NEVERMORE's WILLIAMS Completes Drum Tracks For New Album

NEVERMORE's Van Williams has finished recording the drums for the band's new album, "The Obsidian Conspiracy", in the group's hometown of Seattle with producer (and SOILWORK guitarist) Peter Wichers (who previously worked with Warrel Dane on Dane's solo debut, "Praises to the War Machine"). The rest of the instruments will be tracked at Wichers' studio in North Carolina. Longtime friend and collaborator Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, ARCH ENEMY, EXODUS, MACHINE HEAD) will once again be handling mixing duties.

Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "Emptiness Unobstructed", "And The Maiden Spoke" and "Without Morals". The band is also recording two cover songs during the current sessions: "The Crystal Ship" by THE DOORS and "Transmission" by THE TEA PARTY.

According to Dane, the song "And The Maiden Spoke" "is going to blow your minds; it's twisted, progressive lunatic fringe riffing with vicious hooklines."

The follow-up to 2005's "This Godless Endeavor" is tentatively due in early 2010 via Century Media Records.

Added Dane: "These songs are full of newfound rage, lyrically and musically. Jeff Loomis has come up with some amazing new riffs that will no doubt please old and new fans alike. Also, I think the combination of Peter and Andy will result in something very, very special."

The German edition of Metal Hammer magazine conducted an interview with Jeff Loomis at this year's Wacken Open Air festival, which was held July 30 - August 1, 2009 in Wacken, Germany. The chat can now be viewed at this location.

When asked if his instrumental solo album, "Zero Order Phase" (which was released in September 2008 through Century Media Records),affected the musical direction of the new NEVERMORE material, Loomis replied, "I wanted to do an instrumental CD for so long, just because I'm a fan of that style of music, and I finally had that opportunity. But I think that with the new NEVERMORE, it still sounds like the band, but I think I'm giving Warrel [Dane, vocals] a little bit more room this time around for more vocals rather than all the notey, kind of complex stuff and all that, so this time around it's just a little bit more wide open musically for him to really be able to do whatever he wants vocally this time around. So we'll see what happens. It's gonna be an interesting album for us, for sure.

NEVERMORE's "The Year Of The Voyager" DVD last year entered the German DVD chart at position No. 82.

Video footage of NEVERMORE performing at this year's Wacken Open Air festival — which was held July 30 - August 1, 2009 in Wacken, Germany — can be viewed below.