It has been a good year for atmospheric doom and death metal, with excellent offerings from Paradise Lost and Katatonia to name but two. Now, it is an absolute pleasure to be checking out Words Of Indigo, the first album from Italian doom / melo-death pioneers Novembre in some 9 years. Released via the ever-reliable Peaceville label, Words Of Indigo is an eleven-track restatement of the band’s core identity and, with the legendary Dan Swanö (Opeth, Katatonia) at the helm, not to mention the wonderful Travis Smith (Opeth Katatonia) providing art, it is everything that fans could possibly have hoped.
Novembre return after their long absence in a haze of majestic guitar, somewhat reminiscent of Devin Townsend. It’s a stunning opening to the beautifully titled Sun Magenta, showcasing the depth of the richly textured production from the very first moments, and drawing the listener into Novembre’s unique world. At seven-minutes, it’s an ambitious scene-setter, wonderfully paced and layered with sumptuous vocal harmonies, and it sets a high bar for the album that follows.
Having so effortlessly ensnared the listener, Novembre offer up the gorgeous Statua, a harder edged piece that slowly introduces a discordant element amidst the driving riffs. It paves the way for the surging Neptunian Hearts which, whilst maintaining the carefully nurtured atmosphere of the opening pieces, introduces harsh vocals and heavier riffs into the mix. A slow-building, melo-death masterpiece spread over 6 minutes, it finds Novembre bending the genre to their will, and the resulting track is wonderfully immersive.
Opening on a quasi-orchestral note and with a guest vocal from The 3rd and the Mortal singer Ann-Mari Edvardsen, House Of Rain nods to the work of Aarjen Anthony Lucassen with A Gentle Storm. It’s followed by Brontide, which finds jabbing riffs clothed in swathes of haunting synth, once more keeping the listener guessing as to the final destination of this wide-ranging piece. It’s followed by a short segue, Intervallo, which adds classical guitar to the band’s growing list of accomplishments, before the full band return for lead single Your Holocene. A hauntingly melodic piece with shades of latter-day Anathema, it’s still metal, but with a progressive edge that proves irresistible.
As we edge into the final third of the album, the band spread their wings on the epic-length Chiesa Dell-alba. The track opens amidst the sound of a tolling bell, the descending riff a distant cousin of Maiden’s Hallowed Be They Name, while the ensuing track incorporates elements of prog and death metal with aplomb. Then there’s the initially explosive instrumental, Ipernotte – a dramatic piece that eschews its thunderous opening for something rather more Floydian in nature. Once again, it finds Novembre exercising restraint where others would race ahead, and it is far more rewarding in consequence.
Following the haunting strains of Ipernotte would be a challenging task for any band, but Novembre make it look easy, offering up one of the album’s loveliest tracks in the form of Post Poetic. Lovely it may be, but the opening bars cloak a schizophrenic temperament that finds the gleaming lead guitar and melodic vocals giving way to a deathly inferno. It falls to the short, sub-three-minute coda, Onde, to close the album. A moment of calm that brings the curtain down in the wake of so tumultuous an album, it leaves the listener feeling strangely bereft as the record spins to a stop.
A genuinely enigmatic album, Words Of Indigo is far more than just a welcome return from Novembre. Beautifully arranged and produced, it finds the band riding roughshod over notions of genre, simply taking the music wherever the muse tells them they should go, and the result is something rather unique and incredibly special. Deftly layered, it’s an album that does not so much require as demand endless replays, and it’s hard to escape the notion that Words Of Indigo is a wonderfully progressive album that may well come to be regarded as the band’s masterpiece. 9.5/10
