeff write that one BtW.?Good riffing, Van, your from the planet drummer right? Our Organic Equation verse stands alone, very good from all sides. Thou shalt not question verse, lyrically, outstanding and the vox is as good. Loomis Solo, right from DHIADW, come on Jeffery. The last verse, lyrics just roll on..Some really good lyrics overall, excluding the bleeding guitar line...its shit. The vocalizing in the intro is almost as good as whats on the Ninth Gate Soundtrack. Great number here. I still say The Psalm Of Lydia is better, the best on the whole album, and the album should be re released with the things ive gripped about corrected.
To sum things up:
WD: The Best singer in the music industry.
Jeff: ONE, i say ONE, of the best axers alive.
Van: whats to say pal, your second only to R. Christy. But for Nevermore, your the only one who could be the drummer.
Jim: You are a Muskateer who can Jack-A-Bass-Off
Smyth: Lets just wait and see, although, the tune you and WD wrote is good stuff pal. IMO, you should die your hair, and shave the little goat tee thingy, cause WD already has your look.
In closing, do not think, even for a second, that my gripes on this album make it anything less than a 10+ on a scale from 1 to 5. Great effort, the best cd IMO of the 21st century thus far. Each number takes you to a different place. The album is all over the map, the timing is supurb, the cross overs into other genras, the creativity far surpasses anything out there right now. Just a damn good album. Each tune calls on past eras from Sanctuary to Eor (perhaps a bit too much calling back to DHIADW), and some new and creative sounds to boot. What more could a fan of Nevermore ask for, what more could a fan of music in general ask for? (other than longer solos) Also, i noticed and like the fact that the band name logo goes back to DnB.
Gonzo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Gonzo is a style of reportage, film making, or any form of multimedia production in which the reporter, filmmaker or creator is intrinsically enmeshed with the subject action (rather than being a passive observer).
Contents
[hide]
1 Origin
2 Other Uses
3 See also
4 References
[edit]
Origin
It's a misconception that the term was coined by Rolling Stone writer Hunter S. Thompson to describe his (often extreme) reporting. The word is attributed to Thompson, but it was first used by Boston Sunday Globe reporter Bill Cardoso who, after reading Thompson's infamous Scanlan Monthly article on the Kentucky Derby, proclaimed "That is pure Gonzo!" According to Cardoso, 'Gonzo' is South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after a drinking marathon.[1] Thompson himself would instigate events, often in a prankish or belligerent manner, and then document both his actions and those of others. The term has also come into (sometimes pejorative) use to describe journalism (or generally any writing) that is broadly in the vein of Thompson's writing, characterized by a drug-fueled, stream of consciousness technique.
[edit]
Other Uses
Gonzo also pertains to when a writer cannot remove himself from the subject he investigates. In some cases - such as tornado chasing, wherin most documenting is done by the person driving the car and holding the camera - the gonzo element is inherent. In most other cases, however, it is a deliberate and voluntary choice of the journalist (or the media firm he or she works for). Thompson felt that objectivism in journalism was a myth (even though he was often accused of being too objective - not keeping the bigger picture in mind). The term has now become a bona-fide style of writing that concerns itself with 'telling it like it is', not far from the New Journalism practised by Tom Wolfe and Terry Southern.
Similarly, in pornographic movies, "Gonzo" refers to productions where the camera operator or director takes an overt part in the action, either by talking to the actors or by being a performer himself. Such movies often eschew narrative and plot, opting (as Thompson did) to present a roughly contemporaneous account of "actual" events. The intention of this is partly to involve the audience in the action, in a manner similar to the theater technique of breaking the fourth wall, but it is also economical as no one has to remember any lines. The term "Gonzo", was first used in a pornographic context by the West Coast chain of porn stores owned by Bay Management. Bay Management operates porn stores primarily in California, and has a near monopoly in most markets. The initial amateur offerings of Buttman, Ed Powers, and others were dubbed "Gonzo."
It is interesting to note that the "Gonzo fist" has six fingers as opposed to the regular five. According to Gonzo.org, this is "...a symbol of freak power."
[edit]
See also
Gonzo journalism
Hunter S. Thompson
[edit]
References
^ Thompson, Hunter S. (1997). The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman. Villard. ISBN 0-67-940695-6.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo"
-track ONE, BORN: Intro, Motor head. Lemmy would be proud. A bit of a sanctuary sound going at times..The solo is AWSOME...but extremely short. A great song all in all.
Vox, nothing less than amazing, WD, I salute you, you have a whole shave case full of voices dont you. How do you have room for your razors, cream, and after shave?
-track TWO, FINAL PRODUCT: Intro, Typical Jeff sound since DHIADW. 2nd Riff pretty much crushes ass, the third is a goody as well. Around 1:55 a super kick ass triplet riff pops out from nowhere to kill all. The solo around 2:40 is typical since DHIADW, good though, i like the use of the whammy. WD, you are the man. The outro riff smokes pot.
-track THREE, MY ACID WORDS: Best intro thus far. Very nice on that one. Alas, then we go back to the DHIADW sound again. Goddamn, that verse riff will yank your spine right from between your shoulder blades hey! Around 3:25 starts a super riff...far out if i may say..then, once agaion the DHIADW virus comes back and infests itself in jeff...again. But the solo thats over the riff, is pretty damn good, but short. Whats up Jeff, play a solo, not just a lead fill. Great outro, and WD, as usual, your a God.
-track FOUR, BITTERSWEET FEAST: Intro reminds me of The Learning (very good stuff). The volumn swell on the rythem axe is a great addition. Very doomy sounding riff coming from the axes..The way the axes at times puke the chords is awsome...BLAAAAH BLAAAH...The Vox is nothing short of amazing...two WD's are better than one it seems.Great Riff around 2:55. SUPURB solo, the squielch thing is a great sound, works well with the rest oif the instruments. Very clever of WD to mention HOLOCAUST OF THOUGHT a few numbers before you hear it...The outro, well. its lacking in everyway possible, im left a bit disapointed on the end.
-track FIVE, SENTIET SIX: Nice, creepy little intro, i like it. Very impressive lyrics, Oh yeah, WD once again steels a line from the late sixties, and makes it his own. The vox is as always, WD, nuff said on that. The lead around 3:10 one of the best thus far on this dics, even if it once again....TO FUCKING SHORT. Then to the keys, sounds good to me. The backward vox thing...nice. What? hahahaha....is that Hawkwind, Fu Man Chu, or Monster Magnet hahaha Good shit on the little space rock riff. hahaha. Ahh, but it is now progressivly mutateing on to a crusher of a riff. Good outro with the little PoE era style leads hanging onto the shirt tail of the number. Oh yeah, it sounds as if Van is beating the drum heads with fucking baseball bats. Well done Van, you O'l Sod you.
-track SIX, MEDICATED NATION: Intro, Am i lisening to DHIADW again? Ahh, the snake hiss sounding vox eh? And A whisper to boot, cant go wrong there W.Nice doomy sounding riff, really stands out. Wait a minute, WD, what the fuck? "All you feel and all you do, the med controls you" That line is lacking in every way possible. CHEESE SPREAD. The kind that comes in the aerosal can to boot. Plastic, fragile, beneath you Warrel, the line is. You should be ashamed of yourself. solo around 2:20, very nice, well done, progresses right along, the riff underneath the solo is top shelf. At times this one reminds me of RIVERDRAGON.....progressive in short spurts...kinda like the leads on this one...short spurts. I AM I AM IAM...is that AXL ROSE? Sounds good though. Nice touch WD. Terrible outro.
track SEVEN, THE HOLOCAUST OF THOUGHT: good stuff thru and thru. Death, TestAmenT, and Nevermore all rolled up on one. The best leads so far on the album....clear, creative, clever, etc..backbone on those chops...overall, it,much like the solos on this album, could have been much longer. But hey, its JIMS little solo piece, Perhaps Jeff is starting him out SLOW.
track EIGHT, SELL MY HEART FOR STONES: Ahhh, nice intro here...(i like intros and outros...and longer solos) well done.WD, your the best singer alive. Nice little flamingo lead fill. NIce job on the cymbols Van. Around 2:34 we find a great sounding solo, short....again, and a killer riff backing it up. Great stuff just after solo and into the verse. This one takes me back to the PoE and IM era. Good outro.
track NINE, THE PSALM OF LYDIA: Intro, Very nice, Super, Killer. Good lead fill, very good. KILLER verse riff, this is going somewhere.Great vox, supurb lyrics, you are a master WD. This tune is choked full...TO THE TEETH, with only the best riffage imaginable, good job all around. VELVET SLEEP, i loved it on DnB, i love it even more on this one. I do love that phrase. Love it. Wait, whats this? Am i on track 8 or 9...? Yeah, track 9. JEFF, WHY DID YOU FEEL the need to stick two flamingo type leads on two songs on the same album? Whats more is, the two aongs are back to back....you slipped on that one dude. You should have chucked the flamingo thingy on Sell my heart for......Jeff jeff jeff....The solo around 2:30 is PoE and beyond. That shit around 3:00 kicks ass too. Anyway, this one should have been the title track. "Nevermore, The Psalm Of Lydia" Yeah, i can see that. This track, is one of the best ever. A true Nevermore classic. The axes, the drums, the premise, WD, the whole 9 yrds, is top shelf. This one ranks right up there with The late great PoE. AMAZING number.
track TEN, A FUTUIRE UNCERTAIN: Nice, oh yeah (even if that great riff does sound as if Jeff had been listening to OPETH just before he plucked the strings on this one) WD, super...as always. ahh, i love the way WD calls back on SEED AWAKENING..nice touch. The WD duet with WD works rather well IMO. BtW, that little acoustic sounding 80's POP (yes POP) riff is a great intro to the heavy part of the number. Nice job, crushes. Haha "World Unborn", can anyone say DEMO from not a thousand winters ago, but a few....This is a really good song. Vox is top notch, lyrics well done, good job guys. Around 3:50 we a finde a very nice solo, which seems to clock in a bit longer than the norm for this album, jeffs fingers must not have been sore when he ripped this one. And then Nevermore does the Iced Earth slow sound, But much better than Fuck face Jon could ever pull off with his band of useless over rated cronies. but hey everyone knows iced earth, for the most part have only written one song, and they ripped it from Iron Maiden, who wrote only 3 songs. Anyway, back to what is important. Good song. Its a ballad, a crusher, a driver, etc good tunes good lyrics. Good drums as well.
track ELEVEN, THIS GODLESS ENDEAVOR: Reminds me of DHIADW title track subtract WD singing on this intro, subtract the scratchy record sound, and add a bit of Sabbaths Sab bloody Sab. Good deal. Good vox, oh yeah, its WD. Wait a minute, whats this line ive come accross here? WD, never let Jeff help you write lyrics, that guitar bleeding part, man, thats corny. Its not you. Does not sound like you, its just not. The first verse is outstanding though, heavy part very good yet familiar. WD says FUCK on two albums in a row...Whats up with that? Your more intellegant than that WD, im sure you could have came up with an alternative. SMYTH, Good solo, did Jeff write that one BtW.?Good riffing, Van, your from the planet drummer right? Our Organic Equation verse stands alone, very good from all sides. Thou shalt not question verse, lyrically, outstanding and the vox is as good. Loomis Solo, right from DHIADW, come on Jeffery. The last verse, lyrics just roll on..Some really good lyrics overall, excluding the bleeding guitar line...its shit. The vocalizing in the intro is almost as good as whats on the Ninth Gate Soundtrack. Great number here. I still say The Psalm Of Lydia is better, the best on the whole album, and the album should be re released with the things ive gripped about corrected.
To sum things up:
WD: The Best singer in the music industry.
Jeff: ONE, i say ONE, of the best axers alive.
Van: whats to say pal, your second only to R. Christy. But for Nevermore, your the only one who could be the drummer.
Jim: You are a Muskateer who can Jack-A-Bass-Off
Smyth: Lets just wait and see, although, the tune you and WD wrote is good stuff pal. IMO, you should die your hair, and shave the little goat tee thingy, cause WD already has your look.
In closing, do not think, even for a second, that my gripes on this album make it anything less than a 10+ on a scale from 1 to 5. Great effort, the best cd IMO of the 21st century thus far. Each number takes you to a different place. The album is all over the map, the timing is supurb, the cross overs into other genras, the creativity far surpasses anything out there right now. Just a damn good album. Each tune calls on past eras from Sanctuary to Eor (perhaps a bit too much calling back to DHIADW), and some new and creative sounds to boot. What more could a fan of Nevermore ask for, what more could a fan of music in general ask for? (other than longer solos) Also, i noticed and like the fact that the band name logo goes back to DnB.
Gonzo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Gonzo is a style of reportage, film making, or any form of multimedia production in which the reporter, filmmaker or creator is intrinsically enmeshed with the subject action (rather than being a passive observer).
Contents
[hide]
1 Origin
2 Other Uses
3 See also
4 References
[edit]
Origin
It's a misconception that the term was coined by Rolling Stone writer Hunter S. Thompson to describe his (often extreme) reporting. The word is attributed to Thompson, but it was first used by Boston Sunday Globe reporter Bill Cardoso who, after reading Thompson's infamous Scanlan Monthly article on the Kentucky Derby, proclaimed "That is pure Gonzo!" According to Cardoso, 'Gonzo' is South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after a drinking marathon.[1] Thompson himself would instigate events, often in a prankish or belligerent manner, and then document both his actions and those of others. The term has also come into (sometimes pejorative) use to describe journalism (or generally any writing) that is broadly in the vein of Thompson's writing, characterized by a drug-fueled, stream of consciousness technique.
[edit]
Other Uses
Gonzo also pertains to when a writer cannot remove himself from the subject he investigates. In some cases - such as tornado chasing, wherin most documenting is done by the person driving the car and holding the camera - the gonzo element is inherent. In most other cases, however, it is a deliberate and voluntary choice of the journalist (or the media firm he or she works for). Thompson felt that objectivism in journalism was a myth (even though he was often accused of being too objective - not keeping the bigger picture in mind). The term has now become a bona-fide style of writing that concerns itself with 'telling it like it is', not far from the New Journalism practised by Tom Wolfe and Terry Southern.
Similarly, in pornographic movies, "Gonzo" refers to productions where the camera operator or director takes an overt part in the action, either by talking to the actors or by being a performer himself. Such movies often eschew narrative and plot, opting (as Thompson did) to present a roughly contemporaneous account of "actual" events. The intention of this is partly to involve the audience in the action, in a manner similar to the theater technique of breaking the fourth wall, but it is also economical as no one has to remember any lines. The term "Gonzo", was first used in a pornographic context by the West Coast chain of porn stores owned by Bay Management. Bay Management operates porn stores primarily in California, and has a near monopoly in most markets. The initial amateur offerings of Buttman, Ed Powers, and others were dubbed "Gonzo."
It is interesting to note that the "Gonzo fist" has six fingers as opposed to the regular five. According to Gonzo.org, this is "...a symbol of freak power."
[edit]
See also
Gonzo journalism
Hunter S. Thompson
[edit]
References
^ Thompson, Hunter S. (1997). The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman. Villard. ISBN 0-67-940695-6.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo"
