Having bumped into these guys a couple of times now, it’s fair to say I was pretty excited about receiving their new album Visions Of Another World for review. Their live performances are powerful, with an epic symphonic and progressive sound; these guys also weren’t afraid to play the long ones live too! It’s time to see if this studio album lives up to the legacy of Neverworld.
Beginning with the ticking clock sounds of Tempus this is a nice little heartfelt piano opening to the album, accompanied by melancholy strings, that builds to a more dramatic sound with some subtle percussion and a building symphony. It accomplishes a lot and builds a really epic atmosphere right at the start of this album, despite its short length. This leads nicely into title track Visions Of Another World. This is a great song, with some power metal style guitar meeting more progressive elements and keyboards. Some nice technical playing and some utterly fantastic vocals from Ben Colton – this guy has a range and vibrato that makes me quite envious! This song ends on a nice synth reprise of the chorus melody that works quite nicely.
They Live is about as close as you’ll get to “radio-friendly” in terms of song lengths from these guys. This one has a nice groove to it, especially in the intro, and feels really “80s” throughout, with stabbing synths and really nice hefty guitars. This one has a nice chorus with a very melodic vibe, and some overall great playing from the band. Blood And Romance is the long epic of the album, and features some female vocals too from Christina Gajny. This song has various movements, from fast paced guitar work to somewhat more laid back moments with some nice guitar solos and some cool vocals throughout.
Ghosts is one of my highlights of the album. Some fantastic songwriting ties together a really diverse vocal approach, great chorus and some awesome melodies throughout. It doesn’t lose focus at any point and really hits the nail on the head with the band really shining as a whole here. The song moves along really nicely, with an acoustic bridge that works really well too, bringing a nice balance of light and dark to the material here.
Wheel Of Misfortune is another highlight, with a humorous intro and outro (I’ll let you hear it for yourself) and some awesome vocals over the top of a meaty main riff. This song offers plenty, with muscular metal riffage throughout and some really cool moments in general, from great melodies to powerful keyboards cemented by a very strong rhythm section.
Eminent Reprisal builds a really great atmosphere, with some pounding heartbeat-like drums, with melodic guitars setting an epic tone, a little like an 80s action movie in style. The song goes into some nice piano melodies layered with some nice guitars and good beat from the drums too. This one has a really powerful guitar section later on, with a really old school progressive feel that melds Queensryche and Fates Warning style sections and vocals seamlessly; a really impressive feat considering the monstrous talents required.
Penultimate rocker Salt Water Bandits is a piece of technical mastery, with some maddeningly speedy riffs meeting melodic lead guitars really nicely, with some great synth and bass backing and really powerful drumming. This is a nice long track but keeps it interesting throughout with some really great musicianship and songwriting; there’s plenty of contrasting moments, breaks and build-ups that keep the listener on their toes.
The album ends on This Fire, which opens with some nice emotive piano with guitar accompaniment. This song builds up nicely with some more great vocals, with some heavy guitar chords building upon the atmosphere, before they got to some great proggy riffage. This one certainly doesn’t finish the album on a tepid note. All the energy of the band is present and accounted for, with lots of great and different melodic moments blending nicely with heavy stuff. Another great chorus with a great feel to it rounds things off here too. The song ends as the album starts, with the inevitable ticking of time.
The production is pretty good, especially for a debut album. The guitars sound a little digital in places but it’s really no big issue, the playing MORE than makes up for such a minor thing. I personally would have appreciated a little more bass in the mix but again that’s just a small personal thing. The vocals sound absolutely spot on, well layered and recorded, and clearly a lot of effort has gone into this. The Drum sound is nice and powerful, well recorded too, and the keyboards are really good; both subtle and powerful when the need arises. Everything gels nicely in the overall mix as well.
Visions Of Another World is a really strong release, and another in recent memory that I’ve simply had to go into track by track analysis of it; it’s just that good! This is a band with plenty of skill and talent, and they can pull it off live too! There is so much different and diverse stuff packed into this too, which is something metal sorely lacks in the modern age. This is an impressive release, reminiscent of 80s and early 90s progressive metal, with a modern touch, and absolutely fantastic songwriting.
Check out Neverworld at https://www.facebook.com/NeverworldMetal
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