NEVERLIGHT, a Gothic, Melodic, Female-fronted, Metal band from America released "The Quiet Room" on November 15 2019. "The Quiet Room" is a conceptual album written with a story line that comes to us from an insane asylum. This album brings to light mental illness and mental health. To paraphrase Amanda, we are surrounded by people all the time. Who is to know who is sane and who isn't? What is mental health and what makes an illness real? Just because someone diagnoses us with an illness? Are we getting better at categorizing mental illnesses, or are we simply creating more? This album was written as each character tells their story. Let's take a look.

"Dreadful Night" - Such an emotional entry, soft and moving. Very symphonic, with operatic vocals, this is a very Gothic song. With a myriad of musical tones married to Amanda's vocals, this song plays well. Each song is written about a character that exists in a fictional asylum. "Unravel" - This is a song whose inspiration came from a conversation Amanda had with a woman whose husband had dementia. She expressed her pain in losing her husband in pieces. This song is a depiction of that statement, "losing someone in pieces". Some losses, time does not assuage. We merely learn how to live without, but the pain's always there, the gaping hole that loss left. "Derealize" - Oh the synthesized keyboards in the entry take me straight back to the 80's and early 90's. Amanda's symphonic vocals lead us artfully throughout this story. Sometimes soft and aching, sometimes hard and deep, she encompasses a lot of emotion in her voice. "In the Mirror" - "Man is condemned to be free" a quote by Sartre. Which means we are free, but never free from the consequences of our choices. Who do you see when you look into the mirror?

"Of Flame and Ash" - Do we become "a shadow of the monster we create"? This song is both lyrically deep and yet has a nice fast beat to it. On the subject of mental health, I mentioned in my introduction paragraph that Amanda feels that on some level we are feeding the beast of mental health. Obviously mental health is a very real thing, but she begs us to ask if all the diagnosis we have is too much. On some level are we creating a monster in a place that we need self responsibility for our own mental states and actions thereof. "The Quiet Room" - This song has a much faster beginning. Truly a Gothic sounding song that stays with its faster beat throughout. A quiet room makes me think of a padded room in this fictional asylum. Each character in each song has its own story to tell. What might this character say to you?

I do like how this album was written. As well as scrolling through this bands Facebook page, the thing that stood out most to me is every single one of their fans who left them reviews all had a similar theme, this is a band who reaches back out and talks to its fans. Fans are a bands strongest link. It seems some bands forget this over time, but not this band. That right there, rocks!!