Review Summary: This album encapsulates everything that music is. It’s emotional, memorable, epic in every sense of the word and the most beautiful thing I have heard in a long time. You’re missing out if you do not have this
Novembre
The Blue
'The title is quite generic; there are 12 songs indeed and they're not related as a concept-album. So we thought a generic title would fit. The blue is sort of the backdrop for those songs, it's the color of the mood we felt writing them. It's the color you synesthetically see when you play those songs.' - Carmelo Orlando [Guitars, vocals]
I’ve grown tired of trying to label bands in metal, I mean, Novembre for example, how do you classify this? Progressive melodic doom/death with gothic influences? That only really scratches the surface of what this band plays, vicious, brooding screams, soft, emotional singing, infectious melodies, powerful death metal riffs. It all takes place inside a thoroughly brilliant production, and is played effortlessly well. The songs all lead unto one another as though telling an eventual story, yet there is no concept behind this beauty of an album. At just over an hour long, the album is surprisingly easy to listen to, lulling you into a trance as you are entangled within it’s enriching atmosphere.
Novembre are one of those bands that are mentioned alongside
Opeth simply because they cannot really be defined and share some very small similarities. The exact same thing happens to
Disillusion, and like them, I simply do not see it, Novembre have a
completely different atmosphere, and some might even say a different style completely too. Their songs have a much better flow, and while lacking the punch that the best Opeth songs have, they simply blow them away with the character of each of their songs, like each one telling a small story by themselves and further being developed by the song ahead of it. It helps give the album a sense of flow and direction, further accentuating the epic atmosphere and beauty behind the bands vision for their music. Each aspect of their sound fits into the overall grandness of the album, each facet further bringing the album towards its climatic end, it all proves to be a showing of brilliant proportions, every moment like an ocean washing over you, drowning you under it’s power. The band rarely go all out, but when they do, it is truly mind-blowing, in every sense of the word. The end of ‘Architheme’, for example, brings the end to what could be considered the first half of the album in dramatic fashion, the guitars going all out, the screams at their most powerful and overall atmosphere reaching epic levels like never really explored before (but used again later in the album!)
The musicianship on ‘The Blue’ is brilliant too, the drumming is of the utmost quality, varied, interesting, powerful, every way you can describe good drumming. He has a brilliant consistency throughout, and when needed, can blow you away with impressive speed. The guitars range throughout, from the quieter moments where they merely create the atmosphere and melody, to the loud, bombastic moments where they take the front stage, smashing through the keyboards and vocals to bring the power where it is needed. The vocals are varied, both the scream and clean vocals being very impressive. The scream being simple, but powerful and ripping through you like razorblades. The clean vocals are very soft, matching the atmosphere and giving the music emotion, the vocalist is very varied, showing several different singing styles throughout, from more quicker, strong vocals on the opener, to the frail, almost scared vocals on ‘Bluecracy’, his vocals do not over empower the music, as has already been said, the production is perfect, letting every instrument play it’s part in this masterpiece.
‘The Blue’ is varied throughout, not just in the songs, but in the album as a whole. Yet it never loses the atmosphere that makes the album such a breath of fresh air in the music scene, Novembre change things up in their songs with interesting dynamics, going from soft to heavy often, but not doing that all the time, or sometimes only doing it subtly. You might not notice it straight away but the ebb and flow of the music helps give the album a direction and general flow which few bands playing this style of demanding music can match. They do not try to make the album change throughout like other bands too, they don’t force anything either (BTBAM, I’m looking at you) and yet the music gives off a unique, constantly evolving atmosphere which invites many listens. The influences from nearly every genre from metal make it obviously different from the most music out there, some folky sounding passages managing to make their way into the sound, and gothic melodies often manage to stand out in the songs, there are plenty of different aspects of this album for any listener to enjoy, The band even manage to impress lyrically, with poetic and beautiful imagery throughout, something a lot of bands lack, but Novembre do it well.
I could try to find small problems with this album, maybe say that some songs aren’t as memorable as others, or that at points the vocals are the tiniest bit lacklustre before smashing into good form, but what’s the point, this album encapsulates everything that music is. It’s emotional, memorable, epic in every sense of the word and the most beautiful thing I have heard in a long time. You’re missing out if you do not have this.
I lit the sunlight with my hands
Knowing there's to be some reason
For this ever coming dark
Not a tiny breadcrumb trace
To retrieve the lost Argentic pathway leading us away
