A regular poster at the BWBK boards was fortunate enough to get a promo (he works for Unrestrained! magazine) and offered this review:
I basically consider Nevermore to be one of the best American traditional metal bands currently plying their trade. Their catalog alone pretty much speaks for itself, one sledge of brilliance after another since 1996's In Memory EP, I always considered the first one a formative record, it's good but is definately a step below the others. So what can you expect from Enemies of Reality?? I put it to the litmus test against Dead Heart and Dreaming Neon Black and I've come to the conclusion that while Enemies contains 5 brilliant tracks it falls a tad short in the longevity category and doesn't quite measure up "overall" to the previous two. At 40:55 minus the intro/outro & Noumenon at 4:37, Nevermore is giving us only 35 1/2 minutes of new legitimate music in the three years since Dead Heart. As you all know the previous records all came in much longer
without much wavering in the quality dept. It could be that they are saving material for their next deal, I hope that's the case since this apparently is their Century Media swansong. (does anyone know for sure??)
1- The production, reminiscent of DNB, heavier, punchier not a far stretch sonically from Testament's "The Gathering" .
2- Jeff Loomis, the guitars are center stage, in your face, extremely aggressive and his solos shred, compared to Enemies he was definately in the back seat on their last two records, he is the star of this album.
3- Warrel - as tortured as ever, in perfect control as he weaves his tales of utter depression - maybe a tad more restrained than prior records
4- If it resembles any Nevermore disc it would be a pissed off Dreaming Neon Black - to my ears this is the bands heaviest record to date
The album starts with a 33 second multi layered intro of various noises, then the drums kick in explosively followed by the guitars and then Warrell, Enemies of Reality begins with a blast, very heavy with a huge groove, double bass drums, Loomis weaves in/out of rhythmn with some shredding solos (so fluid, so fast) - a killer title track
The next one is "Ambivalent", again it's fast, heavy, dynamic, "I sing my ambivalence with a smile" snears Dane, this song teasingly vears into Death Metal territory on occasion - the main riff is huge and the tempo changes are frequent, again another shredding solo with melodic touches. Loomis is DA fucking man. KILLER Again - "the sun in my hand becomes my despair....."
"Never Purify" - brilliant my favorite amongst the first three tracks - the standard at this point is so high I'm getting dizzy, modern metal doesn't get a whole lot better than this. Great variety, tempo changes, amazing solos, tight instrumental work, fantastic vocal delivery and very aggressive, they aren't punching the clock on the first three tracks
Tomorrow Turned into Yesterday - a bit of a breather here in what can be considered the "ballad" - that will change towards the middle of the song as Loomis takes over with more great work, the chorus is repeated frequently - not a happy tune by any stretch
I, Voyager - track 5, we are back in heavy mode, a good track which falls a tad short of the first three, I can hear Maiden doing this one
Create the Infinite follows, stronger, good groove
Who Decides starts off a little slower, some acoustic guitars, "heroes and rapists, they all have nice faces" - a Queensryche song gone down a back alley... which turns into a full out blast by it's end, great song.
Noumenon - I wouldn't consider this a proper song, if there is filler on the record it's here 4:37 of basically nothing going on, disapointing
Seed Awakening is the final track and possibly the most agressive on the record - a great way to finish - like a double fisted punch to the throat with the occasional break to re-group.
Overall Enemies is a record that reaches utter metal brilliance on Enemies of Reality, Ambivalent and Never Purify, all three are killer tracks which I predict will be in the set list for the upcoming tour. The second tier of tracks for me would be the monstrous Seed Awakening, Who Decides and Create the Infinite. Given a choice I would toss out Noumenon but when you have only 40:55 to work with, it would become a long EP in today's world.
8/10 with one mark lopped off for brevity, the other knocked off for blatant filler content.
without much wavering in the quality dept. It could be that they are saving material for their next deal, I hope that's the case since this apparently is their Century Media swansong. (does anyone know for sure??)
1- The production, reminiscent of DNB, heavier, punchier not a far stretch sonically from Testament's "The Gathering" .
2- Jeff Loomis, the guitars are center stage, in your face, extremely aggressive and his solos shred, compared to Enemies he was definately in the back seat on their last two records, he is the star of this album.
3- Warrel - as tortured as ever, in perfect control as he weaves his tales of utter depression - maybe a tad more restrained than prior records
4- If it resembles any Nevermore disc it would be a pissed off Dreaming Neon Black - to my ears this is the bands heaviest record to date
The album starts with a 33 second multi layered intro of various noises, then the drums kick in explosively followed by the guitars and then Warrell, Enemies of Reality begins with a blast, very heavy with a huge groove, double bass drums, Loomis weaves in/out of rhythmn with some shredding solos (so fluid, so fast) - a killer title track
The next one is "Ambivalent", again it's fast, heavy, dynamic, "I sing my ambivalence with a smile" snears Dane, this song teasingly vears into Death Metal territory on occasion - the main riff is huge and the tempo changes are frequent, again another shredding solo with melodic touches. Loomis is DA fucking man. KILLER Again - "the sun in my hand becomes my despair....."
"Never Purify" - brilliant my favorite amongst the first three tracks - the standard at this point is so high I'm getting dizzy, modern metal doesn't get a whole lot better than this. Great variety, tempo changes, amazing solos, tight instrumental work, fantastic vocal delivery and very aggressive, they aren't punching the clock on the first three tracks
Tomorrow Turned into Yesterday - a bit of a breather here in what can be considered the "ballad" - that will change towards the middle of the song as Loomis takes over with more great work, the chorus is repeated frequently - not a happy tune by any stretch
I, Voyager - track 5, we are back in heavy mode, a good track which falls a tad short of the first three, I can hear Maiden doing this one
Create the Infinite follows, stronger, good groove
Who Decides starts off a little slower, some acoustic guitars, "heroes and rapists, they all have nice faces" - a Queensryche song gone down a back alley... which turns into a full out blast by it's end, great song.
Noumenon - I wouldn't consider this a proper song, if there is filler on the record it's here 4:37 of basically nothing going on, disapointing
Seed Awakening is the final track and possibly the most agressive on the record - a great way to finish - like a double fisted punch to the throat with the occasional break to re-group.
Overall Enemies is a record that reaches utter metal brilliance on Enemies of Reality, Ambivalent and Never Purify, all three are killer tracks which I predict will be in the set list for the upcoming tour. The second tier of tracks for me would be the monstrous Seed Awakening, Who Decides and Create the Infinite. Given a choice I would toss out Noumenon but when you have only 40:55 to work with, it would become a long EP in today's world.
8/10 with one mark lopped off for brevity, the other knocked off for blatant filler content.
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