By Matt Lewis
This Godless Endeavor was the best record Seattle, Washington’s Nevermore ever made. While they have great records like Dead Heart In a Dead World and Dreaming Neon Black, TGE was the culmination of talent, maturity and the metal gods answering some prayers. It has now been five years since Nevermore’s opus and now we have the follow up after solo records from main songwriters Warrell Dane and Jeff Loomis respectively. The Obsidian Conspiracy had an almost insurmountable expectation being the follow up from TGE and both solo records, which were great. Nevermore fans will be disappointed with this new album however, as the record doesn’t really deviate from the Nevermore formula and some of the songs are just plain stale.
Fans will hear songs like “the termination proclamation” and “your poison throne” and say ‘I’ve heard this before.’ The album seems like a bunch of old ideas. There are some hidden gems though – “She Comes In Colors” is a fucking killer song. The riffs on that song are monstrous. This record was produced by Andy Sneap once again and while the production is flawless, with crisp, punchy and nice levels, maybe this is part of the problem. Enemies Of Reality, while it sounded god fucking awful, the songs were so good that you forgot about the production and that one was not produced by Andy Sneap. Nevermore has worked with Andy a lot and maybe they have become too comfortable with each other and they don’t challenge the music anymore. The other problem I think that caused the staleness is the solo records by both Warrell and Jeff were just too good. Both records were refreshing and had the hint of Nevermore but had the individual’s touch too. It feel like the best ideas from the main songwriters were saved for their solo sides and they phoned in The Obsidian Conspiracy instead.
(Century Media)
Rating: 6.5
