NOVEMBRE
I really had to hold my head in shame over the fact that I was such a latecomer to NOVEMBRE's music. My first experience with them was their outstanding 2001 release, Novembrine Waltz. I've been backtracking since and with Classica, the band's third outing, I feel I have the second best album in their discography.Classica is fitting title to an album that exudes the sort of class Progressive Death Metal we have come to respect from bands like OPETH, which NOVEMBRE are the band I most closely relate to the Swedish gods. NOVEMBRE continue to hone their skills and exhibit the utmost progression from their early days. Classica is a tactfully built and thoughtfully orchestrated piece of emotionally provoking, melancholic Death Metal with endless and depressive melodies. So as not to harp too much on the OPETH comparisons, I will just say this one last time: If you love OPETH, I cannot see why you would or could not get into NOVEMBRE. That goes for fans of KATATONIA as well. Once again the band make use of the clean/growling vocal transitions and both are done with professing conviction, if not the latter being a bit overzealous at times. The glue to Classica however, is the somber mood and reflective melodies that seem to flourish like an endless garden in springtime. I actually find that NOVEMBRE are slightly more adept at creating that graying atmosphere that KATATONIA and OPETH have mastered for so long. Perhaps its because NOVEMBRE place more emphasis on the straightforward elements rather than numerous acoustical transitions heard on other albums of this scare genre. Classica is an ever moving aural vision of shattered dreams and tainted memories, rising and falling with varying emotional vibes, some dark and some hopeful. One attribute remains true at all times however, and that's consistency and continuity. Never did I feel as if the band broke their emotive stride on Classica. If you're in the market for a mood-inducing album, I can think of no better one to start with than this one. This is yet another album full of brilliance and heartbreak, something to reserve for those rainy days.
Clearly, there are no contenders like this in Southern Europe and its a safe bet that NOVEMBRE have mastered their art well ahead of anyone else in the region. Italy continues to grow as a Metal power but few have dared to challenge this talented outfit. If you haven't done it already, you know what you have to do.
