NEVERMORE

NEVERMORE
Biography

Nevermore are an American band from Seattle, Washington. The singer Warrel Dane and the bassist Jim Sheppard started them in the early 1990s after Sanctuary broke up, took in the guitarist Jeff Loomis and the drummer Van Williams, and put out seven studio albums on Century Media between 1995 and 2010. They are known for writing that folds thrash riffing, power-metal melody and progressive-metal structure into one thing, and for Dane's voice over the low end of a seven-string guitar. The band stopped in 2011 and Dane died in 2017; Loomis and Williams restarted it in 2025.

Out of Sanctuary (1991-1995)

By the band's own account it begins before Sanctuary ended. Warrel Dane and Jim Sheppard had brought Jeff Loomis into that band's final line-up. After Sanctuary disbanded the three of them recruited the drummer Mark Arrington and recorded demos, and those demos set the shape of the early sound — but Arrington's time was short. Auditions followed his departure and Van Williams got the seat. Four further demos recorded with Williams secured the deal with Century Media.

That is why the debut, Nevermore (14 February 1995), has an unusual make-up: of its eight songs, four were played by Arrington and four by Williams, and Arrington is not credited on the sleeve. It was recorded at Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline, Washington, with Neil Kernon producing. A video was made for "What Tomorrow Knows", which is also the only song from this album on the 2009 compilation Manifesto of Nevermore. The Japanese edition followed on 21 July of the same year.

The Politics of Ecstasy and Dreaming Neon Black (1996-1999)

The second album, The Politics of Ecstasy (1996), was recorded at Village Productions in Tornillo, Texas, with Neil Kernon producing again. The second guitarist is Pat O'Brien, and the band's own site credits the album's razor-sharp riffing and intricate guitar work to him. The title comes from Timothy Leary's book, whose first chapter gives the opening song its name, "The Seven Tongues of God". After the sixteen-minute "The Learning" there are five minutes of silence and then a hidden track.

On the third album, Dreaming Neon Black (1999), the second guitar seat passed to Tim Calvert, whose melodic sense and technique the band's site says meshed with the way Loomis writes. Calvert died on 30 April 2018.

Seven strings and Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000-2002)

The fourth album, Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000), was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap. It is the first Nevermore record made with seven-string guitars, and that changed both the weight of the low end and the way Loomis writes a line. It carries a version of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" rebuilt in the band's own sound, and its single, "Believe in Nothing", was later covered by All That Remains and by Firewind.

Enemies of Reality and This Godless Endeavor (2003-2006)

Steve Smyth, formerly of Testament, came in as second guitarist for the fifth album, Enemies of Reality (2003). It was recorded at The House of Rock and Metalworks in Seattle with Kelly Gray producing, and the thin, distorted sound it was released with drew enough criticism that Andy Sneap remixed and remastered the whole record in 2005. That 2005 version is the only one Spotify carries.

The sixth album, This Godless Endeavor (2005), was recorded at Backstage Recording Studios in England — the first Nevermore record Sneap looked after from beginning to end. Eleven songs, fifty-seven minutes, closing on the eight-minute-fifty-five title track; it is the record most often named as the band's best. The Japanese edition came out on 26 October 2005 on Metal Frontier (KICP-1103) and King Records reissued it on 7 October 2015 (KICP-3340).

Chris Broderick, later of Megadeth, played guitar with the band live in this period. He appears on no studio album, but he is on the 2008 live release The Year of the Voyager.

The Obsidian Conspiracy and the stop (2007-2011)

In September 2007 the band came to Japan for the first time, for Thrash Domination 07. Smyth left that year.

The seventh album, The Obsidian Conspiracy, was recorded between August and October 2009 and published in Europe on 28 May 2010 and in North America on 8 June. Peter Wichers of Soilwork produced it. It was the band's first record to chart in several countries, Austria and Belgium among them. That September they came to Japan a second time, for Thrash Domination 10.

In 2011 Loomis and Williams left and the band stopped. The band's own site says that after so many years together communication and collaboration became increasingly strained, and that this led to the break-up.

Warrel Dane's death, and the return (2012-2026)

Afterwards Jeff Loomis released the solo albums Zero Order Phase (2008) and Plains of Oblivion (2012), made an instrumental record with Keith Merrow as Conquering Dystopia, joined Arch Enemy in 2014 and stayed until August 2023. Van Williams kept working with Pure Sweet Hell, Ashes of Ares and Ghost Ship Octavius. Jim Sheppard left music and moved to Alaska.

Warrel Dane moved to Brazil and was working on a solo album, Shadow Work, when he died there in December 2017. The record was released posthumously in 2018.

At the end of 2024 Loomis and Williams announced the band's return under the phrase "A New Chapter Rises". The line-up is the two of them with the guitarist Jack Cattoi, the bassist Semir Özerkan and the singer Berzan Önen; the founding bassist Jim Sheppard is not part of it. The European tour opened on 26 July 2026 at the Hills Of Rock festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the band, now signed to Reigning Phoenix Music, is writing a new album. A 21-date European headlining tour, "Liminal Spaces", was announced for spring 2027, along with a ProgPower USA 2027 appearance in Atlanta, Georgia, that September.

A note on the line-up

The long-running core was Warrel Dane on vocals, Jeff Loomis on guitar, Jim Sheppard on bass and Van Williams on drums. The second guitar seat changed from album to album, and the band's own site names four players: Pat O'Brien (The Politics of Ecstasy), Tim Calvert (Dreaming Neon Black), Steve Smyth (Enemies of Reality) and Chris Broderick, who played on no studio album but held the seat on stage.

Discography

There are seven studio albums: Nevermore (1995), The Politics of Ecstasy (1996), Dreaming Neon Black (1999), Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000), Enemies of Reality (2003), This Godless Endeavor (2005) and The Obsidian Conspiracy (2010). All of them were published by Century Media.

Beside those there are the 1992 demo Utopia, the 1996 EP In Memory, the 2008 live release The Year of the Voyager on CD and DVD, the 2009 compilation Manifesto of Nevermore and the 2015 box Original Album Collection. The album list on this site covers the studio albums.

Japanese shows

The band played Japan twice, both times at Thrash Domination at Club Citta' in Kawasaki. Thrash Domination 07, on 22 and 23 September 2007, was the first visit; Nevermore played both nights alongside Nuclear Assault, Destruction and Annihilator. Thrash Domination 10, on 18 and 19 September 2010, is the more complicated one. As announced, the 18th was Nevermore's night and the 19th belonged to Sanctuary, Warrel Dane's other band — but Sanctuary withdrew and Nevermore played both nights, adding two Sanctuary songs to the set on the 19th.

A note on sources

The facts here come from the band's own HISTORY and BIO pages (the beginning out of Sanctuary, Mark Arrington's demos and departure, Van Williams's audition, the Century Media deal, the four-and-four make-up of the debut, the second guitarists one by one, the break-up, what each member did afterwards, the 2025 return and the current line-up), the English Wikipedia articles for the albums (release dates, labels, studios, producers, running times and release histories), MusicBrainz release data (dates, countries, labels, catalogue numbers and running orders), the Japanese Wikipedia article on Thrash Domination (each year's bill and venue, and Sanctuary's withdrawal in 2010), two Blabbermouth announcements (the two 2007 dates and the bill, and Sanctuary's 2010 booking), Gekirock's 2010 line-up announcement with its per-day note, a first-hand report of the 19 September 2010 show carrying Nevermore's setlist for that night, King Records' artist page (the Japanese name and the 2015 reissue), this site's own published news items (the reunion line-up, the 2026 European tour, and the 2027 tour and festival), and the Spotify embed payloads and iTunes Store search results used to identify each album and check whether it will play. All were read on 29 September 2026.