The Pale Haunt Departure

The Pale Haunt Departure! Where to begin? This is the powerful statement Novembers Doom were aching to make from the onset. This is the goddamn crossroads, the grand point at which all their inclinations, inspirations and idiosyncrasies coalesced. It is such a spectacle to behold - albeit, a monumentally sad one. See, the bulk of the album's lyrics are concerned with real personal pain and the way that is integrated within the music is nothing short of breathtaking. The band had pretty much set themselves into a certain kind of corner with their initial four-album run. They were an established "Doom/Death Metal" act from America that followed in the footsteps of My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost and who along with other names such as Saturnus, Daylight Dies and Mourning Beloveth were keeping that particular scene vibrant. It must have felt rather confining because they were evidently capable of so much more than playing into subgenre expectations. This was the next bold step in their evolution and it would also go down as their most accomplished endeavor. Their best fucking album!

The tone of this album is significantly darker than all that came before it. However, it is an early-evening dark; a palpable, moody dark that carries a long way before it is light again. We open with the title track whose entire sheer weight hinges upon that fiery intro of ghostly mourning voices and the threateningly robust tribal drumming of Joe Nunez. You just immediately KNOW that viciousness will ensue and when Larry Roberts and Vito Marchese march in with cutting riffs of such tetanus (yes, TETANUS), you reckon that is how things ought to be. This is humble perfection. The death metal in the "Doom/Death" equation is heightened exponentially and without reservation. Riffs are insistently malevolent and cutting, there's hardly any room to dawdle. Even the slower sections are built up so menacingly that the resolution can only be succinct in its damage and brutality. "In the Absence of Grace" for example, is embedded with acoustic detours but they are void of any light and only serve to lead you into horrendous torrents of emotionally scathing attacks like the rapid fire barrage of riff, drum and vocal all crowing wickedly as one as the song closes violently.

We of course need to address the issue of Mr. Paul Kuhr who heretofore had been known as a pretty savvy frontman...and yet we'd never quite experienced his full range. Well, he holds nothing back here. He is one of the fiercest growlers to ever sprout out of the rottenness that is the death metal landscape. Rank him up there with the likes of Ross Dolan et al, he is that special. His demeanor is maddeningly bleak and he bears that unrelentingly for the entire length of this thing. He weeps into these songs, dramatizes, opines, and lingers above the precipice of death...and you feel it and want to back away because it is all rather too much - how much he makes you feel. Harsh vocals are rarely this expressive but the intent behind Paul Kuhr's every utterance comes from a personal place of suffering and attempted healing and that's why this performance stands out. His cleans are reflective and dour and just plonk on the sadness in oodles. But these are not cheap sad thrills, this is a grown man's pain and suffering. "Swallowed by the Moon" was an actual suicide note he had planned to leave for his infant daughter. The music seems to wanna play dark and dirgy but is undercut by the thrashing tendencies of the guitarists. It results in something wholesomely discomforting.

"Autumn Reflection" adjoins this despair and is one of two of Novembers Doom's severely excellent ballads ("What Could Have Been" is the other). This is such a classic and for good reason. The atmosphere it so delicately (and deliberately) weaves is amazing. Mike Le Gros' bass rumbles respectfully as Kuhr moves past his suicidal bout and contemplates grace. The clean guitars are speckled with compassion and the rousing chorus and satisfying crescendos all make this a sort of spiritual unfolding. It is so beautiful, man. Kuhr's clean vocals are excellent and reminiscent of none. Only he should dare to sing this song. The other ballad-type song "Through a Child's Eyes" is not as successful. It is a bit too heavy-handed lyrically but musically it shows off the band's great grasp of whimsy and embellishment...and it leads us into "Collapse of the Falling Throe" which is majestic and a sculpture of doom/death perfection, so all is well that ends well.

"A blindness that will free your mind/To carry the seed for the years ahead" Kuhr spits on this final song whose riffs seethe in that My Dying Bride/Mourning Beloveth stance that we all know and love so, so well. A case of classic recognizing classic. For all their initial laboring within the scope of doom, “The Pale Haunt Departure” was Novembers Doom’s triumphant homecoming when all is dusted and done. A bleak triumph but a triumph nonetheless. This is well and truly, one of the greatest doom/death albums.

For any metalhead looking for an album to listen to during Autumn (or Fall, depending on what you prefer to call it), this is what I would recommend. It's the classic death-doom sound, and I love the overall vibe of the music.

My first exposure to this album was through the song Swallowed by the Moon, and when I heard it I was blown away by the beauty and meaning. That was the moment when I truly became a November's Doom fan. At the time, I was mainly listening to black metal, and that still is one of my most favorite subgenres, and another thing I think this album is good for is black metal fans who want to take a break from the sound of black metal, and it has some lyrical similarities with black metal, but I'm not going to claim that the lyrics are the exactly the same as most black metal lyrics.

Paul's growls are perfect, and his clean vocals are on point. He does a great job conveying the meaning, and he sounds just about perfect, with no whininess in his voice. I love the guitar sound throughout the album, and it's got a great beat to most of the songs. Another thing to pay attention to is the bass part, which does a great job of adding to the overall feel of the music. The final thing that I recommend paying attention to is the lyrical content. This album has some of this band's best lyrics (in my opinion). In addition to having a great sound, you get the feeling that each song also has its own story to tell. You can tell that there is a much deeper meaning beyond what you can hear, and some thought is required to fully understand each song.

I truly believe that any death-doom fan is lost without listening to this album at least once. Even if you end up not liking it, I believe that this is one of the better examples of what death-doom can be.

I also have to say the album art is good for anybody who likes the haunted farm aesthetic, but you can probably figure that out yourself just by looking at it. I own the shirt for this album and I feel that out of all of my band shirts, it's the one that best represents me in terms of my artistic and aesthetic values.

If you don't want to listen to the entire album, the tracks I recommend the most are the title track (The Pale Haunt Departure), Autumn Reflection, The Dead Leaf Echo, and Through a Child's Eyes.

The single and only reason I give it 100% is that I honestly can find no problems with it. In the end, however, it is up to you to decide what you like. I hope you take my words into consideration, but everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and if you don't like it it is your choice. Not everybody has the same beliefs when it comes to what is good and what isn't, and it would be hypocritical of me to expect you to like something just because I say I like it.

Having never heard of the band prior to discovering this album back in 2007 and being a teenager in the throws of black metal obsession, this album spoke to me in a way I never thought it would. Although taken aback on the first few listens I soon found myself drawn into the more melodic, somber and spiritually curious side of metal, later being led to similar acts like Solitude Aeturnus and Atrocity (from Germany). The album acted as a gateway to a unique and often unspoken side of doom metal. So, needless to say this work holds a special place in my heart partly for this reason.

The fact that the word "Doom" is in the name of this band speaks volumes to what they express as artists. And the spirit of Autumn is alive and well also, which probably makes sense given the band's named after the penultimate month on the calendar. One can expect that heavy, slow and plodding vibe in the music, but this is NOT Pentagram. No, this a different - a newer breed of doom pioneered by the aforementioned peers and brought to a pinnacle of excellence by this record. No bluesyness, lots of open harmonies and vast soundscapes. One thing that threw me off on my first listen was that the vocals made me expect to hear a full-on death metal record. Thus, several listens were required to adjust my mind to what I was hearing which were unmistakable death-metal growls over "gothy", modern power-chord heavy doom. Although not death metal, there is certainly a connection to that genre here that's hard to explain in words and I think many who've heard the album would relate.

What's encapsulated here is a real sense of spiritual and emotional Doom (with a capital "D) in the saddest, most heart-wrenching and tearjerking way. From start to finish we're told a story of a father who dies when his one daughter is still very young. His ghost, then haunting her tries (desperately) to reach out and touch her again, hold her again, love her again like the father he once was. He sings of deep guilt for not being able to be there for her anymore, for having abandoned her when she needed him most, now unable to protect her anymore. As she lives her life and grows, he watches her from a dark, far and eternally hidden away place she can never see. His sadness turns to rage as this growingly wrathful spirit in desperation, hopelessness and absolute despair realizes the doom of his eternal loneliness and sorrow.

Each track progressively narrates this tale. And for as much disdain as I have for the term "concept album" I can understand how one may wish to apply it here.

There's much variety in the music with dynamic swells and troughs, acoustic guitars and clean electric passages suddenly being blasted away by thundering guitars. And man does this band really THUNDER down with real power when they want to. Paul Kuhr's vocals really MAKE this album. They're truly special and terrifying. His ever deep, tireless and cavernous growl is a hallmark of the whole experience. This is counterposed by clean, dreamy singing that makes one truly impressed by his vocal range of abilities. Certain memorable, sing-along moments are to be had here. Songs like "Through A Child's Eyes" show that the band has soft, acoustic goth rock sensibilities which combined with the dark-rock aesthetics, often folksy, nature sounds and forest inspired harmonies and guitar passages, one even gets a "viking-metal" vibe at times.

There are thick chords in the guitars with beautiful, rich harmonies. Deep bass lines and crushing drums. Howling, dissonant choir passages lead us into the opening track "Pale Haunt Departure" who's lyrics simply must be read as you listen. Which brings me to a crucial point that is for all the head banging that can certainly be done here, take your time to really listen (and read if you have to) to what's being sang. This record is replete with poetry full of meaning and an inventive lyrical narrative/motif that's rarely masterfully executed as it is here. Add to all this the alluring, haunting and mysterious album cover art, aesthetics are definitely big on this record.

There really isn't anything out there quite like this.

This is ND's 'Black album'. Except I think Metallica had more to say and generally more originality than ND did at this point. The Black album was a thrash album with shitty drums, like all of Metallica's albums. This album has no subtlety, nuance or thought. This is just a moderately less brutal death/doom album.

Honestly, my first taste of this band was with their second album and it was mind blowing. I can recall listening to it on the way home from the used record shop and loving every second of this crazy awesome music. It was slow, heavy melodic and well crafted. This album was my second taste and I never would've guessed it was ND if my friend hadn't pointed it out to me. I thought this was just another brutal east coast death metal band, but with some doom mixed in. My copy was already in the mail when I'd heard this blasphemous piece of garbage or I wouldn't have purchased it.

When it did arrive a few days later I played it and was very put off by the whole experience. It sounded like a bunch of cavemen fucking their instruments to death. What happened to my Novembers Doom? All the excellently crafted riffs were gone. All the balanced melody was gone. What I had was blunt riffs and very rudimentary song structures to waste my time with. The biggest question is what happened to all the doom? If you look at this through the most liberal of lenses it's really impossible to consider this doom. The music is much faster than anything the band did prior to this. All the songs in fact are sped up quite a bit hence the comparison to brutal death metal. This is riffier slam metal.

Are there any good points? Well, Paul's growls are still pretty awesome I suppose. His clean vocals are a bit off however. Not in a tonal sense but just weak. I don't want to hear soft vocals in my death/doom. I also want to hear doom in my death/doom.This album was really the blue print for what came after. I've heard all of their material since this albums come out but I haven't bothered to buy any of it because it all sounds the same. There's simply no substance for those who care about that sort of thing.

I have nothing against brutal death metal. In fact it's some of my favorite metal. I just don't understand how these guys went from a developed sound that rocked to a generic sound that sucks.I still own this CD and I don't know why. The stuff before, which I eventually hunted down and cherish, is so superior to what they've done since.

Novembers Doom started out as a more traditional doom/death band with the doom metal side being predominant, but with this album, they went all out and just cranked out some heavy, hook-fisted riffs with some of the best extreme metal vocals out there. Every song is put together with care, and the whole thing shows some real creativity in its themes and songwriting.

The Pale Haunt Departure is a concept album about a father who dies and comes back as a ghost to watch over his son, with the tone changing from a steadfast devotion and fatherly care to a paranoid, twisted kind of moroseness, and finally to outright madness and violence. It really brings to light a lot of issues about how we perceive things and how time changes those perceptions, and also how such a long time in solitude (especially forced to watch one’s loved ones from afar as this story tells) distorts and twists perspectives. This is a very well told, depressing and heartfelt story, and it’s living proof that lyrics can enhance the listening experience. The whole thing plays out like a great musical drama, and the lyrics are essential to completely understanding this work.

True, that wouldn’t mean much if it didn’t have good music to go along with it, but The Pale Haunt Departure has awesome music. This is death/doom done in a different way from how I usually hear it done, with more compact songwriting saddled with excellent, punishing, catchy hooks that are honestly near impossible to get out of your head. The riffs are where the death metal part comes in – huge, stomping and dominating, with a really great balance between being smooth and crunchy, and the band interweaves them with bleak acoustic passages and clean guitar melodies that add a ton of atmosphere. The doom comes from the stately, marching tempos that just drone on and on, pounding the riffs into you with power, never getting boring or anything, as the band knows how and when to change up the monotony to make it arresting rather than just plodding.

The vocals of Paul Kuhr are just awesome, as he has this great, deep bellow of a growl and also a really excellent somber clean voice, really deep and smooth, like Mikael Akerfeldt if he was any good. The songs themselves are heavy, direct and hooky, and also overflowing with a huge, wistful and sorrowful atmosphere. Check out excellently heavy blends of atmosphere and crunch on songs like the awesome title track, the sublime “Swallowed by the Moon” and the propulsive “Dark World Burden.” Then you also get more complex epics like the towering “In the Absence of Grace” and the searing “Dead Leaf Echo,” as well as the moody, sensitive “Autumn Reflection” – metal needs more stuff with baritone vocalists.

But there are no bad songs, and the album as a whole flows excellently as a maelstrom of despair, loss and hatred. This is one of those extreme metal albums that is accessible by even non-extreme metal fans, as it condenses a ton of class and style into one big sledgehammer of doomy, artful METAL. I can’t fault this much at all, so go check it out or I’ll set a ferret on you like that one scene in The Big Lebowski.

Novembers Doom has been churning out high quality doom metal for over a decade now and with the Pale Haunt Departure, they are starting to get the recognition they deserve (and for good reason).

To begin, Novembers Doom isn't really even doom. They began worshipping at the altar of bands like My Dying Bride and have evolved into a more melodic entity beginning with their previous record, To Welcome the Fade. Think Brave Murder Day era Katatonia mixed with Blackwater Park era Opeth with remnants of the classic European doom bands like MDB and Anathema. Needless to say, that rules.

The absolute highlight of this record is vocalist Paul Kuhr. The man gives Mikael Akerfeldt a run for his money with his guttural yet understandable growl and his clean singing is the best it has ever been. Kuhr doesn't have great range but his vocals are honest and there is obvious feeling behind them. Tracks like "Swallowed by the Moon" and "In the Absence of Grace" showcase the improved vocals and an excellent variation in delivery. Musically, the whole band is great. Guitarists Larry Roberts and Vito Marchese have done an excellent job with their thundering chords (best on the title track) and their depressing clean melodys that remind me of Opeth on occasion ("Swallowed by the Moon and Autumn Reflection" in particular). Drummer Joe Nunez plays the standard doom metal fare but throws in some very interesting tribal drumming on the title track and has some other tricks up his sleeve. Next, the production, like the last record, is excellent. Mixed by Dan Swano and mastered by the immortal James Murphy, the production job is one of the best you'll hear all year. The drum sound is huge, the guitars are huge and the vocals don't overshadow anything but are heard clearly. Everything about this production is huge!!!

My only problem with this release is the lyrics. I immediately give Paul Kuhr credit for wearing his heart on his sleeve ("Swallowed by the Moon" is about Kuhr losing his daughter) but they seem too concrete and straightforward for my liking. Had the lyrics taken the metaphors introduced in the songtitles and extended them, we could be talking about album of the year. The lyrics are by no means bad but looking at the thoughtful song titles, I was expecting a little more.

"The Pale Haunt Departure" is an excellent record and deserves to be picked up. This band has been making quality metal for a long time but there is no doubt in my mind that this is their best. If you like older Katatonia, newer Opeth or classic Euro doom, do yourself a favor and check this out.