November is Doom- Nornes : ""Thou Hast Done Nothing"

This French band blends a few varied takes on the genre, perhaps best called death-doom if this label were to allow you to land more on the side of doom. The harsher scalded throat gurgle of the vocals is the one element that keeps them in the periphery of death metal. It is creepier sounding than it is aggressive. Thi is contrasted by a melancholy sung vocal that sometimes forms a call and response with the snarled vocals. This album marks the debut for the band, and as a first effort, they seem to have a very distinct sense of who they are as a band. 

When they lean toward the death metal side of things, they do not do it conventionally. On "A Rose to the Sword' they use a tremolo-picked tension. The vocals are produced similarly as "Domination" era David Vincent, so there is a flanged sliver that creates an inhuman quality. They drop down into more melodic, almost traditional metal sections when the sung vocals are layered over this. They are very technically sound without getting caught up in it. The transition into "Our Love of Absurd" is a little awkward. When you are writing songs that sprawl out over the ten-minute mark, you think there would be enough time to write a cleaner ending. This song is doomier and finds the clean vocals leading the way on the verses. The melodic ache of the guitar is pretty effective. 

"Perceptions in Grey" in gray follows a similar path to the previous song and transitions from it before finding its own identity as more of a funereal doom song. The vocals reach up into more tortured screams for this one. They pull off more rock star guitar solos. "Oneness' closes the album with a more melodic intro and slowly trudges into melancholy from there. At the eight and a half minute mark the drummer starts getting a little crazy as things build up. I like the gloom this album kicks up and their take on death doom I will give this one a 9. It drops on Sleeping Chruch Records on November 28th,  

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