Novembers Doom "The Novella Reservoir" (The End)
By Jeff Treppel
Monday. Feb 26, 1:43 PM
Fun in the sun.

Don't let the upbeat name fool you: Novembers Doom are a pretty dour lot. They're from Chicago, where the inclement weather has been known to bring about gloominess, depression, Al Jourgensen, and other miseries. Otherwise, this five-piece's sound has very little in common with anything else from their hometown, or even from America. It's firmly rooted in Birmingham, England, or possibly some desolate Norwegian fjord.

On album number six, the group don't stray very far from their signature crushing death-doom. What's impressive is how they continually refine and improve their musicianship and songwriting, and how said style remains unique. They borrow the wall-of-sound death-prog of Opeth, but keep it more concise. There are Paradise Lost-style haunting melodies, but far heavier. My Dying Bride gothic melancholy, but faster and grander. Take that all together, and you have a listening experience akin to getting hit by a freight train of doom. But in a good way!

The biggest change this time around is that Novembers Doom have kicked up the speed. They haven't hit Slayer velocity just yet, but opener "Rain" plows forward right out of the gate, sweeping through your speakers like a hurricane through a graveyard. The title track slows it down a little bit, and vocalist Paul Kuhr brings in the Nick Holmes-alike clean-moaned choruses to counteract his usual pummeling growl. "Drown the Inland Mere" combines the speed and clean choruses and builds on that with a shredding Gothenburg guitar riff. "Twilight Innocence" then tears it all down with a gentle acoustic lullaby. With the gloom interlude out of the way, it's right back to the doom for the rest of the record. The band takes the elements that they established in the first half, combining them and elaborating upon them, creating a cohesive whole that continually builds and evolves until the last song fades to an end.

The lyrics are, as expected, not cheerful.

The Novella Reservoir offers the best of both worlds. The death metal elements make the record listenable outside of dark and stormy nights, and the doom metal elements give it more emotional complexity than you usually find in death metal. If you're into extreme metal, you owe it to yourself to check this out. Just don't forget to bring an umbrella.
www.novembersdoom.com
www.theendrecords.com

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Jeff Treppel

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