Warrel Dane - Praises to the War Machine
Century Media Records - 9977780CD - 28 April 2008
By Jack Deming
Here we have Warrel Dane of
Nevermore's debut solo effort,
Praises to the War Machine, adding to the growing stack of solo music that has come and is due to come from members of
Nevermore. Warrel Dane's different singing voice is one of the most loved and hated in metal music in recent times, so obviously if you don't enjoy him in his main gig, chances are you won't here. Furthermore, there's no use yapping about it as many tend to do. For
Praises to the War Machine Dane enlisted the compositional, instrumental, and production services of ex-
Soilwork axeman Peter Wichers, and I must admit I am far more impressed with his input than that on the
Nuclear Blast Allstars Out of the Dark disc. That being said, this album falls slightly short of the mark in a few crucial areas. For one, Wichers sounds like he is deliberately writing in the style of
Nevermore, and while the songs are enjoyable, after a time they just sound like half baked
Nevermore songs with less of the discordant, technical feel that makes
Nevermore's music so unique. In this form,
Praises to the War Machine is not very interesting to my ears.
To be fair,
Praises does have its fair share of catchy bits and good songwriting.
'Obey' crashes around a staggered octave riff and features a clean section with one of the most godlike guitar tones that I've heard in a while. However, the coolest moment of
Praises to my ears is Dane's version of the
Sisters of Mercy tune
'Lucretia', injecting an unusual flavor that meshes well with the original tune. Also,
'Let You Down' is as listenable and vocally passionate a performance as Dane is capable of producing.
All in all, this is a strong release that will mainly please
Nevermore fans along with some others, but the music is far too reminiscent of
Nevermore for it to stand on its own as a separate entity let alone have a big impact. Perhaps I'm misinformed, but shouldn't the purpose of a side project be to explore a different sound and experience than what one's main band provides? Admittedly, Dane does take a more song based and melodic approach, but it is not significant enough to greatly affect the music in the long run, and leaves me wondering whether this is an attempt by Dane to outshine
Nevermore in a similar arena where he can be more prominently featured. I can only hope that Jeff Loomis' upcoming solo release fares better, but in my opinion the best thing for them both would be to just concentrate on
Nevermore. I'm sure that Warrel Dane does not want his solo work compared to his main project, but it's difficult not to when they sound so similar.
Official Warrel Dane Website
Official Warrel Dane Myspace
Official Century Media Records Website
