Dreams d'Azur

Where did this come from? Are my ears deceiving me, or have Novembre found some much needed consistency? One has to wonder whether Novembre’s members are religious or not, since the quality of the performance has exceeded the expectations on this occasions. The band, who’s lyrical themes consist partly of personal struggles, have faced just that - inner issues that have forced the band to consistently release inconsistent material. Juxtaposition that no avid listener wishes to find from the material they’re attempting to review impartially. ‘Dreams D’Azur’ is the fifth attempt by the Italian hybrid act to successfully initiate a style that will consistently reward them with heaps of praise. Unfortunately, up until now, Novembre have walked in the shadows, scarcely drawing their sound into the light where God shines down upon them and gives them the strength to fight their demons who come in the shape of inconsistency and poor performance levels. The cries of the band can be summed up by the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which states;

“Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord!.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.”

The faults present on previous recordings were something that hung over the aforementioned efforts like sin and throughout the entirety of their records the inferior and insignificance grew larger and larger, consuming the entire sound and leaving the listener feeling high levels of dread at what Novembre might have to offer next. That dread was not short lived as I came to find out the material present on ‘Dreams D’Azur’ consists of re-recorded material from the first record, ‘Wish I Could Dream It Again…’ which is precisely where the poor foundations began. Although I didn’t know that ‘Wish I Could Dream It Again…’ existed until long after having heard this record, when I did get around to listening the debut, I was in a state of perpetual shock. Why? Well, Novembre have hit their stride on this record, they’ve mustered up some kind of miraculous form that would have been unforeseen had this not been heard before the debut. From beginning to end, Novembre were unable to break the shackles which held them firmly in their place of mediocrity and each musician played like they had a crucifix tightly positioned on their backs - also known as “awfully”. Although not all of the songs from the debut have managed to make the transition to this effort, a lot have and the inspiring thing is - Novembre have made it work. They’re meticulous in their game. They piece each section together like a puzzle and the individual aspects of this record fit well together - the iconic drifting bass is the root of the brilliance and it has presented an emotional and clearly observed front for Novembre for years now. The vocals and overall performance of Carmelo is, once again, the highlight of an immense showpiece.

‘The Dream Of The Old Boots’ is a fine example of his talents and how the bass, as well as the other pivotal elements (like the consistently intrusive percussion and the strong willed guitars that are played like they are swords in battle, with each stroke of the majestic chords, the musicians are fighting back against corruption and maintaining their lives in the process), work commandingly well together. This record represents one of the biggest shocks I’ve witnessed in my time of listening to metal. It isn’t perfect, but its damn near close and deserves extra credit simply because Novembre have reinvented themselves, whilst maintaining the old sound and the small number of positives it had. In hindsight, Novembre were probably judged too harshly on previous records, the debut especially. Why? Well, this was always a favourite of mine, despite the fact that, in general, I consider Novembre to be underachieving. The fact that this record has hit the spot so well means that it is deserving of extra praise since the band have struggled due to poor production values, numerous line-up changes and conventional songs which didn’t serve to please the listener like any servant of the music trade should do. Although I don’t necessarily agree with making music to suit your audiences needs, I do expect a degree of empathy from the musicians towards the fan. By this I mean that whilst, yes, the band should construct their own sound in any way that they see fit, but they should consider their target audience carefully before recording what they’ve created. Novembre have been guilty of issuing insignificant material for far too long and whilst I do respect this band because they do have immense talents, I don’t like the way in which they’ve conducted themselves over the years by recording passable, though not terrific, music.

Novembre significantly altered their state of being after this record and, to me, this is a swan song for the bands old style. What makes me see this as being so even more is the fact that a lot of the songs are simply re-recorded from the old days and performed by improved musicians. The song writing has taken a beating in the past, but the material present here is exemplary of the talents that this band does possess. Now that the production has been improved upon, Novembre have no plausible reasons as to why they’re failing miserably to make fans happy. The previous effort, ‘Novembrine Waltz’ was verging on good. The material has drastically changed in order for this occurrence to be possible. The previous effort to that, ‘Classica’, was by no means a classic. The production was better, but the song structures didn’t allow the bass, or the percussion to take full effect. The emotional strains of the musicianship didn’t reflect well against the confined soundscapes that relied far too heavily on nasal vocals and guitar leads that didn’t catch the eye enough. Listening to ‘Classica’ is like looking at black and white photos. Though there is beauty in the black and white contrast, the edge is lost because of the lack of colour and the simple fact that Novembre couldn’t inhabit a sound that made the dull style work. Creativity wasn’t exactly an issue, but it wasn’t a major positive in reflection.

Creativity on this record in present and its in full swing. It moves back and forth like the calming influence of waves. The acoustics and clean vocals are especially emotional and encase a sound that Novembre really know how to showcase - ‘Marea’ is the perfect example of how the Italians have managed to cultivate the best sound for themselves using simplistic methods. The band moves from harsh doom, to atmospheric gothic rock in minutes. Slow acoustics alongside the onomatopoeic influence of the waves, as well as Carmelo’s all powerful vocals, make this an emotional rollercoaster. Something that the previous records crave like vampires crave the blood of untouched virginal women. The best attributes of this record are the simplistic one’s. There is simply more outstanding material on ‘Dreams D’Azur’ than any other Novembre piece before it, though the debut has to be thanked for some of the material present here. One thing that cannot go unnoticed is the fact that Novembre have kept the same line-up for two records in a row, and this line-up actually took part in the recording of the debut. This small factor makes a world of difference because the band have matured together and in that maturity, they have somehow managed to find a togetherness that has seen the work ethic rise and the material better itself by the fact that accomplished musicians are playing it. Although songs like ‘Marea’ highlight the interchangeable style of Novembre well, its songs like the nostalgic ‘The Dream Of The Old Boots’ and mysterious ‘Swim Seagull In The Sky’ that truly stand out. The best yet.

Personally, I did not like Wish I Could Dream It Again at all. I also notice how much lower it's rated on this site than this remake. So I ask the question, what's better about these songs now?

I think Novembre were pretty confused about exactly what they wanted to do with their first album, so they put some pretty basic stuff on it, and people seemed to realize it wasn't an extraordinary album.

What we have here, is just a re-recorded version of a simplistic, messy record. The ONLY track that really stands out on this album, just as it did on the first album, is "The Dream Of The Old Boats". Novembre gave us one gem from their beginning. But, everything else was pretty much skipped around a couple minutes into the song.

There are no melodies, riffs, or vocal harmonies that really reach out and grab you on this record. Certainly nothing like Novembrine Waltz. The drums are pretty much standard double-bass, all the way through, There is little variation in the instrumentation on this album, and that is the real problem with it.

They found something great in "The Dream Of The Old Boats", but it seems that they tried to twist and contort that one song into several different songs, that turned out to be far inferior. I will say that the vocals are MUCH louder and clearer here than they were on the original version of the album, which coupled with the opening track, is the only reason it even gets a 50.

Carmello Orlando has such a great, soothing voice, and it is just too little used on this album. There are so many distorted vocals on this early stuff, and I think it took the finished product, and them hearing it, to realize that utilizing Carmelo's clean vocals more often than not was going to be the future of their music.

I would love to hear Novembre do another album where strictly clean vocals are used. Materia was close, and a very good album, but no cigar. Arte Novecento is a masterpiece. I'd love to hear another like it.

Novembre's Dreams D'azur, is the re-recording of their first album, "Wish I could dream it again", which had not a too good production. Anyway, since I heard them both, I must say that they still sound far away different, even if the songs are theorically the same.

Partially, this happens because of the new production, partially because of Carmelo's vocals, and partially simply because they made some changes in the songs. This album sounds more like Classica than Novembrine Waltz, but I personally think that it ends to be their best one, along with Classica.

Novembre is a band able to create an unique sound and atmosphere, infact it's really hard to classify them in a specific genre of metal. The structures of the songs are not the most typical and used, they remind at the progressive style, since they never repeat parts of the songs and don't use any kind of choruses.

The songs are really melodic, with some heavy parts and some sweet parts, with growling vocals and clean vocals mixing in a perfect harmony. They made each track really different, with some which remind to a melodic death metal sound, like Let Me Hate or Old Lighthouse Tale, some which seems more doomish, like Christal, and some with gothic atmospheres, like Sirens in filth. Every song tends to grow second after second, using crescendos and climaxes, sometimes exploding suddenly like Novembre (name of a track), where after a long and quiet part, the drumming gets a lot faster and the vocals turn into an hard growling; or The Music. Sometimes they can instead slow down quickly (the really end of Novembre, or Sirens in Filth's ending with the piano solo), making the progressions awesome.

Their melodic cut was already notable in the previous works and you'll notice immediately their unique sound, someone says that they remember the old Katatonia or Opeth. The lyrics are all around the sea or the water, but talk about relationship struggles or nature, dreams and thoughtful themes.

I also think that they are really capable to catch up people on the emotive side with their music, transmitting sadness, rage or other emotions with the growls and the melodies created by the instruments.

I personally love "The dream of the old boats", "Sirens in filth", "Swim seagull in the sky" and "The white eyed", but each track has a solid sound. I really recommend this album to everyone, especially if you want to listen to something particular, I think that they are probably the best italian metal band.

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.