Year: 2019
Total Time: 53:04
Label: Prophecy Productions
The American Doom / Death giants began their career back in the late ‘80s in Chicago, USA. Singer Paul Kuhr has been the only survivor of the band ever since. As a band, they are not known for their ability to change their sound radically (well, more like the opposite), a thing that has been heavily criticized in the past, especially the recent years. There is a category of fans who love a band sticking to their guns and being true to their roots, while some others who want to see progress in the music and maybe a little of differentiation in the music a band plays. If you know NOVEMBERS DOOM, you probably belong to the first category.
The sound of “Nephilim Grove” is, as always, melancholic Doom / Death metal, enriched with a bunch of other elements during its course. The production is awesome (how could it not be, since Dan Swano has taken over). Each track on this album has a personality that is always infused with the familiar “NOVEMBERS DOOM” identity. This is something the band is not joking about. You will never hear happy melodies for example on an album of theirs.
The truth is that in our times, many bands are careful to put their best songs into the first half of the record. Here we have the (positive) paradox of the disc getting better as time goes by, given that the first tracks are kind of mediocre at times. On this album, one can hear numerous Doom parts almost everywhere, some Death Metal parts, like “Adagio”, or even better during “Black light”, black metal parts, mainly “Petrichor”, progressive influences (“The Clearing Blind”, “Still Wrath” – there is a crazy Prog riff going on over here), some tracks reminiscent of NEVERMORE (“The Witness”), KATATONIA (“The Clearing Blind”), MASTODON, and other bands/sounds. Finally, we have the super mainstream and melodic track at the end, “The Obelus”. A closing to the album like this is something we never expect. Amidst all of this, the album blends beautifully, the flow from track to track is great as well, and Paul’s voice is breathtaking, whether he is doing some clean singing or Death Metal growls.
“Nephilim Grove” is a good album with great production, which gets better as the minutes go by. Faithful to the band’s tradition, with some nice touches here and there that show that they are trying to evolve (perhaps because of the criticism they’ve received, maybe because it just comes out of them naturally). Whatever the case, the result is probably what they would want. It’s not one the best releases of its kind, not even the bands best record. Lovers of the genre though (and not only), should check it out. Finally, we have to add that the artwork is super beautiful.
Rating: 6.5/10
Editor: George K.
Related Link: NOVEMBERS DOOM – Official Page
