Nevermore

"This album is Nevermore goes back to the garage,” defends band bassist Jim Sheppard when asked about the production values on their new album Enemies Of Reality. "There was a budget issue with this record; we actually ended up doing a lot of it in the basement of our guitarist Jeff [Loomis].” Recorded at home in Seattle with Queensrÿche producer and sometime-guitarist Kelly Gray, it seems a peculiar choice at first glance but the band is satisfied with the results. "The songs were completed for the next album but we didn’t know who to do it with when Kelly was suggested. Our budget had been cut so drastically and he lives in Seattle, so after meeting him we felt very positive. It’s all been a great experience.” While a smaller budget may mean a rawer-sounding final recording, it takes nothing away from the performance the Seattle power metal band delivers. With guitarist Jeff Loomis tuning down to b flat, his riffs take on a more death metal type vibe than on their previous two albums. 2000’s Dead Heart in a Dead World saw Loomis playing a lot of dissonant, atypically metal chords and phrasing; this time around Loomis just shreds. There’s no messing about, he goes for the throat and the band in turn sounds more pissed than they have in years. If anything, the tone of the new album, with a return to more politically and socially minded lyrics by singer Warrel Dane, has more in common with their 1996 album The Politics of Ecstasy than anything since. "We were touring when September 11th happened, and the outcome of that had a big impact on the songs written afterwards. We never go into writing with preconceived ideas but that definitely had an impact.”