Band:	Neverus
Album:	Burdens Of The Earth
Style:	Melodic death metal, Symphonic death metal
Release date:	April 2023

01. On This Mountain Peak
02. Banish And Burn
03. Calderian
04. Lazarus
05. From The North
06. Mournful March
07. One For Force
08. One For Blood
09. Send My Spirit High
10. Towards The Surface
11. Home
12. Temptation

The Netherlands has given the world plenty of solid-to-great symphonic metal. New listeners investigating the genre will never run out of recommendations by the old-timers. The latter may rightfully say that After Forever were excellent, Epica are as majestic as their name suggests, Delain have some wonderful albums, and Within Temptation are also a band. With all due respect to those artists, my recommendation is to start with the best symphonic metal album from The Netherlands in recent memory. That album is Neverus’ debut Burdens Of The Earth.

The album begins with an exquisite orchestral intro and then transitions to a powerful symphonic "thunder and rage" with the track "Banish And Burn". This beginning is emblematic of the entire album. The orchestrations do not distract from or eat away at the punchiness of the guitars, bass, and drums. The classical instruments are not just musical window dressing. They are composed and mixed expertly. This makes it irrelevant if the sounds themselves are real instruments or VST plugins.

The second major strength of Burdens Of The Earth to become clear is Jack Streat's vocal performance. The growls are powerful and controlled, making lyrics clearly understandable. There is also an almost melodic quality to them, as shown by the epic crescendoing shrieks in “One For Blood”. Streat’s clean vocals are just as good. His timbre has a rather unique quality to it, with more harshness present than in most symphonic metal vocalists' voices. He does not hit as high notes as Fabio Lione or Roy Khan in their prime. However, his versatility, control, and the interplay of cleans and growls more than make up for that.

To completely sell this recommendation disguised as a review, let it be said that the songwriting is also excellent. Burdens Of The Earth boasts a balance of uplifting and melancholic harmonies and melodies. A few sombre, lovely interludes add even more variety to the listening experience. Even bands that have been around for decades rarely take advantage of brief pauses or moments of near-silence in their guitar work. Neverus have mastered that technique on their debut, as it is on full display in songs like “Lazarus” and “Mournful March”. The guitars throw a heavy punch, then stop, throw another heavier punch and fall silent once more. It works gloriously. Even when the quality of writing takes a small dip during the album’s final third, it is better than most symphonic metal out there. “Send My Spirit High”, arguably the weakest song on the album, is still at least a 7/10 effort.

The last song “Temptation” ends the album with a magnificent blend of singing styles, chord progressions and time signatures. When silence arrives, one cannot help but reflect on and admire what Neverus have achieved on their debut album. In recent years, bands like Wilderun have brought a lot of fiery passion and respectability back to the heavier side of symphonic metal. In 2023, Neverus have arrived onto the scene proudly to carry the torch alongside them.