November is Doom - Vnder A Crvmbling Moon : II Aging and Formless"

 This British Metal project is heavy on the sonic despair which makes me a fan of how they drone into the sprawling expanse of shadow. They think of themselves as blackened doom, but they are really just sludge. "Nocturnal Passenger" drones on the same throb for the duration, though it does have a hooky melody to it so that is ok. The thing that holds these guys is there is a very uniform pulse to their songs. "Procession' does start with more of a melodic simmer and works more like an interlude when the chords t kick in for "Breach the Sky" and they begin to build momentum, it begins to sound like the previous songs, with only small nuances giving it it's own identity. 

Thus making this more about a sound they have conjured than songs that speak for themselves. If you let this album just play it all runs together. This does not get better as "The Breathing of Monsters" finds the growls maintaining their same power, but aside from some sung vocals mixed far in the background, there has one been one vocal color this entire album. The tempo has leaned more toward the doom end of sludge which works for me, but how about some groove at some point, the hypnotic drones thing they are doing works, but not if that is all they do. If I played in a band like this I would get lost as hell in the song as they all sound the same you would never know which song you are playing. Oh yes, this one has the spoken part. 

"Fall Still " finds the biggest shift with the more blue-based chord progression. The vocals are smoky and cool but it does not go anywhere and amounts to little more than an interlude. A similar statement could be said for the last song but it's a more experimental variation of the formula they have been using already, cool sounds but not a cool song. Songs are stories. You can't not say wouldn't it be cool if this guy ate shadows, sounds good in theory, but where do you go from there. A guy who eats shadows is a cool idea, but not a story, he needs to go places and experience things, much like a song does with a riff. There are good ideas on this album, not good songs I will give it a 6.

pst579