Novembers Doom - The Novella Reservoir (2007)

Track Listing:

1. Rain
2. The Novella Reservoir
3. Drown the Inland Mere
4. Twilight Innocence
5. The Voice of Failure
6. They Were Left to Die
7. Dominate the Human Strain
8. Leaving This

Lineup:

• Paul Kuhr
• Vito Marchese
• Larry Roberts
• Chris Djuricic
• Joe Nunez

the only thing that sucks in this band is the grammatical howler of its band name. thats all. the rest is just awesome.

November's Doom is easliy the American version of UK's doom death kings MY DYING BRIDE & the influence really shows. every track here is just a masterpiece & if you thought that they have reached their peak with their previous effort 2005's 'The Pale Haunt Departure', then you are going to be totally surprised.

it starts with a killer track 'rain' with its heavy intro & deep, dark, heavy death metal growls of the founding member, vocalist Paul Kuhr. the best part about his vocals is that , even though they can get quite brutal, one can follow the lyrics.

and he can also sound fantastic in his clean voice as displayed in 'Twilight Innocence', a ballad which sounds beautiful with its soft & crispy acoustic guitars.

'Dominate the Human Strain', 'Drown the Inland Mere', are absoloutely bone crushing heavy, 'The Novella Reservoir' starts with acoustic guitars & then transforms into typical doom death mode. here vocalist sings most in his typical growls & the chorus has clean vocals.

in fact, there is not a weak song here. every song has this haunting vibe its actually quite a challenge to listen to this album on a dark, rainy night without getting goose bumps.

even though this band comes in the doom death category, the music is quite fast paced & unlike other doom death bands which thrive on repeating a particular riff throughout the song, Novembers Doom thankfully prefer to take another path, that of sheer musical ability & melody which places them high & above the rest.

'They were left to die' & 'the voice of failure' demonstrate just that. brutal throughout the song, with the chorus being the most haunting & soulful.

numerous line up changes every album do not seem to deter Novembers Doom and they seem to be growing in strength with every album. it would be great to see what they can come up with next.

my rating
9/10

review by Pritham 'Metal farmer' D'Souza