Novembre is from Rome. They can be compared most closely to Opeth. Unfortunately, that is far from a perfect comparison. Where Opeth is mostly metal with softer clean breaks, Novembre is closer to the other way around. Instead of death vocals with clean vocals added in, it’s clean vocals with death growls added in. There is a ton of melody and interesting melody at that. I suppose as far as a genre label can go it would be progressive metal (not prog) with a touch of death. I suppose I should give my explanation of progressive vs. prog. I have come to see prog as bands like Dream Theater that seem to show that incredible musicianship is all you need to be prog, rather than being groundbreaking while I see progressive as being a band like OSI that does something new (maybe I shouldn’t have chosen two bands that share members). They actually toured with both Opeth and Katatonia. Novembrine Waltz was their fourth full length released. They also released a split with Borknagar.
Distances begins with a catchy guitar riff that does a cool progression with it. There is double bass and low grumbled vocals that are like very soft growls. Then growls. He has a very good voice for this. Hearing him sing is even better though. His singing voice is a tiny bit nasal but forgiven because the mix covers it well. I thought this band was French when I hear this song. There is an accordion bit like French cafe music. Italian, French, same thing. Anyway, it’s cool. There is also a good solo. This song is very well done. It has a bit of everything and is easy to listen to. Very well written. The fade-out is the worst part.
Everasia begins with a slow simple guitar and clean vocals. There are simple drums and simple bass. Easy listening almost. The song picks up a bit and has a very positive feel. It is a pretty simple song but has lots of good parts. The drummer shines in this song. He has some really good parts. Nothing too flashy but stuff that you hear and you think are good parts instantly. The harsh vocals on with this band are really very, very well done. It’s not as clear what he is saying as it is with Mikael Kerfeldt but they have this great tone to them. They also don’t drown out the music. They’re mixed right in. The song is another goodie.
Come Pierrot begins with a very cool guitar pattern. Clean vocals join then the song does what I suppose would be exploding but because this album is not that heavy, it’s more of a distorted interlude. The song gets heaviest near the end where the harsh vocals come in and the drums pick up the pace quite a bit. The vocals may be my favorite part of all this. Easy to listen to especially for harsh vocals. The song writing is very good. It’s just all so easy to hear. I said in my genre description “touch of death" because that’s really all there is. It never gets as heavy as most standard death bands play regularly but you can hear the influence and the alternative to death metal they made.
Child of the Twilight would be a ballad I suppose because it does a very defined build through the song. It is good but not my favorite by any means. Another catchy song. I like how this band is able to write such catchy parts without them sounding boring or clichéd. It is a definite skill. Rivers Cuomo of Weezer would be jealous because that skill would definitely help when it comes to writing the perfect pop song.
I have listened to track five a solid 6 times. I tried to convince myself it wasn’t as bad as I though. I was wrong.
Cloudbursting is my least favorite song. It’s a Kate Bush cover and I can’t stand that type of cheesy music in the first place. I hate this song actually. I am not a fan of music from the 80’s as a general rule. It just all sounds cheesy and lame to me. That is how this song sounds and it is no exception except that it was on an album made in 2001. I don’t know why Novembre thought this was a good idea. The synth strings make it even worse.
Thank god that song is over. I would recommend getting very good with the skip button if you plan on listening to this album very often.
Flower has a great start and more of those catchy guitars. The drums are again, really great in this song. The vocals become sort of an instrument when used clean and an atmospheric device when growled. The double vocals, clean and growled, sound great in this song. This song is mediocre but seems great after Cloudbursting.
Valentine has vocals but no words except in one spot that is short and there are words over an acoustic guitar . The voices really are used as instruments here. They sound really good and this song is a very good one. It has a solo but this band is not aimed at writing killer shredding solos. They’re goal is to make everything sound right and this solo is just that. I really like this song. It has great parts and is written perfectly.
Venezia Dismal has a great sound to it. Strings and a catchy guitar joined by vocals that have a very cool melody. The worst part of the song is the sound of synth strings doing a solo build up into a great guitar part. I am often a fan of synths and synth strings but these ones just sound so fake it’s no good anymore.
Conservatory Resonance begins with a very nice guitar bass drums trio that is pretty mellow. They are joined by harsh vocals that somehow fit in perfectly. The bass sounds really good in this song, I must say.
Overall this album is a series of great songs followed by great songs. It’s just that that stupid Kate Bush song ruins the middle of the album. I would still tell people to buy this album though.
