Track By Track: NEVERSIN - The Outside In (2018)

1. When darkness falls:

Skench: This tune has a dark, gloomy beginning that turns into a more melodic environment. It's short but it sets the mood of the album perfectly: heavy and melodic, pretty much the sound of NeversiN in a nutshell.

Albertino: When you listen to the very first track of the album you immediately know that you’re listening to us, well… what else can I say? For me a perfect introduction, also for a live situation.

2. A storm is coming:

Skench: This one is epic. It's heavy and has a distinct 70's prog feel, especially the second verse. Great vocal performance by Ben.

Ben: I think this is the first song I recorded for the album. Not an easy vocal line but sure one of my favourites!

3. Ten seconds warning:

Skench: It is a link-track. It's only 10 seconds long as the title suggests. Here I was helped by our dear friend Filippo Galvanelli with the keyboard sounds. I played a cool guitar sweep and I added a lot of crazy sound effects to it. It was fun! The countdown is from the Apollo 11 mission.

4. Rage#2:

Skench: This one is sort of a strange mix of Megadeth, Rush and Toto. It has heavy riffing, soft verses, odd time signatures and a "solo battle" in the middle. I think it's one of the most complete and complex tracks of the album.

Ben: In Rage #2, I tried to sing in different ways. I was inspired by many singers I love (Matos, Scheepers, (the old) James LaBrie) trying to give to the song as much dynamics as possible.

Albertino: On this one I can feel our primal roots: Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Toto and of course a bunch of progressive ideas. Love to play this one and Ben vocals are top notch!

5. Prepare to fight:

Ben: An old song I wrote, maybe the first recording experiment to test my old IMac. It is rich of synthetizes and virtual instrument with the addition of some heavy guitar riffs.

Skench: Another link-track written by Ben. I worked hard on the production here.

6. Life preserved:

Ben: This song is inspired by a famous video game and deals with the "survival of the species" theme, in a Sci-fi scenario. The song was born after an intense gaming period and it’s even thematically linked to another song of the album (let’s guess which one). Skench: I love this song very much. I did an Al Di Meola thing for the solo I think it's kind of cool!

Albertino: This Ben’s creature had an immediate good feeling for me. The solos are stunning and Skench makes his sound like a hurricane, this is my favourite! Really amazing, I love that instrumental part! Maybe one of the best of the whole album.

7.Thunders in the distance:

Skench: Another link-track. I made a very nice Brian May style guitar layer in the background with some piano notes on top and a whole lot of thunder sounds.

Albertino: I really love this little tune… even if there is no drums.

8. Rain:

Ben: I can proudly say that if the song is in this record is all because of me! No, seriously, I really push very hard to do this song with the band because, in my opinion, it has got one of the best vocal part I ever heard.

Skench: It´s true! It was me and Ben against the world for this one ahhaha Thanks Ben!!! Eventually, after a while the other guys started to like it a lot! It's very melancholy. I love the melody and the whole atmosphere of the song. Hurt used a fretless bass on this one and did a great job.

Albertino: To be honest, in the beginning, I wasn’t sure about this track and my first thought was not to include it on our album. But then we started all together to work hard on the arrangement and finally it became a real NeversiN track and Sgana’s solo give me a very poignant feeling… cool!

9. Because of you (B.O.Y.):

Ben: This song simply talks about the best and happiest moment of my life.  I clearly remember how every single note was born, between my fingers and guitar neck. I don’t know how it happened, but I wrote it really easily and spontaneously.

Skench: Great song by Ben. He already had all the guitar parts planned so I was free to focus on writing a good solo, which I hope I did.

Albertino: The first track I heard from Ben: playing this song male me feel a bit like Dave Grohl!!!

10. Light of the west:

Skench: This one was a Howard Shore/Hans Zimmer short theme that I originally wrote as a intro for Evenstar. Here you can listen to a wonderful vocal performance by Chiara Badon.

Ben: Mystic and suggestive soundscapes for Light of The West, nothing to say about this song, it is massive.

11. Evenstar:

Skench: This is one of my favourite ballads from our catalogue. It has a powerful melody and I love the solos. Also, it's the first song my little baby daughter recognized... so to me it has a very special meaning.

Ben: I think Evenstar has the merits of classic big ballads songs. Great melodies, huge sounds and awesome lyrics.

Albertino: I’ve got a heart of metal and I know that, but this is one of my favourite NeversiN ballads ever. Sgana performed the solo with his acoustic guitar: what a great job he did!!!

12. Ad astra:

Skench: Great performance by our friend Alessio Cigliano, an amazing Italian voice actor. It was a great pleasure and privilege to have him participating on this track.

Ben: I never thought I would do something with the Italian voice actor of Kenshiro (hokuto no ken) :-)

Albertino: Uatttttaaaahhhh!!! Thank you so much Mr. Cigliano we really appreciate your kindness! 

13. The symphony of light - Movement I - Cosmic stroll in C#:

Skench: This is a kind of a Danny Elfman inspired theme but lacks his typical dissonances. It is the first thing I wrote for the Symphony of light thing and from this theme I developed light the universe. Great help on the sounds from Filippo Galvanelli on this one and his father Maurizio played the cello part in the beginning. Being there and watching Maurizio record that part was one of the greatest moment of the whole recording process.

Ben: A very delicate and epic instrumental song that mixes classical music and modern themes. 

14. The symphony of light - Movement II - Light the universe:

Skench: This one is special. It's a very intense song. Simple but powerful lyrics, great solo part in the middle and vocal performance at its finest. Love it!

Ben: Maybe a perfect song for a single. It has a big impact from the first listening and it stays in your head for many following days! Love it!

Albertino: This is our potential “TOP10 Official Singles Chart”! It flows smooth like butter on the hot knife!! 

15. The symphony of light - Movement III - The main sequence:

Skench: A very funky song! It started from a drum riff over which I developed the riff. The intro is very sweet and (again) kind like a "Brian May meets John Petrucci "thing. I especially like Sgana's solo (the second one) which is funky and rhythmic and it perfectly stands against my solo (the first one) which is very much Petrucci Style. I think this is one of the best Sgana solo ever! I love it! Also, I get to sing a lot in this one, I did a lot of background vocals and even a solo part (on the "one by one" part) and I enjoyed it all!!

Ben: I was scared to sing this song because it has really high notes for my vocal range. Anyway, I think I have done a good job after a couple of beers! LOL

Albertino: With this baby, Skench put a strain on my drummer skills. Never played before a groove like this one and I really had to work hard to do it good and make it sound loud and clear. I always loved this tune and now that I learned how to play it, I love it more! One of my favourite of the whole album together with

the next one.

16. The symphony of light - Movement IV - Collapse:

Ben: The final monster, the song I prefer of the whole album. I don’t know but this track has everything I desire from an hard rock melodic song and it was really funny and nice to sing. In the third verse I was inspired by Chris Cornell typical vocal lines, we wanted to give the song something grungy and heavy at the same time.

Skench: There it is! This song has all the possible ingredients of the NeversiN trademark sound. What an epic and powerful song. Possibly my favourite song of the album both in terms of composition and performance. That bass riff drives me crazy. Every 30 seconds the song changes! Great solos and great drum work! It's never boring and it stays melodic at the same time. 100% NeversiN stuff!

Albertino: …and finally here is the next one I was talking about: Collapse. In our little musical world called NeversiN, I proudly say that this is our masterpiece and I do love every little part of it. This last song is part of the unique “concept song” called “The symphony of light” which reflects very much our essence as a band and shows our constant artistic growth.