Dreams d'Azur

It has surprised me no one has written a review on this yet. Novembre is one of the most innovative and talented metal bands around today. This album is certainly no exception. In case you didn't know, it is a re-recording of "Wish I could dream it again," their first album from 1994 which is now out of print, and probably had not the greatest production at the time. I've never heard it myself.

When this came out, (the re-recording, of course) I was so obsessed with Novembrine Waltz that whenever I wanted to hear Novembre I just put that in because I didn't think they could possibly top that. But eventually I gave this more and more spins, and realized it is not quite better than NW, but awfully comparable (I haven't heard Materia yet, comes out here tomorrow - so excited).

It's hard to explain, Novembre's unique atmosphere they create. There is just a special feeling on this album, the heavy parts with pounding drums (truly excellent drumming on the entire album), vicious, yet melodic guitar riffs, and extreme(ly good) growling vocals just have a smooth and polished feel, a slight echo overlaying everything sometimes, but not an annoyance, and the keyboards adding texture in the background to finalize that perfect blend.

Novembre's songwriting is unrivaled. Their song structures are long, winding paths, from one extreme to the other. The song progression is brilliant; they mix in several calm, acoustic parts, wonderful clean vocals, and some piano melodies sprinkled here and there, along with the melancholic heaviness. The songs actually flow perfectly in between these two different styles, unlike Opeth for example who sometimes suddenly stops and starts a whole different idea, sounding kind of choppy (I like when Opeth does that actually, just stating the differences) The lyrics are absolutely beautiful and poetic, talking about dreams, nature, and relationship struggles, and one song in Italian.

My favorite songs would have to be "The Dream of the Old Boats" which starts off with an ambient keyboard melody and guitar plucking, suddenly adding rolling drums over soaring clean vocals... every note of this song just has the perfect progression, crescendos and climaxes.

"The Music," which begins with a calm keyboard intro, then adding in some fast riffing with some of the best melodies this band has produced, adding clean vocals which start out low and go to a higher pitch, the tempo evolving into a hammering barrage of drums and ultra fast guitars, switching over to growling vocals.

"Marea," is a 12-minute suite with the sounds of haunting acoustic playing over crashing waves between different movements, the majority of this song having calm acoustic parts.

If you like Opeth, Agalloch, Katatonia's "Brave Murder Day," or other similar bands, this album is screaming for its position in your collection... it sure has snuggled in real comfortable in mine.