I like how you are starting to argue now. "Boring prog objectively speaking." This is good and makes for much more passionate and interesting discussions. Now on to the facts:
Damian Wilson is one of the best singers in music. You pointed this out above. Just because you don't like the sound of his voice speaks nothing to how he uses it as a tool. Therefore, to use your word 'objective', I'll apply it to his vocal greatness and state it's an objective fact that he is an amazing lead vocalist. You said ao as well ("great" is usually a word reserved for the best). As an instrument, his voice is almost perfect. His peers (you know, other musicians) agree. Now, why is he good? Well, his voice is naturally amazing, of course, but guess what? He also practices. Something Anders, the laziest 'singer' in pop-metal, doesn't do. Damian Wilson's lyrics are also poignant and relevant. Much like early IF, before they started writing pop music (as Jesper alluded to in his recent post). I'm surprised you don't know this by now considering the education I've given you over the past few weeks. Finally, I'll emphatically claim that WD's vocals demand a much higher tolerance/learning curve to appreciate to Damian Wilson. Warrel is one of my favorite vocalists of all time but his voice is much harder to get into than Wilson's. The immediate impact of Wilson is much stronger.
Concerning the "old material", yes it was a comment made in haste and perhaps "older material" was not appropriate. I'm well aware of the release dates of their records. I happen to classify them as pre/post Wilson's return since 5 (almost 6) years went by between DR and MOP, so pre MOP I referred to as "older". Sue me.
Now, concerning topik yang favorit saya di dunia, Nevermore, here is a quote from Jeff Loomis: "Nevermore is really just a modern metal band." LOL. Their own (former) songwriter agrees with me. But even if he had never said that, it's clear. I mean it is true that Nevermore has a small Queensryche vibe at times, and elements of "progression" in their songwriting. But recall that while there are a few different definitions of 'progressive metal' generally speaking every definition agrees that progressive metal blends heavy metal in some form with jazz/fusion and/or classical progressive rock (classical in the construction), which by definition came before progressive metal. There is literally no intentional jazz or jazz fusion influence in Nevermore at all. Not in Loomis's playing or Van's drumming. Anything classical would be limited to Loomis's exceptional solos, classified by some in the stupid "neoclassic shred" sub genre. What about Van's drumming, you may ask? We all know Van is a big Rush fan, and Rush was sort of a progressive rock band thanks to the drumming of NP! But wait...question to Van, "What are your influences as a drummer?" Answer from Van, "Well, as far as listening to it was always...like Rush was always one of my favorite bands. Well, I don’t think I reflect any of that in my playing..." More importantly though, even if Van said "I'm influenced by a lot of prog rock drummers" that would NOT make Nevermore a progressive metal band. This should be obvious and not to know, is not to know. So there you have some facts.
So, there may be some elements of prog in the music here and there, just like there are elements of power and death metal, which I said above, but that doesn't make them a progressive, or power or death metal band even though some people, like you, are still confused. And what you're confusing are two different things, in this case elements of a genre with a genre itself. The closest to accurate sentence I've found on this is on the wiki/prog metal page which explains it, surprisingly, rather nicely though still incorrectly. I'll quote for reference:
"Recently, with a new wave of popularity in shred guitar, the hitherto-unfashionable genre of "technical metal" has become increasingly prevalent and popular in the metal scene to the inclusion within the progressive metal scene of bands that do not necessarily play in its traditional style such as thrash/power metallers Nevermore".
So adding bands like Nevermore or death metal bands like Necrophagist into the genre is just a revision of history. Progressive metal bands are bands like the pioneers Queensryche and Fates Warning, along with bands like Dream Theater, Vanden Plas, Pain of Salvation, etc.The new wave of "modern Progressive" would include bands like The Contortionist, Anubis Gate (whose 2014 album is awesome) Teramaze etc. I could go on but...enough education for one day. It's difficult to classify Nevermore but a progressive metal band surely they were not.
But in this cave it's perfectly fine. What a joker.
