Dreaming Neon Black

Dreaming Neon Black is the third studio album released by Seattle progressive metal band Nevermore, and was released through Century Media in 1999.

shadowdoom9
Let me set the stage. The year was 1999. The last year of the 1990s and what some people think is the last year of the 20th century and the 2nd millennium. I was born, and this album came out, on the same day (January 25)! That's one reason why I like this album, but how much I really love this album requires real reasons that I'll tell you as we go on with this review. Dreaming Neon Black is pretty much the start of a higher point in the band's career. Darkness pours in throughout this album as lead singer Warrel Dane releases his thoughts of insanity, rage, frustration, and humane torment.

Dreaming Neon Black is a concept album (a common progressive metal factor), and it's based on a true dreaded experience from Warrel Dane; a former girlfriend of his, Patricia Candace Walsh left him for a religious cult and he never saw her again. Dane ended up having haunting nightmares about her drowning and dying (hence the album cover). Little did he know, in real life, Walsh ended up in a worse fate than in Dane's dreams; she and her husband Douglas Zyskowski became victims of the Truck Stop Killer Robert Ben Rhoades. If Dane knew his girlfriend's ultimate fate, then there would've been a potential sequel, which sadly would never happen. And his vocals sounding angry and suffering are a perfect match to the lyrics. No other Nevermore album can achieve that perfection!

The intro "Ophidian" starts off the album with some samples from the movie Lord of Illusions, specifically the haunting ambience and the line "Ask the darkness... It's been waiting for you." Then the intro ends with a heart monitor bleeping then flat-lining, which is actually similar to the heart monitor heard at the end of the Tiamat album Clouds (Tiamat is probably one of the influences for the darker gothic sound of this album). Then we move into "Beyond Within", beginning this wrong-turning tale. The apathetic protagonist observes how evil humanity can be. "The Death of Passion" and "I am the Dog" is a crushing duo, setting up the story and some thrashing needed for the grim darkness coming later.

Next is the title track. You might expect the title track to have all the aspects the album has, but this is just a slow ballad in a distinct painful manner that still shows what the album is about. The main character makes his descent into madness with the lyrics describing his nightmares and last messages to his long lost love, along with backing vocals by Christine Rhoades (NOT related with Robert Ben) whom I assume plays the part of the long lost love. "Deconstruction" is another song that is slow, but it's more of a chugging groove track with more of Dane's demented vocals and guitarist Jeff Loomis' signature acoustic soloing that sounds too flamenco-like. "The Fault of the Flesh" is a dissonant thrash song with lyrics about frustration over the human condition. "The Lotus Eaters" is a doom-sounding ballad that is great but not necessary. However, the crushing thrash of "Poison Godmachine" makes up for that. Then it's back to a couple more eerie half-ballads, "All Play Dead" and "Cenotaph".

The tough thing about concept albums is that all songs have to fit well as key elements in the storyline so that the album would have a realistic interesting ending. The band manage to pull that off really well with the fantastic last track before the outro, "No More Will", with more soaring guitar leads and Dane's vocals crying out. That's definitely one of my favorite songs in the album. The outro is "Forever", which I guess you can consider a very short soft ballad, like "Celestial Dream" at the end of the Stratovarius album Infinite. In this outro, Dane's character take his own life within suffering lyrics of hatred and sorrow. The outro is 2 and a half minutes long, but if you want to go through the silence for the hidden track, DON'T. It's just a creepy 10-second reprise of "Ophidian".

Nevermore has created an album that effectively dwells into the darker tormenting side of metal while sticking with their true style. This is probably darker than some of the gothic death metal albums I've listened to. It's so eerie and disturbing in a good way, yet the band still has their signature progressive metal style with power/thrash metal influences. Later albums would expand the progressive thrash and deliver new lyrical ideas, but this record shows that the band can succeed in being....something else!

Favorites: "Beyond Within", "Dreaming Neon Black", "Deconstruction", "Poison Godmachine", "No More Will"

shadowdoom9 (Smith ghast4, shadowdoom9)

Reviewed July 2019 for Metal Academy