I believe This Godless Endeavour was the success that NEVERMORE deserved after having released some very good albums slowing climbing the stairs of publicity. So, after the release of their latest album NEVERMORE got on the road for some heavy duty touring and to wrap this up they have put up a really hearty DVD. The two DVDs of The Year Of The Voyager are literally packed with material that gives a deep insight view of the band on the road.
The first disc has the live recorded show at Bochum of Germany. The set-list covers all the band's 'hits' under the sound production blessings of Andy Sneap. This means a massive sound that goes hand in hand with the band's energetic on-stage appearance. The filming was done with several cameras covering almost all possible angles through a video clip perspective. The video clip aesthetics is enhanced with the clever used of some visual effects that 'play' with the filming speed without loosing a single second in the mixing process. The audience is totally synchronized with NEVERMORE and especially with Warrel Dane's gestures (Dead Heart In A Dead World for example) who is also preambling every song in a unique almost 'psycho' way. I could not help but bang my head with the German crowd during I, Voyager, the massive Inside Four Worlds and of course Narcosynthesis while I got shivers down my spine with Dane's performance in Sentient.
The second DVD contains even more live footage from Gigantour, Poland's Metal Mania Festival and Wacken Open Air. These recordings are not 'fillers' with top quality sound and picture and energetic film direction. Especially, the Wacken footage successfully captures the bands high mood and energy that fills the festival's big stage.
The rest of the material comprises all the band's video clips, discography with sample songs from each album and an interview with Dane who wears a Maxim (?) and talks about the DVD creation. One very interesting part of this interview is about the postponement of the DVD filming due to Dane vocal chord infection. He talks about the pressure to perform even though his voice was in a real bad mess.
I think this packed release is the best companion during the wait for the next NEVERMORE album. The band is also in search for a new guitarist since Chris Broderick moved to the MEGADETH camp.