November is Doom - Strange New Dawn : "New Nights of Euphoria"

 

This Norweigian band features members of Green Carnation and In the Woods. The opening track has progressive elements but with an aggressive pounding propelling it. The sung vocals have a maniacal feel to them. The attack of the guitar is a little more black metal than doom, but you can hear how these elements are fighting against one another in harmonic chaos. It is made up of a peculiar sonic combination of sound that it lacks cohesion. "Class Hero Idol" has a more prog-flavoured sound. It feels like the gap between Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull is being bridged here. The surreal moments of psychedelia float around the vocals, as the more aggressive guitar chug follows the flow of the song. 

"Defenders of Faith" ebbs down to more of a hard rock feel, with the vocals more aggressive before the momentum of the song blasts off in an epic gallop. The drummer is really great at both tasteful accents and pouring on the barrage of double bass. There is a rather grandiose dynamic swell to how this song builds. There is an odd tone to "Wake of Icons" that is darker than the direction they headed in the previous song. It reminds me of "Gutter Ballet" ara Savatage. "Fortune Bringer" serves to further my Pink Floyd comparisons. The vocals layering really highlights this fact. I am a big Pink Floyd fan so this does not bother me. There is still a metallic chug of guitar sitting back against this that does build back up into the wall of double bass. 

"Finding the Pieces" is much more metal. At times this is accomplished through a more thrashy chug. 'Seek it " has more of a conventional metal feel to its stomp..The guitar harmonies really give it more of a NWOBHM feel. The way the vocal melody is more relaxed reminds me of Opeth. The melodic qualities of the guitar solos are also an improvement in that regard. "High Strangeness" starts off with a drugged-out creepy groove before, the drums accelerate things with a flow of double bass.  The Roger Waters-like theatrics carry over into "Sons of Galaxy". The last song did not connect as solidly with me, it was grandiose but lacked focus. Overall this album works in its own weird way, and might still need to grow on me, I will give it a 9, it's more prog than doom, but gloomy prog.  It was released by Svart Records, which is another win for that label.