There are some times that you come across a band that already has some releases, but you never heard a word about them. Sometimes this is good, believe me, some others not. As far as NOBEMBRE concerns, the truth is somewhere in the midle. So it is time, for you and also for me, to find out some things about this band from Italy and their new album The Blue.

The band started its career in Rome, in 1990, as CATACOMB and after a year their first demo was ready. At that period the band was playing Death Metal. In early 1993 they released a 7'' single called The Return Of The Ark, just before changing their name to NOVEMBRE.  A year later their debut album Wish I Could Dream It Again... was out from Polyphemus Records.  After signing to Century Media, three albums followed: Arte Novecento in 1997, two years later it was time for  Classica to go out in the market and the last album for this record label was Novembrine Waltz in 2001. After the re-release of their first album, by using the different title Dreams D' Azur in order to mark the difference between old and new versions and avoid further confusion (as the band says), NOVEMBRE agreed with the label to terminate their collaboration. After signing to Peaceville Records in 2004, they released Materia and now they are here with their sixth album, The Blue, with which they hope to make a stand-out for the rest.

Enough with the history lessons! Let's talk about the thing that we are all interesting to, music! As I wrote earlier, I didn't know the band, so the only intercourse I had with their previous material was the samples I heard at MySpace. From what I listen, I am happy that NOVEMBRE have some growls and heavy riffing. Don't expect something like pure Death Metal, those guys are playing melodic Metal with some Death Metal touches, like KATATONIA, a little bit of OPETH and ANATHEMA (the way they where playing just before Alternative 4). As you already thought, the band is playing a mixture of melodic Death Metal and a little bit of gothic, as far as the atmosphere in some songs concerns. The compositions are not bad; they all know how to play their instruments, but there is something missing. Probably is the lack of originality. I didn't listen to a riff or an idea to intrigue me. Overall, if The Blue was not 67 minutes in length, it would have been better (my verdict being better, too). But at the end it is a little bit boring for more than an hour to listen to this kind of music.
As a conclusion: the album is not bad. Some good ideas, with good production and the singer is not crying on the microphone all the time. They have the potential for something better, but, as I said, on one hand there is something missing and - on the other hand - they had to leave some songs for B-sides and not put them in the album. Fans of the bands I mentioned earlier are going to like this album. The others, I think they may like one or two ideas, but at the end, they will listen to something else.