Novembre - The Blue

Woah, I'm shocked...this actually marks the first time Novembre actually disappoints me. In no way is this album better than Materia. Seems to me the band has lost the ability to create well put together tracks with strong melodies easily to be dissected. Man, with this album (and Materia at first seemed to be already headed in that direction) it seem the songs are just...random noise. There are great moments, but all the sudden the song takes another turn and loses its sense of direction. I just don't get anything out of this...and I REALLY wanted to like this one as the coverart is their best to date.

Hopefully it grows on me, but so far it isn't a good sign. There are great parts - but that's what they feel like, just these parts pieced together to form a so-called song. There isn't a consistent flow...:( I can't grasp a feeling for any of the songs.

I don't think they'll ever top Novembrine Waltz. Even Carmelo's singing was at his best on this album. And the songs were brilliant.
 
Alcapoth said:
Woah, I'm shocked...this actually marks the first time Novembre actually disappoints me. In no way is this album better than Materia. Seems to me the band has lost the ability to create well put together tracks with strong melodies easily to be dissected. Man, with this album (and Materia at first seemed to be already headed in that direction) it seem the songs are just...random noise. There are great moments, but all the sudden the song takes another turn and loses its sense of direction. I just don't get anything out of this...and I REALLY wanted to like this one as the coverart is their best to date.

Hopefully it grows on me, but so far it isn't a good sign. There are great parts - but that's what they feel like, just these parts pieced together to form a so-called song. There isn't a consistent flow...:( I can't grasp a feeling for any of the songs.

I don't think they'll ever top Novembrine Waltz. Even Carmelo's singing was at his best on this album. And the songs were brilliant.
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Yeah I call this evolution or progression.That is the reason they top materia in my eyes.you get the mood you get into atmosphere and then suddenly you jump in your seat with harsh sudden lead guitar solos or harsh riffs.That's sth. I suppose done on purpose...If this album was just like materia,it wouldn't top it,but for me they progressed and topped materia.plus I think that this record includes the best lead melodies of novembre.There isn't a consistent flow in some of the songs that's right but not in a disturbing way.But that's for me of course.Anyways maybe you'll get into it just give it a few more chances;)
 
I think the album just needs to grow on you. Materia needed to grow on me before I fully enjoyed it, same with this new album.

To be honest, I enjoyed the turn they made by making Materia. It was a nice, softish, very atmospheric album. But when I heard The Blue, I have to say I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting a bit more Materia-like material, but this is ending up to be just as great.

I'm not getting the "random noise" part though...? Instrumental-wise, I think these guys are just as up to par as they were on previous albums. Also, I'm not understanding how one doesn't think their lead singer can sing lol. His voice flows perfectly with the music they create, and he has a beautiful clean singing voice in my opinion.

I was really interested in their Zenith track, it's almost fully an instrumental and its the longest song on the album. That actually surprised me, didn't think they'd do that. Very enjoyable though.

Okay, I'm done. =P
 
I have to say that although I liked Materia, I missed the death-growls... I mean, they were there, but only in a few places, and they seemed lower in the mix...

Now if Katatonia put death-growls on the next album, that would be SIC (not that there was anything wrong with TGCD).
 
Hobo said:
They have stolen a riff in the first song from Gary Mööre´s hit still got the blues :)
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As a musician I realized you don't steal music. Everyone puts their own spin on the same thing people have been doing forever, and that makes it totally theirs. Especially especially(I don't know how much I can stress this) the blues. Saying someone stole a blues riff would be the most asinine statement ever. I just hope that was a joke. If so funny. :)

Secondly I agree zeus instrumentally/song structure wise it's no differently from anything they've done previously. Everything they do blends together for the atmospheric effect. This is what they've always done, and also why the vocals are so damn good. they're a sonic wallpaper band. They put you in a place, and set the mood.
 
BlueSky said:
As a musician I realized you don't steal music. Everyone puts their own spin on the same thing people have been doing forever, and that makes it totally theirs. Especially especially(I don't know how much I can stress this) the blues. Saying someone stole a blues riff would be the most asinine statement ever. I just hope that was a joke. If so funny. :)
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musicians steel, artists borrow, or however the saying is :)
Yes, it was intended as a joke, althogh the two times i have heard it now i kept humming the solo... ;)
 
I've been listening to the album a lot, and it's quite good. And Adam, you're pretty right about the atmospheric thing. Their strength to me is not at all memorable songwriting. It's rather the way they try to make musical landscapes
 
stefan86 said:
Don't get me wrong, I buy CD's that I frequently listen to and like a lot. But people who buy everything by default and assume everyone shall do so seem quite christian to me
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No one should buy everything by default ;) I did that for a while and now I'm ditching a whole bunch of those CD's on ebay :)

But yes, I'm fully aware there's a lot of people who don't even buy anything anymore, which is really sad.. And I don't understand it either. Your not a true music lover if you settle for just a bunch of mp3 files.
stefan86 said:
They just seem to soft for me sometimes, at least Materia. I like my doom raw, like Rapture :p
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Rapture raw..?
 
Yes. It's simple if you heard it, and you like it, and plan on listening to it buy the cd. I will definitely buy this cd. Speaking of which I think the new porcupine tree ep is out!
 
I found this on a download site recently, and didn't think there was any way it could be them, since it didn't say jack shit about any upcoming albums on their myspace and materia just came out last year, but I was certainly surprised when it was them. Anyone bitching about downloading can stfu, I wasn't even sure it was going to be them when I got it, and I had no way of knowing it was so near to release. I'll buy it first chance I get, for sure.

It reminds me more of Dreams D'Azur/Wish I Could Dream It Again than any of their other albums, all truth be told. It's a lot more "metal" than the rather poppy Materia (which I also loved, but didn't think came close to Novembrine Waltz), but has the same general production sound. I guess it's some kind of midpoint between Materia and Dreams D'azur, which is odd since Dreams D'azur was their debut. There are some actual guitar solos here and there, and most of the songs have considerable growling on them, and it's nice to hear Giuseppe back to being one of the flashiest drummers in metal. There's also some definite old school katatonia influence on some of the tracks, especially triesteitaliana.

The people saying it's "not memorable" might have a point, on first listen nothing really grabbed me too much and it seemed overlong and a bit too consistently doomy and depressing. I'm sure it will grow on me, though - I absolutely loathed Materia and thought it was the biggest disappointment of the year for about the first 6 times I listened to it, and now consider it their second best album.

Finally, does anyone have any idea who the female singer is on "nascence"? It really sounds like Cristina from Lacuna Coil, but she's singing backup vocals so it's hard to be sure, not to mention I dunno if she'd appear on such an "obscure" cd at this point in her career (being on Megadeth albums and such).
 
It sounds like this is going to be a really interesting cd. It'd be nice to hear 1 or 2 full songs before the release date, but I'd rather not download the whole thing. Still, sounds promising from what people are saying.
 
Well, the album is pretty much up there with the others. It topped Materia for me, but I'm not sure in which position I'd fit it onto. I've been a fan since a long time, been particularly into Arte Novecento, their second album. Materia, while not a deception, it marked a change in their sound and I didn't quite appreciate the production on it. Maybe because Giuseppe is one hell of a production genius (check Klimt 1918's Undressed Momento for instance) and I think he would be able to put out something much better than what Mikka on Finnvox came up with.

I downloaded the album as well, but to be quite frank, it's still sinking in. At a first glance, it sounds much like an improved Materia, there's a lot of resemblance to Classica's album, but not so much on one of their most rated albums Novembrine Waltz, not to mention on my favorite album - Arte Novecento. I think the album is going to be one hell of a success, considering the number of fans they've got since Materia got out, as this album is definitely an extension to it. I was simply fascinated with some of the leads and effects Massimiliano used. He's definitely a guitar genius!

As for the album cover, it is beautiful. I didn't like it at first, as I've seen it in a small thumbnail, now that I've stumbled across the larger one on peaceville's, I'm digging it more and more (the rain lingers on...yeah I'm NovNerd ;-))

So far, my favorite tracks are triesteitaliana, nascence, zenith, deorbit. But I confess I haven't heard it in great detail, cuz my gf occupies now most of my time these days and she doesn't really like metal at all. The female vocals reminds me of Cristina Scabbia as well, like wankerness said. Another thing I noticed in Zenith is Carmelo saying a versus from Come Pierrot "It seemed so long and shining bright" which is pretty intense.

I'm pretty amused about this album. I knew the album was done and I'm specially curious about the rest of the news the band shall put out soon (which I already know the details but lack the meat as well!)

Thanks Novembre for making me feel again the real fan I once thought to be. :notworthy :rock:
 
its definitely better than 'Materia' but not half as good as 'Classica' or even 'Novembrine Waltz'. there's the special melancholic Novembre-atmosphere all over the album, which i really like. sadly, Carmelo still uses his clean vocals in a much too whiny way for my taste. although i'm not than growl-lover anymore, i'm glad his growling is more prominent here than on 'Materia'
 
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