Arch Enemy is a thorough waste of his talent. I listened to them for a decade or so (discovered them right when Wages of Sin came out) and the highs of their good songs were so high that I looked past their weaknesses which were many. I kinda lost interest after Doomsday Machine cuz three albums were enough for me to realize that (imo) each of their albums would have 4 songs I liked a lot, max, and the rest would be forgettable filler and that even the "good" songs had their fair share of filler riffs at times.
Saw them numerous times live. At their best, they were absolutely overwhelming with the intensity and talent on display. But, even as a huge fan of the band and Warrel Dane, I have to admit that there were quite a few shows where he was an absolute mess.
@@bloodysmurfI mean. He had his period of time where he wasn’t up to snuff, then sorted himself out. Then at the end, obviously, he was a disaster. There is a video of him performing shortly before he died and it was horrendous. You could tell he was “unwell”.
I saw them live around half a dozen times. They always were amazing. My favorite album by them is "The Politics of Ecstasy", but all of them are great. Every album has its own sound, but they keep their core influences and sound despite having distinctly different vibes for every album. The first album, the self titled, is solid, but I get the impression they still were developing their own sound with that album. They had an inkling of what they wanted to become, with the thrash, power metal, and death metal influences already there, but they really refined that sound with their second album, "The Politics of Ecstasy." The third album, "Dreaming Neon Black" is more of a dark rock album with very personal lyrical themes as Warrel had recently had a break up where his ex joined a cult, and he spent that entire album trying to work through his emotions from that. Their fourth album, "Dead Heart In a Dead World", is somewhere between Politics and Dreaming in terms of sound; it is sort of a unification of those two albums and is more accessible in terms of song structure, but they still have some amazing guitar solos on that album. The fifth album, "Enemies of Reality" is very much a return to the sort of sound they found with The Politics of Ecstasy, but the initial release was marred by muddy production. They wanted to write a very heavy album, and they sort of went over-board on the heaviness on the production side, using some almost nu metal ethos in terms of guitar, bass and drum tones. The songwriting is amazing, though, and it really shines through if you listen to the remixed & remastered version they released a few years later after they released their sixth album, bringing the same producer (Andy Sneap) who knocked it out of the park with their sound (as you heard on this track) to the tracks from "Enemies of Reality" as he did for their sixth album. Their sixth album, of which this is the title track, "This Godless Endeavor", was more of a return to the Politics of Ecstasy style; they really let loose again and just pushed themselves both in terms of technicality and song complexity. Their final album was "The Obsidian Conspiracy", and it was sort of a sour note for the final album. It was really good, but failed to reach the heights of their earlier albums for me. I enjoy some tracks, but it lacks the enthusiasm that their previous releases all have in spades. That being said, a weak Nevermore record is still an amazing record, full of great lyrics, amazing riffs, solid drumming and mind-melting guitar solos. Every release remains unique and, yet, distinctly Nevermore. I've yet to find another band that can do their style of progressive metal. Every member brought something unique to the table, from Loomis' amazing guitar work, to Jim Sheppard's groovy yet intense bass licks to Van William's deep pocket groove on the drums, and, of course, Warrel's both wholly unique myriad of vocal techniques and deeply insightful lyrics. I'm glad I managed to be a fan of them back when they were still touring and releasing music and they will be missed, as Warrel passed away a number of years ago. I had the honor of making his acquaintance while he was alive and he's just another example of "only the good die young." My favorite song by them will always be "The Learning", which is about the birth of AI and is the last track on "The Politics of Ecstasy" from 1996.
I absolutely love Nevermore, one of my all time favorite bands alongside with Queensrÿche, Psychotic Waltz and Paradise Lost… I saw Nevermore live 1 time right after they had released this album, they were epic, killer band live and love all of their albums… Miss them so much, R.I.P. to the great Warrel Dane, wish that Jeff Loomis would team up with Van Williams and Jim Sheppard again under a new band and make killer music… I feel like Jeff Loomis is wasting his time and his phenomenal guitar skills in Arch Enemy, I miss his guitar sound and amazing song writing skills so so much from the Nevermore time…
Oh yeah they got a lot of great songs. Great production, vocals, drums, guitar work is insane. Total package🤘 Dreaming Neon Black is a cool song to check out next🖤🌛
I'm glad that more people talk and remember about a yewel of a band this was and that deserved incredibly more appreciation. One of my top 3 bands that I really miss. RIP Warrel Dane.
Nevermore lyrics usually are about the negative aspects of religion, industrialization, technology and suffering in general. Their sonic influences are so diverse that it's impossible to categorize them. So, anything that they remind you of, is probably correct... but not hip hop. XD The lyrics for this song were actually written in the stairs of an old music venue in Porto, Portugal, called Hard Club (HC has moved to another place not much further away). When Warrel Dane sings "sitting here sideways on the stone cold floor", it's literally what's happening. He's writing the lyrics for this song in HC's stairs. You get this magnificent view to a river called Douro (it means, made of gold). Then, when he sings "hello, I'm happy to meet you! sit down! I'm happy to great you...", he's talking with god. After, when he sings "I feel helpless and alone, trapped on the third stone", he means the planet earth. The possible answer to the title of the track comes when he sings "I feel permanently stoned, this godless endeavor the only cage I've known", which to me seems he's referring to planet earth and his (Warrel's) earthly existence. It feels like a cage, in which he's trapped, and that there's no god watching over us. The (anti) religious theme continues until he talks about his (Warrel's) suffering. He compares people kneeling down to pray and priests to a disease, but he used the industrial metaphor, like religion was some kind of a factory assembly line producing faithful people (religion = faith). And it finishes with a monologue again, about god. This is one of my favorite Nevermore songs and, coincidentally, the lyrics were written in Porto, where I was born and still live in. So, this one is very special and dear to my heart. By the way, Warrel Dane was a big Edgar Allan Poe fan. Hence the "Nevermore" name taken from The Raven poem: Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
Jeff Loomis is an absolute savage, technically you don't get much better. "Dreaming Neon Black" was the first album of theirs I listened to and it's still one of my favorites, it's a concept album too which is really cool, imo.
This Godless Endeaver (pronounced endever) is my 2nd favorite album by Nevermore. My 1st favorite is Dreaming Neon Black, & its song of the same title. Dreaming Neon Black is about singer Warrel Dane's girl that went missing, & his dreams of her (years later found dead). *If you want to hear Warrel in his prime, do a reaction to his (1990) song when he sang in Sanctuary, called Future Tense.* His voice went high back then. (it's the vid where they're jamming in the desert - so it's not live). You'll like.
Flying squirrel reference is hilarious. Might be worthwhile checking out their original band Sanctuary. May sound dated now but if you mentally put yourself in that timeframe it’s amazing. They have so many different ‘sounds’ spanning the years that fans usually quarrel over which is best.
my favorite record from my favorite band (NevermorE) is "Dreaming Neon Black" (extremely recomended album.. al least by me, specially because it's very varied and warrel (the singer) sings very emotionally and that's something i love from the few singers that don't sing like they are reading the newspaper). according to enciclopaedia metallum NevermorE was a pregressive groove/thrash metal band (i say "was" because the y dissolved at around 2010 and warrel dane died in 2017)
The song is about the meaning of life if God doesn't exist I believe (explaining the "black forever", what happens when we die). Love the line "I feel helpless and alone, trapped on the third stone". The earth is the third stone counting from the Sun.
Welcome to the rabbit hole! I totally agree with you on how the song resolves back to that open riff - love it! (And I agree that Google is on crack with the hip-hop thang!!!! Progressive is the better description, but not on all of their stuff) Tons of good songs from them - "Born", "Enemies of Reality", and they do a killer cover of "The Sound of Silence" - WAY before Disturbed. It's hard to pick a bad song from them.
You were asking about the impact on metal: Nevermore took what Meshuggah did and are arguably a proto djent band prior to the whole Periphery type bands that took over the early 2010’s. They were extremely ahead of their time and to this day to me it still sounds like futuristic metal. Other songs by them use a lot of polymetric stuff more. I can see what you mean by medival especially with the opening but overall they’re a much more groove/thrash band more focused on intensity while sprinkling in some melody. There weren’t many bands out there using super low tunings with super technical hard riffs ESPECIALLY with clean vocals only and not sacrificing the extreme sounding edge for the sake of a lot of notes. Their music is technical and clever but not airy; still visceral and digs into your skin. If you want to try them again, I highly recommend I Voyager, the album version with the remix and remaster. It’s their most ass beating and catchy track IMO.
Such an awesome band. I don't think anyone does "Dark Prog" better. Maybe Evergrey's older albums? Dead Heart in a Dead World is my favorite album of theirs.
Please do "The River Dragon Has Come" from Nevermore! Pllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssse!!! Google is definitely on crack. There's no Hip Hop influence in Nevermore at all LOL.
Now hat you have heard Nevermore.. you need to listen to Sanctuary.. Almost the same band but fell prey to the record labels wanting everyone to sound like Nirvana Sanctuary broke up and Nevermore was born.. Totally underrated band
As a fan of most genres of Metal...at least the main ones (Thrash, Power (both American and European), Symphonic, Death, Black, Traditional, Speed, Progressive, and NWOBHM) there's always one thing that bothers me with Progressive Metal, and that's the vocals very rarely if ever fit the music. They're kinda just there ya know, for the sake of having vocals in the song. I only recently got into Nevermore due to a particular label doing Golden disc remasters of their entire 7 album catalog. I've got a fair share of Progressive Metal bands, and they're all like that with the vocals. I don't know what it is, but perhaps because the instrumentals are all over the place, it's practically impossible to melodically sing with the them. But with that said, Nevermore is one of the better Progressive bands. It features Jeff Loomis in guitar, who is now the blonde headed guitarist for Arch Enemy. But he seems to be playing Second Fiddle in that band for some reason. I've only listened to 2 of Nevermore albums so far because my ears needed a rest after that... 😂 But what I heard was very interesting.
I already read a comment she said there's rap in this which there isn't. And then she repeated standing face to back and she said instead of face to face , interesting lyrics. LOL. This tells me already how much she doesn't have a clue without telling me she doesn't have a clue. Face to back means everybody's in a straight line facing the same direction. And then the coup de gras , " Sassy" she says. 🙄
For people hearing this band for the first time, and enjoyed it. Enjoy listening to their discography for the next few months, it all good. Definitely not hip hop. Lol. I'd call it progressive metal. It not my favorite song by them, but I recommend it because warrel, RIP, said it was one of their best.
Someone reacting to older metal...finally!!!!!!! WARREL DANE is one of the best metal singers...EVER!!!! RIP my friend. Mixed with HipHop...wtf! They couldn't be any further from the truth!!! All those notes are called arpeggios.
When Jeff Loomis wasn't underused like in Arch Enemy... He is a god in guitar
Arch Enemy is a thorough waste of his talent. I listened to them for a decade or so (discovered them right when Wages of Sin came out) and the highs of their good songs were so high that I looked past their weaknesses which were many. I kinda lost interest after Doomsday Machine cuz three albums were enough for me to realize that (imo) each of their albums would have 4 songs I liked a lot, max, and the rest would be forgettable filler and that even the "good" songs had their fair share of filler riffs at times.
Bro Jeff is still a god in guitar
@@FreddyGaming He is, just underused and he doesnt have the creative freedom that he used to
Just left Arch Enemy, yayyyyy!
@@oblivion209 yess, really good news
You must do more Nevermore. There is so much to dive into. They never disappoint.
RIP Warrel Dane. Nevermore was such a great band. Progressive thrash metal for sure. Saw them live once, it was so cool
One of the greatest metal bands to have ever existed. Amazing live band.
Saw them numerous times live. At their best, they were absolutely overwhelming with the intensity and talent on display. But, even as a huge fan of the band and Warrel Dane, I have to admit that there were quite a few shows where he was an absolute mess.
@@bloodysmurfI mean. He had his period of time where he wasn’t up to snuff, then sorted himself out. Then at the end, obviously, he was a disaster. There is a video of him performing shortly before he died and it was horrendous. You could tell he was “unwell”.
I saw them live around half a dozen times. They always were amazing.
My favorite album by them is "The Politics of Ecstasy", but all of them are great. Every album has its own sound, but they keep their core influences and sound despite having distinctly different vibes for every album.
The first album, the self titled, is solid, but I get the impression they still were developing their own sound with that album. They had an inkling of what they wanted to become, with the thrash, power metal, and death metal influences already there, but they really refined that sound with their second album, "The Politics of Ecstasy."
The third album, "Dreaming Neon Black" is more of a dark rock album with very personal lyrical themes as Warrel had recently had a break up where his ex joined a cult, and he spent that entire album trying to work through his emotions from that.
Their fourth album, "Dead Heart In a Dead World", is somewhere between Politics and Dreaming in terms of sound; it is sort of a unification of those two albums and is more accessible in terms of song structure, but they still have some amazing guitar solos on that album.
The fifth album, "Enemies of Reality" is very much a return to the sort of sound they found with The Politics of Ecstasy, but the initial release was marred by muddy production. They wanted to write a very heavy album, and they sort of went over-board on the heaviness on the production side, using some almost nu metal ethos in terms of guitar, bass and drum tones. The songwriting is amazing, though, and it really shines through if you listen to the remixed & remastered version they released a few years later after they released their sixth album, bringing the same producer (Andy Sneap) who knocked it out of the park with their sound (as you heard on this track) to the tracks from "Enemies of Reality" as he did for their sixth album.
Their sixth album, of which this is the title track, "This Godless Endeavor", was more of a return to the Politics of Ecstasy style; they really let loose again and just pushed themselves both in terms of technicality and song complexity.
Their final album was "The Obsidian Conspiracy", and it was sort of a sour note for the final album. It was really good, but failed to reach the heights of their earlier albums for me. I enjoy some tracks, but it lacks the enthusiasm that their previous releases all have in spades. That being said, a weak Nevermore record is still an amazing record, full of great lyrics, amazing riffs, solid drumming and mind-melting guitar solos.
Every release remains unique and, yet, distinctly Nevermore. I've yet to find another band that can do their style of progressive metal. Every member brought something unique to the table, from Loomis' amazing guitar work, to Jim Sheppard's groovy yet intense bass licks to Van William's deep pocket groove on the drums, and, of course, Warrel's both wholly unique myriad of vocal techniques and deeply insightful lyrics.
I'm glad I managed to be a fan of them back when they were still touring and releasing music and they will be missed, as Warrel passed away a number of years ago. I had the honor of making his acquaintance while he was alive and he's just another example of "only the good die young."
My favorite song by them will always be "The Learning", which is about the birth of AI and is the last track on "The Politics of Ecstasy" from 1996.
This song slaps, always a favorite. This whole album is a 10. Not too sure where the “rap metal” was coming from 😂
for me its like 6/10, but their second and third album are tens.
@@JacobsKrąnųg I like the whole discography too. This album was just my introduction to them so it’s always been my favorite
@@JacobsKrąnųg no way. 10/10. It's epic
I absolutely love Nevermore, one of my all time favorite bands alongside with Queensrÿche, Psychotic Waltz and Paradise Lost… I saw Nevermore live 1 time right after they had released this album, they were epic, killer band live and love all of their albums… Miss them so much, R.I.P. to the great Warrel Dane, wish that Jeff Loomis would team up with Van Williams and Jim Sheppard again under a new band and make killer music…
I feel like Jeff Loomis is wasting his time and his phenomenal guitar skills in Arch Enemy, I miss his guitar sound and amazing song writing skills so so much from the Nevermore time…
This is straight up progressive thrash metal amazing band and a masterpiece of metal🤘
Oh yeah they got a lot of great songs. Great production, vocals, drums, guitar work is insane. Total package🤘
Dreaming Neon Black is a cool song to check out next🖤🌛
I'm glad that more people talk and remember about a yewel of a band this was and that deserved incredibly more appreciation. One of my top 3 bands that I really miss. RIP Warrel Dane.
Nevermore lyrics usually are about the negative aspects of religion, industrialization, technology and suffering in general. Their sonic influences are so diverse that it's impossible to categorize them. So, anything that they remind you of, is probably correct... but not hip hop. XD The lyrics for this song were actually written in the stairs of an old music venue in Porto, Portugal, called Hard Club (HC has moved to another place not much further away). When Warrel Dane sings "sitting here sideways on the stone cold floor", it's literally what's happening. He's writing the lyrics for this song in HC's stairs. You get this magnificent view to a river called Douro (it means, made of gold). Then, when he sings "hello, I'm happy to meet you! sit down! I'm happy to great you...", he's talking with god. After, when he sings "I feel helpless and alone, trapped on the third stone", he means the planet earth. The possible answer to the title of the track comes when he sings "I feel permanently stoned, this godless endeavor the only cage I've known", which to me seems he's referring to planet earth and his (Warrel's) earthly existence. It feels like a cage, in which he's trapped, and that there's no god watching over us. The (anti) religious theme continues until he talks about his (Warrel's) suffering. He compares people kneeling down to pray and priests to a disease, but he used the industrial metaphor, like religion was some kind of a factory assembly line producing faithful people (religion = faith). And it finishes with a monologue again, about god. This is one of my favorite Nevermore songs and, coincidentally, the lyrics were written in Porto, where I was born and still live in. So, this one is very special and dear to my heart. By the way, Warrel Dane was a big Edgar Allan Poe fan. Hence the "Nevermore" name taken from The Raven poem: Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
Jeff Loomis is an absolute savage, technically you don't get much better. "Dreaming Neon Black" was the first album of theirs I listened to and it's still one of my favorites, it's a concept album too which is really cool, imo.
This Godless Endeaver (pronounced endever) is my 2nd favorite album by Nevermore. My 1st favorite is Dreaming Neon Black, & its song of the same title. Dreaming Neon Black is about singer Warrel Dane's girl that went missing, & his dreams of her (years later found dead). *If you want to hear Warrel in his prime, do a reaction to his (1990) song when he sang in Sanctuary, called Future Tense.* His voice went high back then. (it's the vid where they're jamming in the desert - so it's not live). You'll like.
Flying squirrel reference is hilarious. Might be worthwhile checking out their original band Sanctuary. May sound dated now but if you mentally put yourself in that timeframe it’s amazing. They have so many different ‘sounds’ spanning the years that fans usually quarrel over which is best.
my favorite record from my favorite band (NevermorE) is "Dreaming Neon Black" (extremely recomended album.. al least by me, specially because it's very varied and warrel (the singer) sings very emotionally and that's something i love from the few singers that don't sing like they are reading the newspaper). according to enciclopaedia metallum NevermorE was a pregressive groove/thrash metal band (i say "was" because the y dissolved at around 2010 and warrel dane died in 2017)
Please do another song from this same album called “Sentient”. The whole album is a banger though, so you really can’t go wrong 🤘
Then do 'The Learning' and see how their connected.
* Sentient 6
Warrel used to call it Sentient Number Six when they played it live. RIP, Warrel.
I prefer The Learning, but that track is also amazing.
Fantastic album!
I really like Nevermore. I haven't listened to much of them yet but they have such a good vibe imo
You've got some Bolt Thrower art (vinyl?) in the background and you're playing Nevermore. That's a sub from me.
The song is about the meaning of life if God doesn't exist I believe (explaining the "black forever", what happens when we die).
Love the line "I feel helpless and alone, trapped on the third stone". The earth is the third stone counting from the Sun.
Unfortunately with the nihilist spin.
You wont regret to review their album Dead Heart in a dead world! Their best album in my opinion... Goosebumps since 20 yrs - R.I.P. Warrel Dane
Welcome to the rabbit hole!
I totally agree with you on how the song resolves back to that open riff - love it! (And I agree that Google is on crack with the hip-hop thang!!!! Progressive is the better description, but not on all of their stuff)
Tons of good songs from them - "Born", "Enemies of Reality", and they do a killer cover of "The Sound of Silence" - WAY before Disturbed. It's hard to pick a bad song from them.
Nevermore-era Jeff Loomis routinely wrote single songs that contained more kick ass guitar riffs than many bands could compose in their entire career
You were asking about the impact on metal: Nevermore took what Meshuggah did and are arguably a proto djent band prior to the whole Periphery type bands that took over the early 2010’s. They were extremely ahead of their time and to this day to me it still sounds like futuristic metal. Other songs by them use a lot of polymetric stuff more. I can see what you mean by medival especially with the opening but overall they’re a much more groove/thrash band more focused on intensity while sprinkling in some melody. There weren’t many bands out there using super low tunings with super technical hard riffs ESPECIALLY with clean vocals only and not sacrificing the extreme sounding edge for the sake of a lot of notes. Their music is technical and clever but not airy; still visceral and digs into your skin.
If you want to try them again, I highly recommend I Voyager, the album version with the remix and remaster. It’s their most ass beating and catchy track IMO.
Nevermore is fantastic. I Love this band
Oh... Thought we were getting the full album reaction 😢
I just heard one of the best guitarist of modern times too, what a bonus
This is one of my top 5 favorite bands. Saw them a few times. Jeff Lommis is awesome!!
If you liked it, check out the Dead Heart in a Dead World album as well, one of the most important records in the band's history.
I need to listen to this band again. Even when I loved them 20 years ago, I feel like I underestimated them. Modern Metal stole so much from them imo.
Jeff loomis is one of the best guitarist on the planet and RIP warrel Dane an amazing vocalist great band
Rip Warrel Dane❤ . Love this band , so much emotion and tasty riffs by Jeff loomis
Came for the Nevermore, subbed for the 🤌
Such an awesome band. I don't think anyone does "Dark Prog" better. Maybe Evergrey's older albums? Dead Heart in a Dead World is my favorite album of theirs.
6:16, 6:45, 7:05 The Kaiya has spoken!
12:50 Indeed!
Can't wait to catch up on this :)
Funny thing is everyone who suggested this godless endeavor meant the entire album 🤘🔥
This song, this band is so amazing. And of course they’re fade to back; they’re trying to face the future and not look back.
Please do "The River Dragon Has Come" from Nevermore! Pllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssse!!!
Google is definitely on crack. There's no Hip Hop influence in Nevermore at all LOL.
I love nevermore, I've been trying to get more reactions to them for years, I gave up.
They are all shills, which is why they never do nevermore
Google, never lies!
I think there may be a Hip Hop band out there with the same name..
Loomis is a god
Now hat you have heard Nevermore.. you need to listen to Sanctuary.. Almost the same band but fell prey to the record labels wanting everyone to sound like Nirvana Sanctuary broke up and Nevermore was born.. Totally underrated band
Heaviest scale - about 8.
As a fan of most genres of Metal...at least the main ones (Thrash, Power (both American and European), Symphonic, Death, Black, Traditional, Speed, Progressive, and NWOBHM) there's always one thing that bothers me with Progressive Metal, and that's the vocals very rarely if ever fit the music. They're kinda just there ya know, for the sake of having vocals in the song. I only recently got into Nevermore due to a particular label doing Golden disc remasters of their entire 7 album catalog. I've got a fair share of Progressive Metal bands, and they're all like that with the vocals. I don't know what it is, but perhaps because the instrumentals are all over the place, it's practically impossible to melodically sing with the them.
But with that said, Nevermore is one of the better Progressive bands. It features Jeff Loomis in guitar, who is now the blonde headed guitarist for Arch Enemy. But he seems to be playing Second Fiddle in that band for some reason. I've only listened to 2 of Nevermore albums so far because my ears needed a rest after that... 😂 But what I heard was very interesting.
I already read a comment she said there's rap in this which there isn't. And then she repeated standing face to back and she said instead of face to face , interesting lyrics. LOL. This tells me already how much she doesn't have a clue without telling me she doesn't have a clue. Face to back means everybody's in a straight line facing the same direction. And then the coup de gras , " Sassy" she says. 🙄
Giving me some Slayer Divine Intervention vibes. Fictional Reality specifically.
For people hearing this band for the first time, and enjoyed it. Enjoy listening to their discography for the next few months, it all good. Definitely not hip hop. Lol. I'd call it progressive metal. It not my favorite song by them, but I recommend it because warrel, RIP, said it was one of their best.
Next face yourself-death Reflection(Ft: isaac bilbrey)
en-dee-ver?
Someone reacting to older metal...finally!!!!!!! WARREL DANE is one of the best metal singers...EVER!!!! RIP my friend.
Mixed with HipHop...wtf! They couldn't be any further from the truth!!!
All those notes are called arpeggios.
oh NEVERMORE,our childhood..too bad they are no more..
Cool
What the hell is "endeevor"? You never heard the word "endeavor" before?
Millennials, learn how to read.
If this young woman is over 25 I'd be shocked.
👍👍👍🤘👍👍
keep doing Nevermore. This aint even on the top 4 on this album!