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Rating: Year 1996.
Nevermore is about to release their second full-length: The Politics of Ecstasy. The classic lineup of the Seattle combo is completed with the addition of Pat O'Brien, a technical and versatile guitarist. The artwork alone is chilling: the cover depicts a newborn burning in flames, with the word "Controlled" stamped on its forehead.
A note of merit goes to the production, entrusted to the experienced hands of Neil Kernon. The sound is damned powerful and compact: just the first four chords are enough to floor you. This is how "The Seven Tongues Of God" begins, the opening song. There are a few chords that startle, a prelude to a soundstorm of considerable proportions. Warrel Dane's voice enchants, transporting us into his visionary and lysergic world. "The Seven..." is of great impact, an extremely powerful mid-tempo that unfolds into a malignant chorus, with Dane's voice doubling and recomposing itself, almost like a siren. Stunning piece.
The CD continues to maintain the same quality level: "Next in Line" has an incredible drive, while "The Passenger" is characterized by a slow and dramatic pace, with a Warrel Dane more theatrical than ever.
The title track overwhelms you like a speeding tank, with continuous rhythm changes. Here the excellent work of Van Williams should be highlighted, a drummer with great skills, often underestimated.
Then comes "Lost," in which Dane gives a great performance, both in vocal lines (gorgeous) and in lyrics.
The masterpiece arrives at track 7: "The Tiananmen Man." The track is a perfect blend of music and lyrics. A remarkable riff catapults us into a piece of history described and interpreted by Dane: it talks about the little man we usually only see in photos, facing a tank with his briefcase, in Tiananmen Square (1989). The lyrics are truly intelligent, not just describing the event, but also the emotions and intentions of that man alone against a power greater than him.
Throughout the album, what's jaw-dropping is the speed of execution of the two guitars. Jeff Loomis (guitarist and mastermind of the group) is a beast. He effortlessly and precisely churns out chords in sixteenths and thirty-seconds (!!!), every note is in its place, every chord well defined; Jeff always manages to create a wall of sound of considerable proportions.
"The Learning" (superb, needless to say) definitively closes the second chapter of Nevermore.
To conclude, it is perhaps the most difficult CD of Nevermore, certainly the most underestimated by the public, yet it remains a masterpiece, probably Their Masterpiece. Finally, quoting "Lost": "WHY SHOULD I COME DOWN?! FROM HERE I CAN SEE FOREVER!" in Olympus, Nevermore remains.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 This Sacrament (05:09)
There is no control in the world today
And there's still no order to this game we all play
Maybe none of us know
(What's real)
There's no constraint when the walls cave in
The neuron turn on, the game begins to fade away
Maybe none of us know
Maybe none of us want to hear
Never push against the flow
Aimlessly
Feel the flow
And let all thought fade
We shall be one
For this sacrament has begun
Lucy in the sky with diamond eyes
long since dark, I wear her disguise of light
Maybe none of us know
Maybe none of us want to hear
Never push against the flow
Aimlessly
Feel the flow
And let all thought fade
We shall be one
For this sacrament has begun
[SOLO]
(This sacrament is a state of mind)
There's no control in the world today
And there's still no order to this game we all play called life
Maybe none of us know
Maybe none of us want to hear
Never push against the flow
Aimlessly
Feel the flow
And let all thought fade
We shall be one
Through this sacrament
Feel the flow
(To become one with the flow)
And let all thought fade
(Is to realise purpose)
We shall be one
(To realise purpose)
For this sacrament has begun
(Is to become one with the flow)
(Become one with the flow)
This sacrament has begun
(Become one with the flow)
This sacrament
(Has begun)
03 Next in Line (05:33)
I taste the fear to numb the tear, trapped by the source of my infection
I play the martyr submerged in this pool,
the corporation used me like they brainwashed you
Life is seen so cold and benign,
I don't want to be saved I'm next in line to die
Labeled sick, but I'm just a man, everyone I love has left me for dead
This void illusion I suffer for, they made me their god
and I am so much more than you
Life is seen so cold and benign, I don't want to be saved
I'm next in line to die
I don't want to be saved I'm next in line
I taste the fear to numb the tear, trapped by the source of my infection
Life is seen through heroin dreaming cold and benign,
I don't want to be saved I'm next in line to die
I don't want to be saved I'm next in line and I don't want to be saved
I'm a dead man, I'm a sick man, I'm the pilot of my destruction
I'm a dead man, I'm a sick man, I'm the pilot of my destruction
The pilot of my destruction
05 The Politics of Ecstasy (07:56)
I hate you, the pigs who turn the screws, I hate everything you stand for
I hate the world we've bred, political pigs we've fed, our fathers left us nothing but a dead world
Beyond repair down in despair, our fathers left us nothing
Choking on the influx of technology I realize the politics of ecstasy
And we can't change what's in stone
We've been had. Injustice to the masses, destroy the land and crush the poor
The pigs are fueled by greed, political ways obscene, our fathers left corruption in this dead world
Beyond repair down is despair, our fathers left us nothing
Choking on the puke of their industry, regurgitated propaganda ministry
Freedom's never free, the politics of ecstasy are these:
Freedom's never free, these are the politics of ecstasy:
I hate you , the pigs who turn the screws, I hate everything you stand for
I hate the world we've bred, political pigs we've fed, our fathers left us nothing but a dead world
Beyond repair down in despair, our fathers left us nothing
Choking on the influx of technology I realize the politics of ecstasy
Freedom's never free, the politics of ecstasy are these:
Freedom's never free, the politics of ecstasy are these:
If you take a step back and you realize your home can't be a perfect world
There's still hope the hate you fell will fade, injustice is gone:
Injustice is gone for a little while
06 Lost (04:14)
Learning ways to fly
just never too high to die
pushing limits into the ground
Until I never come down
Burning through lifetimes without form
pure energy I am the shattered norm
I'm the lost one chasing colors to the sun
colors bleed but never fade
I'll just fade away
To swim these sentient seas
windows into eternity
never afraid to scale the wall
The lunatic never falls
Forfeiture of reality seeds sown
constructure of this path is not my own
I'm the lost one chasing colors to the sun
colors bleed but never fade
I'll just fade away
Why should I come down?
From here I can see forever
I'm the lost one chasing colors to the sun
colors bleed but never fade
I'll just fade away
Remember in the end
such a long strange trip it's been
so I sing this song
For the lost one
Why should I come down?
From here I can see forever
forever
I can see forever
I can see
09 42147 (04:58)
I am throes of my denial
logic in me crumbles
i take this fateful ride
Through my mind
Daydream fluid thoughts washing shores of warm confusion
I'm one with this beautiful disorder
Another world, wasthis the transition?
Slowly I returned to the familiar
spiralling in costant flux
What have I created?
The experiment is over
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