Reviews list for Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy (1996)

Nevermore are known for having a diverse range which can potentially attract a lot of different metal fans: heavy, prog, thrash, power, speed, etc.  Basically, they've made for themselves a style which stays honorable to a large sect of the metal world.  But does this mean that they always write the best songs for any one of these genres?  They're considered an essential band in 90's and 2000's metal, so let's see where this takes me.

Nevermore's "The Politics of Ecstacy" sees them expanding on the style they created with their self-titled debut, but with a stronger progressive edge.  This is one of those challenging albums where predictability of the structures and riffs themselves is largely absent.  Thanks to this and their very metallic sound, they live up to the multiple areas they've included in their personal style at the time, which often relies on all of the major components playing at the same time.  Coupled with the singer's strong and loud vocals, this is a very energetic album, even during the slower compositions.  The rest of the components pairing with prog also makes this a very accessible prog album, which isn't necessarily bad.  However, while these songs are all cool and easy to get behind, the actual riffs aren't the most imaginative.  We have fun rhythms throughout the whole album, but not a single one of them amazed me, and I didn't give any five stars to any of the tracks.

This is an easy band to enjoy thanks to their range and power, but they aren't the most amazing group of writers out there, or at least they weren't at the time of this album's release.  The strong points, however, greatly outweigh the album's weakness, so I would easily find myself recommending this band to anyone looking to get into more metal, especially if you're already a Dream Theater fan.

This is an interesting transition from their USPM sound. The Politics of Ecstasy is by far the heaviest album the crew had released at that point, adopting a much chuggier and more rhythmic approach. It’s kind of hard to classify this; while the technicality on show is close to Progressive Metal, it also has a very Tech-Thrash-Lite feel to it. Despite being labeled as Thrash, it sounds quite different from what most people associate with the genre, almost playing like speedy Groove Metal instead, with rhythmic riffs and mid-tempo double bass playing in semi-complex polyrhythms.

Admittedly, I feel mixed about this new direction, as rhythmic riffing usually doesn’t sit well with me as opposed to more melodic Heavy Metal or sharp, twisting conventional Thrash, but the music is still very high quality. The album also has a few great surprises as well; Passenger is a Doom Metal song with a monstrous main riff and great vocals, and 42147 has more conventional Thrashing and near-Melodeath riffing that adds some much needed energy and aggression to the flow of the album.

Overall I can’t say I prefer this to their older Thrash influenced USPM sound, but it’s still great stuff, surprisingly heavy for the band and carrying a decent amount of variety in the approaches to songwriting.

Fantastic, tight thrash metal with numerous memorable classics. In other words, another great Nevermore album.

I got onboard the Nevermore bandwagon a long time after most of their fans. They only hit the scene around 1995 which is a few years after I’d pretty much given up on hearing any new good thrash metal bands. That’s a decision I now regret as this US band has been one of the brightest lights in thrash for well over a decade now. As soon as I was completely blown away by This Godless Endeavour in 2005, I knew instantly that I’d lived 10 years of life denying myself one of its greatest pleasures. The good news was that I had a long journey of discovering their earlier albums ahead, which began with the equally excellent Into the Mirror Black by Sanctuary (three members would go on to form Nevermore). The Politics of Ecstasy is the band’s second full length album after the self-titled debut (that doesn’t rate all that well on RYM), so seemed a good enough place to travel next.

Let’s get a few things straight before I go on though. Firstly, Nevermore are quite lightweight thrash metal. If you’re expecting a band like Nuclear Assault, Kreator or Slayer, you’re likely to be disappointed. There are undoubtedly thrash elements to most tracks on this album (and throughout their whole discography), but their music can just as easily be labelled intense heavy metal. Secondly, vocalist Warrel Dane is one of those vocalists that you either love or hate. I personally love his clean, emotional style and think he takes what would otherwise be merely above average music and puts it on a whole new level of excellence. Others claim him to be the vocal equivalent of the antichrist (in a bad way) but then I can only assume they haven’t heard Sean Killian from Vio-Lence. With all of this said, let’s look at The Politics of Ecstasy.

From my very first listen I knew I was going to love this; it was only a question of whether it would meet the standard set for me by This Godless Endeavour. The riffs are cool throughout and have that modern edge to them, but despite the standard thrash metal blueprint, riffs are not always the focus for Nevermore. It’s all about memorable, entertaining song writing which means the band rarely get caught up in trying to smash the listener into submission or branch out into overly technical, progressive realms. Instead they concentrate on producing numerous tight and catchy tracks that let Warrel work his magic all over the place. When the band do display their technical ability, such as on 42147, they are clearly capable of stupendous musicianship and immensely creative writing, but then they’re just as likely to keep things simple yet emotional such as on The Passenger, which I have no problem with at all.

As is always the case, the leads are awesome and always serve a purpose within each track. The lyrics are excellent, intelligent and thought provoking. The drumming is tight and powerful if not particularly amazing. It’s everything I’d hoped it would be when pressing play and I can only imagine I’ll soon be struggling for superlatives when reviewing their next few releases. Highlights for me are The Seven Tongues of God, Next in Line, Lost, 42147 and epic closer The Learning. If a few of the remaining tracks hadn’t been slightly underwhelming (the title track and The Tiananmen Man are not really that special and Precognition is a worthless instrumental) then I would have been forced to give The Politics of Ecstasy full marks. As it is, this is a thoroughly engaging album that will get plenty of overdue play time in The Trickster’s den.

I am not a fan of Nevermore.  There's a positive and non-judgemental start to a review if ever I saw one.  I find them to be reminiscent of high school metalheads the majority of whom liked thrash metal and one who wanted to be in a power metal band.  Warrel Dane's fantastic vocal ability was an abrasive clash too far me, it just did not fit alongside the equally superb guitar work of Loomis.  As good as they both were in their own way, they should never have been in a band together.

What The Politics of Ecstasy lacks in coherence it makes up for in effort.  There's nothing forced here, the performances are juxtaposed to me yes, but at the same time they are of a sufficiently high standard to entertain me as they espouse quality musicianship delivered with obvious passion.  Unfortunately there's just no me getting over the opposing styles.  This is one of the most frustrating metal albums I have perhaps ever had to review.

There's lots of Pantera like lead work here and very similar rhythms also, with this prevalent to the point of me being constantly reminded of Cowboys from Hell throughout the record.  I suppose we could argue that the vocals are what really set the sound apart from Anselmo and company, but again it is just too harsh a contrast even for that sake.  Even in the album's more enjoyable moments there's still a cringey moment lurking around the corner somewhere to jump out and make me pull a distasteful face as some vocal passage seems to be completely out of sync with the rest of the arrangement.

Overall, this album just doesn't work for me even with the many offerings of rope it throws me, i just can't get on with it.