Ex-Death guitarist James Murphy adds some references to Spiritual Healing in his guest spot on ‘The Holocaust of Thought’, a short ditty appropriately interpolated as a respite towards the latter half of the album. Penultimate track ‘A Future Uncertain’ lovingly intermixes an acoustic intro and midsection with a cavalcade of blusterous riffs propelled along by Van Williams’ thrashing drum track. This comes to a head during the acoustic interlude when tender melodies collide with thundering distortion in a wonderful game of call and response building up to another of Nevermore’s incredibly intricate and technical riffs.

As if the first ten songs were not awesome enough, as if the joyous coalescence of savage guitar assaults and uplifting hooks were simply not up to standard, as if Loomis’ sweep-picked fret gymnastics were just going through the motions, as if Dane’s powerful angst-ridden vocals were whispers in the dark, as if the mighty threads of riffery were no more a preface, the album ends with what can only be described as a godly creation, a sublime typification of everything that came hitherto and more. The vast title-track, stretching out at nine minutes but bolting past in what seems like half that time, is the apogee of this brilliant album, a supreme finale, epic and engaging, fierce and melodious.

Announcing itself with a mellow sequence of arpeggiated chords, the song shifts gears into a more up-tempo section led by Dane’s vocals mimicked by a succession of guitar harmonies, before dashing into an assemblage of lustrous riffery. Here we can see the rifferama at its most intense, specifically during the mid-song break where riff upon riff erupt at will escorting us to Loomis’ famed solo. Proceedings end in an immense falsetto shriek proclaiming the coming armageddon as the guitars conclude their unyielding dual chuggathon.

You want a definition of rifferama? Want to know what the hell that damned sage was spouting about? I recommend a listen to This Godless Endeavor, here Nevermore summates the whole notion in ways that words inevitably fail to, and in the process create what could be their most creative work of genius thus far, even surpassing such gems as Dead Heart in a Dead World, no easy feat for sure, but every track on this album drips with ingenuity, a sense of songwriting so often shunned in favour of guitar histrionics, and a perfect blend of ruthless musicianship and melodic invention.