Novembre - The Blue
Peaceville

file under Gothic metal

Vera: After their first record on Peaceville ‘Materia’ which was released last year, fortunately we did not have to wait such a long time for a successor than before. After a one month tour with Katatonia, the band around the brothers Carmelo (vocals, guitars) and Giuseppe Orlando (drums, recording wizard) was uploaded with new ideas and they started to write new songs immediately. So it is only natural that ‘The Blue’ became a successor along the lines of ‘Materia’. It gives the fans sixty eight minutes of atmospheric ingenious music.

Novembre’s style is distinguished: long compositions prolific of acoustic interludes with clean vocals, followed by ferocious outbursts with scream-like vocals and distorted walls of guitar. The entire thing is relished with innovative guitar soloing. Vocal-lines are drawn out, sometimes dreamy, other times desperate and full of rage, for the music of Novembre always includes an enigmatic melancholy.

Are there no differences? Yes, there are, for a band of this calibre will never stop developing, how small this evolution may be in this case. There are much more grunts on this album. Carmelo told me a year ago that this is just a coincidence depending on the nature of the written material. Well, this time the band wanted to express a lot of fury in his artistic creations. Another new issue is that the trio was extended with bass player Luca Giovagnoli and he showed a large activity concerning bringing in ideas for the album. With regard to the recordings, Novembre chose an approved recipe: they registered quite a lot in their own Outer Sound Studios in Rome, but further recording and finishing touch happened in the Finnvox Studios.

It is difficult - and senseless as well - to put Novembre in one pigeonhole. They always put a wide range of genres in their multi-layered music. The foundation is (early) gothic and death metal, but the whole has a progressive timbre too. This means that ‘The Blue’ is not an album - only based on its length already - for a quick listening, but the songs have to grow. Since the fans of these Italians can be found in the same orbit like these of Opeth, Katatonia, Anathema and Dark Suns, any exertion and devotion will not be a problem.

Rating 85/100 (details)

http://www.novembre.co.uk