Enemies of Reality - Overview

Overview

The worms on the album cover are a direct reference to the lyrics of the title track, "Enemies of Reality," in which Warrel Dane sings, "Open wide and eat the worms of the enemy." There are other lyric-inspired images in the booklet, namely an open hand holding a glowing sun (taken from "Ambivalent," where the lyrics say "The sun in my hand becomes my despair"). At the beginning of the song there is message played backwards that repeats the pre-chorus "we are the useless by-product of souless meat."

Enemies of Reality is infamous for its widely-disliked production by Kelly Gray. Many fans felt that the mix was inferior to that of previous albums and did not do the band or its music justice; specifically, various complaints noted flat drums, distant vocals, a lack of "punch" to the bass, and the guitars sounding like nu metal. In 2005, Enemies of Reality was remixed by Andy Sneap, who produced Nevermore's Dead Heart in a Dead World and would later produce This Godless Endeavor. The new mix was received pleasantly and gained the album a new level of respect and praise.

At the end of the CD booklet is a dedication to the late Death frontman Chuck Schuldiner, which reads: "This record is dedicated to Chuck. Let the metal flow into eternity..."

On a side note, the track "Noumenon", is named after the philosophical concept of things as they actually are, as compared to the concept of phenomenon, which is how things appear. The term was popularized by Immanuel Kant who used it to help explain his philosophy of transcendental idealism.