***IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP
NEVERMORE - THIS GODLESS ENDEAVOR (*NEW-GOLD DISC CD, 2022, Brutal Planet)
***We strongly encourage you to purchase hassle-free low cost insurance for your order at checkout. It will cover your entire order against damage, not just this item.
NEVERMORE - THIS GODLESS ENDEAVOR (*NEW-GOLD DISC CD, 2022, Brutal Planet)
- 2005 classic that's been officially licensed from Century Media
- Elite 2022 Remaster by Rob Colwell of Bombworks Sound
- Gold Disc CD to discourage disc rot and add beauty and elegance
- Every CD comes with a deluxe foil-stamped collector's card of Nevermore
- Expanded 16-page insert with lyrics and additional band pics
- Gold Disc border on the front cover - but the back of the booklet features the front cover with no Gold border around the edges
- Before Nevermore Warrel Dane had a band name "Sanctuary" in 1990 with 2 albums "Refuge Denied" and "Into the Mirror Black"
- James Murphy (formerly of TESTAMENT and DEATH) lays down a solo on the minute-and-a-half instrumental "The Holocaust of Thought".
- Received 9 out of 10 review from Blabbermouth.com
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS GODLESS ENDEAVOR
"This Godless Endeavor" may just be the most complete and musically accomplished NEVERMORE album to date....anyone that's heard the last few NEVERMORE albums knows that the riffing is monumental and the soloing will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. If it's shredding you seek, look no further than the monster soloing on "The Psalm of Lydia"; the words "holy" and "shit" are sure to roll off your tongue.
Scott Alisoglu @ BLABBERMOUTH REVIEW
This Godless Endeavor indeed stands out of this sea of metal like a lightning rod with a storm approaching. A beacon that many other bands undoubtedly used for their bearings on today’s modern offerings. Nevermore created a haunting atmosphere of almost pagan proportions. An underlying menace that will finally get to you once you progress into its murky depths.
ROCKMUSICRAIDER.COM
Since 2005, This has been a favorite of mine. I see no flaws or imperfections. If you like heavy, progressive, melodic, intense, forceful and driving music with virtuoso performances, Then this is for you. I have not tired of this album for over 3 years, and will never do so. Utter ..... Perfection. 10 out of 10 Rating
GUITARMASTERCLASS.NET
While some may debate which Nevermore album is best, Godless is really the most mature, the most immersive, the most diverse, and certainly one of the most commanding and the songs have stood up well over the time span since this was originally released in 2005.
Jonathan “Doc” Swank, HM Magazine
ABOUT THE ALBUM
One listen to the 2005 magnum opus, This Godless Endeavor and you'll discover the classic NEVERMORE dark melodies are everywhere. "Final Product," "Born," "Bittersweet Feast," and "Medicated Nation" overflow with vintage NEVERMORE songwriting, all conveying that unexplainable feeling of sorrow, even despondency, characteristic of an album like Dreaming Neon Black. Spin this one a few times and you'll be hooked, no question about it. Seattle's Nevermore continue to prove that it is one of the best bands from the United States. Warrel Dane, Jeff Loomis and producer Andy Sneap have created a masterpiece that was one of the best releases overall in 2005 and still is today. Nevermore also added a second guitarist with Steve Smyth to support the solo master, Jeff Loomis. Warrel Dane's vocals continue to soar, along with the band's songwriting abilities. Every track on this album seems independent and special in its own way, while still supporting a common theme. "This Godless Endeavor" is kind of a prophecy--a harrowing portrayal of a dark future. With a towering wall of sound and the desperate, plaintive vocals of Warrel Dane, Nevermore laments the ills of American culture in powerful pieces like "Born," "Final Product," "Bittersweet Feast," and "Medicated Nation." They mold their distress into personal messages, as in "My Acid Words" and "Sell My Heart For Stones." They compose mysterious stories such as "Sentient 6" and "The Psalm of Lydia." But it all traces back to a common view of where we are today, and where we may end up tomorrow. This album does not necessarily lend itself to your understanding on the first listen. But that's part of what makes it special. This Godless Endeavor is arguably the greatest heavy metal release of 2005, if not an instant heavy metal classic. With an open mind and a little patience, you stand a good chance of finding the same beauty that we at Brutal Planet Records and many other metal fans have found in this CD.
Rob Colwell of Bombworks Sound provides an elite 2022 remaster, and every CD comes with a foil-stamped limited edition collector card. This jewel case release comes with an expanded 16-page booklet - to the delight of true collectors. Heavy Metal this masterful comes around a few times a decade if we are lucky. One of those treasures is here again, and we recommend being first in line to grab it, The 2022 Brutal Planet Records reissue takes all the magic of the original release and gives fans even more! This Godless Endeavor takes special to entirely new levels.
TRACK LIST
Born 5:05
Final Product 4:21
My Acid Words 5:41
Bittersweet Feast 5:01
Sentient 6 6:58
The Holocaust Of Thought 1:27
Medicated Nation 4:01
Sell My Heart For Stones 5:18
The Psalm Of Lydia 4:16
A Future Uncertain 6:07
This Godless Endeavor 8:55
This Godless Endeavor by - Jonathan “Doc” Swank, HM Magazine
Fans of true metal will be able to rejoice because This Godless Endeavor is an extremely well thought-out, well produced (sonically the best to date) slab of progressive thrash metal.
From the thrashy opener “Born” to the progressive and epic and mind-boggling title track there is not a dull moment, with only a slight instrumental interlude on track 7 which serves to give the listener a proverbial “chance to take a breath.” I would say that this music represents a great mixture of the aggressive sounds from Politics of Ecstasy with the clever choruses and songwriting from Dead Heart in a Dead World. In other words, this may actually be the band’s best work to date because it draws from everything they have done in the past, everything they have learned and perfected.
Dane’s vocals are perfect this time around – sublime melody with aggression. Like most of this band’s material, the songs are not immediately appealing, but after several spins the musical hooks of technical and artistic brilliance sink in and never let go. It is really neat to see the contribution of new guitarist Steve Smyth on several of these songs like “Bittersweet Feast,” a song that uses layered vocals, “A Future Uncertain,” with its incredibly important message “don’t waste your life on worthless hate and contradiction” and the somber semi-ballad “Sell My Heart For Stones.”
While all this stuff is breathtaking, “Sentient 6,” which could easily serve as the metal banner song for the Matrix trilogy, is just jaw-dropping both conceptually in lyrical content and musically in the hauntingly powerful trademark Nevermore way. In the spirit of “Narcosynthesis,” the band once again visits issues of substance abuse, both recreationally and medicinally in a weak-minded society with “Medicated Nation.”
A song like “Psalm of Lydia” is just so completely satisfying in a world where metal has become so sterile, generic and void of raw talent and artistic expression. In fact, the last 3 tracks really showcase the progressive metal side of this band in a way we have not heard before. The use of dynamic contrast here is brilliant, especially on the title track where Nevermore have expanded their sound immensely.
While some may debate which Nevermore album is best, Godless is really the most mature, the most immersive, the most diverse, and certainly one of the most commanding and the songs have stood up well over the time span since this was originally released in 2005.
Jonathan “Doc” Swank, HM Magazine
DOWN THE LINE ZINE REVIEWS
Nevermore – This Godless Endeavor (Gold Disc Edition, 2022)
In East of Eden, John Steinbeck penned, “There is more beauty in truth even if it is dreadful beauty.” Nevermore’s This Godless Endeavor exonerates such dreadful beauty. Whether Steinbeck would have ever gravitated towards metal had he been located in Seattle in the late ‘90s we will never know. But Steinbeck and vocalist Warrel Dane would have found much infinity in their disillusionment of society, their uncertainty of the future, and a common distrust for earthly powers.
This album is the follow up to the brilliant Enemies of Reality. Stylistically, Godless shares more in common with Dead Heart in a Dead World from fives years prior. Andy Sneap, the man overseeing bands like Killswitch Engage and Opeth, as well as rescuing Nevermore’s prior album, was brought in again for his production expertise. The outcome is nothing short of epic. Godless is comparable to fine vintage wine; at first it may not grab you, but it will grow on you over time and ensue a lasting and satisfying aftertaste.
Nevermore had the reputation of being Spinal Tap-esque when it came to holding down a second guitarist. This album broke that pattern in locating Steve Smyth of Dragonlord, Vicious Rumors and Testament fame as their permanent second guitarist. Not only does Smyth compliment the masterful Jeff Loomis in guitar shredding, he takes the compositions to new levels. The solid rhythm combination of bassist Jim Sheppard and drummer Van Williams is unprecedented on this album, especially after touring together for over a decade. Warrel Dane is at the top of his voice game here, bewailing how the world he saw is “swim (ing) the silent seas of sanity gone.” Herein lays the dreadful beauty of Steinbeck’s worldview as well.
Opening track Born sets a high bar with sonic clarity and melodic death metal tones. The addition of guitarist Smyth is significant on the layered dark melodies. Dane’s lamented singing is harmonically majestic. Final Product continues the bludgeoning with Loomis throwing down some gorgeous soloing.
My Acid Words never lets its foot off the acceleration for a second. It’s both grinding and melodic and touches on bereavement for the apathy of humanity, another unintentional nod to Steinbeck. Bittersweet Feast brings down the doom with a wall of guitar. Dane’s vocals are impassioned:
“The sheep march to the fire and wait to host the flies
Their greedy little maggots clean the wounds with pride
This is your final warning, a war on free will is coming”
Sentient 6 commences as a cabbalistic ballad with lurid piano accents that prowess toward harmonic flourishes, and finally go ballistic with a whirlwind of guitars.
Next, Medicated Nation continues the mayhem with driving bass and intricate, doom-inspired riffs.
The Holocaust of Thought is a goth-infused instrumental, tempo diminished, featuring guest James Murphy (Testament, Death) extrapolating neo-classical magic. It segues elegantly into Sell My Heart For Stone, a melancholic ballad that evolves with a colossal arrangement. The Psalm of Lydia, once again, raises the benchmark with insanely thick prodigious soloing. Absolute thrash brilliance! There are even subtleties of acoustic guitar thrown in for compositional fluidity.
The opening section of A Future Uncertain is dream-like in its guitar interludes and vocal harmonies. A quarter of the way through, it escalates into rage and mayhem.
Finally, the title track is the magnum opus of this project, if not Nevermore’s music repertoire. It starts off subtle, picks up speed, and then ascends into imaginative intensity.
“We contemplate oblivion as we resonate our dissonance
In godless random interpretation
The universe still expands, mankind still can’t understand
How to define you
So hide your face and watch us exterminate
Ourselves over you
Welcome to the end my friend
The sky has opened”
Classic Nevermore. Dane’s soaring vocals, the Loomis/Smyth guitar wizardry, and the pounding rhythm section catapult the song craft into another orbit.
If any band was commissioned to do the pedagogy of a flawless technical metal album, hands down, this is that album!
--Doug Peterson, Down The Line zine
You might also like
