Review by Felix on October 14, 2024.

After the success of "Alice in Hell", it was only logical that Annihilator did not waste much time. 17 months later, its successor hit the market. Perhaps due to this short period, "Never, Neverland" has much in common with the debut of the Canadians. The A side is more experimental, the B side rather straightforward and the closer is once more among the highlights. Yet there are differences between these works as well. "Never, Neverland" displays the first signs of commerce, although the majority of its material is still rooted in the soil of the speed and thrash territory. Nevertheless, let's start in alignment with the arrangement of the tracks with the ambivalent songs.

"The Fun Palace" marks an unspectacular and relatively disappointing opener that lacks speed and aggression. Things don't get better with "Stonewall". It avoids gently any kind of sharp rims. Calling these titles pretty harmless seems to be the best one can do. But it boggled my mind, that these representative tracks - the opener and the single - featured a mild side of the band. The last prominent piece, the title track, also did not strive for speed records, but its gloomy aura matches the artwork and does not kowtow to the mainstream radio stations. Be that as it may, the entire A side is not as energetic as the debut was. Only the lively "Sixes and Sevens" picks up the dominating sound of "Alice in Hell".

Fortunately, the B side speaks a different language. Annihilator returns to their former glory. Direct, mostly pretty short songs wallow in velocity and thrashing vibrations. "Kraf Dinner" is not just a good speedster with a memorable chorus; it also conveys a funny touch in view of the lyrics. The band praises the existence of cheap food in an original way ("Macaroni maniac, a cheddar cheese heart attack"). Yet this humorous way of proceeding remains an exception. Tracks like "Phantasmagoria" deal with darker issues. But the combative direction of the songs of the B side is their connecting element. Leitmotif straight attack, so to say. By the way, the more simple configuration has not led to a less sustainable impression. All these powerful eruptions have withstood the test of time. Especially "Kraf Dinner" and "I Am in Command" still make my day from time to time. Their excellent riffing proves evidence that Waters has a good instinct for effective details. No doubt, the B side delivers the reason why the moderately starting album exceeds the 70% mark.

Production-wise, Annihilator did not head for a softer result. "Never, Neverland" has a vigorous sound, less polished than the debut and maybe minimally non-transparent. Coburn Pharr, the new lead vocalist, does a solid job and his voice meets the needs of the material, while Jeff Waters resists the temptation to bore the audience with excessive technical gimmicks. The rest of the line-up does its duties accurately and therefore I have no reason to lament about any details. Annihilator were still on track. It was clear from the beginning that they would never reach the level of vileness that was reflected in the debut of Exodus or the early albums of Slayer, but they did not reveal a greed for commercial success as well. Speed and the first signs of commerce shaped this work - precisely in this order.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10

Review by Felix on March 6, 2021.

Let's turn back the clocks to the year 1903. No, The Stone has not yet been founded. Yet there is already a violent tendency in Serbia. From this it follows that 28 high-ranking officers storm the palace of the Serbian king during the night of 11 June. They kill and slaughter the king and his likewise unpopular wife. (A marriage is always a dangerous adventure and, aggravating the situation, in this special case she was 15 years older than him.) But that's not all. In order to celebrate and show their triumph, the revolutionaries throw the pieces of the hacked corpses into the garden. Of course, the public needs to know what has happened. Other countries, other customs.

Well, The Stone do not wallow in an orgy of violence. They prefer a more controlled way of proceeding, but they are also not in the mood to take prisoners. Golet is graced with a profound heaviness. It does not hold soft intros, acoustic intermezzos, female twittering or any other pretty useless nonsense. The album is based on a clear vision and does not look to the left or to the right. To avoid misunderstandings, this is no point of criticism. I am also fine with the fact that The Stone's form of black metal borders sometimes on death metal, because they do not put the focus on atmosphere. A constant vehemence characterises the album, only the second piece delivers a few almost cosmic leads. Anyway, the stringency of the implementation of their musical concept indicates the band members' high degree of conviction. This is not to say that each and every riff works in an excellent way. The excessive song patterns are also not always helpful and make it a little bit difficult to get access to the single pieces. Yet there are no throwaway tracks and it is no euphemism that the album works as a whole. In addition, it cannot be denied that main composer Kozeljnik has put his heart and soul into the music. This alone deserves respect, at least to a certain degree.

The robust production meets the international standard. It goes without saying that East Europe is no less developed region in terms of metal. These times are long gone. Furthermore, The Stone play the Slavonic card: five lyrics are written in their mother tongue. Frankly speaking, I don't understand a word, but I like the sound of the East European languages, in particular in combination with the bad mood of lead vocalist Nefas. The remaining lyrics are in English and one of these texts is inspired by old metalhead Shakespeare. Honestly, I don't think that The Stone and Shakespeare have the same artistic reputation, but this is another story. My topic is Golet. Just a little hint: its straightest track ('Pred Licem Novog Boga'), whose merciless guitar leads remind me of Mayhem's "Funeral Fog", is a good starting point in order to decode the compositional formula of the formation. The Stone cannot be deemed as a progressive band, but they also do not use conventional patterns. It needs therefore some spins to get familiar with the non-catchy tunes. But this time is well spent - and I guess it is more fun to listen to this energetic group than to throw bloody pieces of human flesh into a royal garden.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10