Novembre
Materia

THE REVIEW

It's useless to beat around the bush: Novembre have invented a new Metal genre. And it's even more useless, not to mention pathetic, to call it Gothic/Death/Progressive/Doom.

The genre that Novembre play should be called Novembre Metal, because it is a unique and inimitable style that from the very first second of listening allows you to recognize them among thousands: that dreamlike voice that seems to come from forgotten dreams, those guitars that moan in pain with every strum... But let's proceed in order.

This latest work by Novembre is, without a shadow of a doubt (at least for myself), the album in which all the positive features of the previous albums converge: the right dose of melancholy, not excessive growl (never pointless), a perfect alternation of touching melodies and pounding riffs, superb inspiration.
The first track of the album, "Verne", is nothing short of a masterpiece. Carmelo's voice has never been so deep, visceral, I would say almost palpable. The entire song is permeated by a state of trance, of ethereal elusiveness. The voice truly seems to suffer and make us suffer when, with a delirious voice, it moans out phrases that are at times incomprehensible.

The second, "Memoria Stoica - Vetro", starts with a decent but overall anonymous riff, followed by the typical explosion of percussion and guitar supported by a voice even more dreamlike than usual. However, halfway through listening, just when we were getting used to the song's progression, these phrases hit us out of nowhere: "And there's a noise of breaking glass and a sensation of superficial happiness. We were leaves in that strange autumn, and without understanding why, we grazed each other softly". Reading them doesn’t do justice to the daze felt in hearing the singer's voice utter these words: it drags us into his world made of painful memories, of a love now far in the past, a love that lasted too little and with too many regrets.
The third track, "Reason", is an excellent piece imbued with lightheartedness, neither too melodic nor too heavy. I would define it as a ballad with a slight touch of malice. The fourth, "Aquamarine", seems divided into two distinct parts: the first, with clean and relaxing vocals, and the second, featuring a growl that builds up to reach unprecedented ferocity. Pure rage. "Jules", the fifth track, is probably the piece where all the instruments, including the voice, converge into a homogeneous and flaw-free sound carpet. Also noteworthy is an excellent guitar intro.

Venturing into the heart of the album, we find "Geppetto" which, together with "Verne" and "Nothijngrad", constitutes the triad of perfection. In this sixth track, the beginning and the end converge to form the music of a music box that seems ripped from its distant era. The central part, however, is the typical Novembre sound: raw rage supported by a heavy veil of melancholy and dreams/memories. The seventh track, "Comedia", is perhaps the least successful of the album (always in my humble opinion). However, the beginning is memorable: a crazy drum that in fifty seconds screams against everything and everyone a pure and unstoppable hatred. The seventh, "The Promise", is a cover of Arcadia which, as was the case with other covers in other albums, is excellently reinterpreted in the Novembre style. The eighth, "Materia", is the track that gives the album its title, and is perhaps one of the darkest and gloomiest. The voice and distorted guitars alternate, chasing each other in a hall of mirrors where, in the end, it's impossible to distinguish artificial strings from human vocal cords.

With "Croma", the ninth track, we are bewildered by a perfect merger of clean voice and growl, between melody and sonic power. To listen to and listen to again. And here we are at the end, and what an end. "Nothijngrad" was supposed to be the song to title the album ("Nothijngrad Post"), but then it was opted for "Materia". Perhaps to facilitate greater recognition after five years of absence from the scene. But let's describe this piece: this last track unites the best aspects of "Verne" and "Geppetto", namely melancholy and sonic heaviness, with a light yet decisive growl. Towards the middle of the song, we then have a guitar riff that vaguely recalls "Unforgiven II", but perhaps it’s just my personal paranoia as a Metallica fan!! This is probably the song that, together with "Geppetto", most closely reflects the sound and the way of being of Novembre, as well as one of the best in the Metal field.

Congratulations, therefore, to this group from the capital city that with each album never sees its inspiration fade, but is always able to surprise us with new sonic inventions and changes of direction, producing masterpiece after masterpiece. Let's just hope it lasts...