Nevermore, I believe, have already reached the climax of their career. I'm not trolling and I'm not being negative about the new album, trust me. From what I heard so far, it's indeed ball-tingling and generally awesome.
But the problem with bands that's been around for the past twenty years or so is rather general: whenever they release a new piece of music, old-timer fans can't help comparing it to the old stuff, the stuff that made them BIG in the first place. And usually, such a comparison is futile and, even more to the point, not even possible.
A lot of factors are at play here, IMHO. First of all, as a dear friend once interjected, you can't be shitting best sellers all the time. Shit happens; you need to make a living, but your source of inspiration is mildly lackluster at the moment. So what do you do? Release something still within trademarks of your intellect but nowhere even near or even in the same zip code as your previous endeavours. The perfect example for this, at least to me, are Dream Theater(1985-2005). Yes, that is the year Octavarium was released. I'm not saying this can or will happen to NM, I'm just saying, in the vernacular, that some of your shit can't always be as good as the other. But I digress...
Secondly, you have to take into consideration the fact that not every band's or musician's development is linear and progressive - a bit like philosophy, in this sense. In general terms, there always is a certain climax to one's musical development, but the whereabouts of it, as such, are rather arguable. I, for one, by no means think that Nevermore have outlived their time of glory.
And lastly, no matter what happens, the new Nevermore is gonna be awesome. Burn the infidels at the stake, I say!
