There was a time when a smart hook and a surging guitar sound would guarantee you airplay for weeks to come. The mid to late nineties, in the wake of Nirvana and bands of that ilk, saw a resurgence in demand for rock music with a melodic edge and such music suitably abounded. At the top end of the scale you found bands like Filter scoring massive chart hits with ‘take a picture’, the slightly misleading acoustic song from the monumental ‘title of the record’ album, whilst at the bottom you found the horribly misguided Linkin Park slavishly searching for any semblance of a melody amidst their turgid train wreck of half-baked rap and nu-metal guitars. Nonetheless it was a good time to be a rock fan, with a number of excellent bands readily available in shops (remember, this was before the days of ubiquitous internet and one-day orders from a certain web-store) where previously dedicated fans had had to search for independent shops if they wished to find the more obscure works of even larger acts like Nine Inch Nails.
However, that was some years ago and, in the interim, rock has buried itself back in the shadowy realms of the underground with the result being that there are now far fewer bands making hard-edged melodic rock music, which is a shame because when done well it can offer the perfect bridge between the crushing might of bands such as the Deftones and the memorable, stadium size choruses of acts like the Foo Fighters. Novels, the French rock band whose sonically immense ‘saviour’ album so impressed us back in 2010, play melodic heavy rock exceptionally well and now they are back with another slab of post-something or other (we didn’t bother to categorize it last time either) that is destined to dominate your record player for the foreseeable future and which cements their reputation as a band of note.
Opening with the throbbing, subtle ‘Ghost 1:AM’, the first thing that hits you is the strength of the production. Admirably clear, it is smoother than a salesman in a Ford showroom and it captures the shifts between the sparse verse arrangements and the rampaging chorus with distinction. With hints of Lostprophets, Deftones, Mogwai and Filter all wrapped up in their DNA, here you will find immense choruses, custom built for venues the size of race tracks, passages of aching yearning and guitars apparently powered by lava freshly harvested from an active volcano. ‘Beware landslide’ takes the temperature up a notch on the back of a crushing riff that bends and twists the listener to its will even as the vocals alternately soothe and scarify, the lung-bursting screams splattering blood and spit onto the microphone, the melodic lines drifting breezily amidst the pile-driven riffs. It. Is. Awesome. And an improvement on the monumental ‘saviours’ even as such a possibility seemed most unlikely back in 2010. ‘Got no brain’ shows the band have a sense of humour as it opens with a scream of “this fu****g kids got no brain!” before shifting into the sort of riff fest that regularly filled rock clubs at the dawn of the century – think the annoyingly catchy choruses of the Offspring (gang-vocals included) mixed with the guitars of Filter and the melodies of Five Point 0 and you are in the right ballpark.
Having basically created a party in your own home with the opening barrage, it’s time to pull back, and the lengthy ‘sorry’ cleverly mixes post rock guitar shimmer with breathy vocals and an undercurrent of tension for a song that is both emotive and yet still possessed of an almighty punch. In brutal contrast ‘Left 4 dead’ has a tribal beat, harrowing screams and a steel-plated riff designed to move you whether you are inclined so to do or not. ‘Don’t break my heart’, potentially a heartfelt plea, is, in fact, a light, almost soulful piece of work awash with breathy vocals and subtle nuances that suddenly slips into the brief ‘what’s funny’ which is the heavy metal equivalent of Joe Pesci in Goodfella’s as it demands “what’s funny?” with a pent-up fury that is palpable. ‘Build a wall’ follows on nicely with a restrained performance that combines throbbing bass, echoing vocals and minimal guitar on the verses with a searing riff on the chorus worthy of Filter themselves. A brilliantly atmospheric track, it showcases Novels’ ability to perform knife-edge switches in mood and feel without sounding schizophrenic, and like so much of this album it is a memorable track that will happily stick with you after the record has finished spinning. ‘S.O.S’ is a shimmering piece of sun-dappled music that drifts easily through a haze of smoke with some stunning fretless bass work that hints at a passion for jazz and Radiohead buried under all the bluster. ‘Supernova’ equally operates in a heat haze of melodic vocal work before a super-hot riff shatters the mood and leaves you hurtling towards a chorus destined to shake the fillings from your teeth. The grand finale, however, is also the band’s most ambitious work. Clocking in at around six minutes, ‘farewell to the sound’ is a monstrous, almost progressive work that allows plenty of room for vocal harmonies, post rock guitars, pounding drums and much more as it ebbs and flows towards the bitter-sweet conclusion. There’s even a hidden bonus a few moments after the track ends, which plays the album out on an acoustic note.
Novels have had two years since their last record and in that time they’ve taken the blueprint laid down on ‘Saviours’ and upped the ante on almost every level. This is tuneful, memorable and often very exciting music that harks back to a time then rock music dominated the globe. Ambitious and not afraid to experiment, Novels are much more than just a one-trick band and this release, as with ‘Saviours’, cleverly straddles a number of genres, whilst maintaining cohesion. If you enjoy thrilling, cleverly written pop-infused hard rock then this is the album for you, but be warned, it may just soundtrack your entire summer.
