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November's Doom: The Pale Haunt Departure

Chicago's November's Doom have created some interesting gothic & doomy symphonic death metal with their fifth release The Pale Haunt Departure. While this style of metal has been mostly done successfully over the years by European bands, it's refreshing to see an American band put out a decent effort in this genre. November's Doom mix crushing guitar riffs with symphonic keyboards, death growls & melodic clean vocals, acoustic interludes, and poetic lyrics.

The first thing that struck me was the fantastic cover art by Attila Kis, depicting an ominous run down farm with creepy scarecrows hanging all over the dried out and deserted fields. The bleak feel that the cover art creates is carried over throughout the booklet as well, with many paintings of this farm, its inhabitants, as well as the scarecrows, giving a chilling visual portrait to go along with the crushing yet dark songs from November's Doom.

"The Pale Haunt Departure" tells the tale of the scarecrow, of longing and faith, of rising again. Filled with death metal growls and thunderous guitar riffs, this title track opens the album up with a bang. "Swallowed by the Moon" is a very gothic piece with clean and death vocals, with lyrics of a failed father who reaches out to his child on the eve of his death. With rampaging riffs and symphonic keyboards that supplement the clean vocals on the chorus quite nicely, the band also throws in some gentle acoustic moments, which add some interesting variety here that reminded me of some of the more progressive moments on the most recent releases from Dark Tranquility, Opeth, and Bjorknagar.

Longing, faith, love, and rememberance are the messages on the passionate & emotional "Autumn Reflection", a real departure for the band, and a style that I'd love to hear more of. Here, singer Paul Kuhr goes for complete clean vocals, very haunting in their delivery, that soar above the acoustic guitar passages and driving electric thunder. The gothic nature of the piece adds a strange sort of commerciality, that one could envision some sort of mainstream acceptance happening given the right opportunity. Fans of gothic metal and even dark prog will really dig this track.

On "Dark World Burden", the band mixes intense death metal with the melodic gothic style, as the symphonic keyboards swirl around the relentless riffs and powerful rhythms while Kuhr's vocals go from evil growls to mysterious and chilling clean passages effortlessly. Guitarists Larry Roberts and Vito Marchese create a huge wall of sound here, and guest soloist Dan Swano drops in a melodic and tasy guitar lead at the end that finishes off an impressive tune. "In the Absence of Grace" is a grinding doom piece of hate, despair, and lonliness, while "The Dead Leaf Echo" is a depressive song of intense inner turmoil and failure, and not a piece to listen to if you want your spirits to be uplifted. Rest assured, the band switches gears a little on the acoustic "Through a Child's Eyes", a gentle and lovely piece that has some tender guitar work and emotional vocals. The final song, "Collapse of the Fallen Throe", is a driving rocker with excellent multi-layered rhythm guitar work, keyboards, and varied vocal styes, and ends the album on a real highnote.

So, what's the verdict? Well, The Pale Haunt Departure is not something you will want to put on if you are entertaining guests, want something to go jogging to, or to bring in some cheerful ambience. However, this is some seriously gothic and progressive extreme metal, doomy and depressing yes, but expertly played and executed. So pop this in the next time you feel like spending some quality time in front of the fire on a dark rainy or snowy night, with a bottle of your favorite spirit, and indulge in the dark and gothic sounds courtesy of November's Doom.


Track Listing
1. The Pale Haunt Departure
2. Swallowed by the Moon
3. Autumn Reflection
4. Dark World Burden
5. In the Absence of Grace
6. The Dead Leaf Echo
7. Through a Child's Eyes
8. Collapse of the Fallen Throe

Added: February 27th 2005
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: November's Doom Website
Hits: 3656
Language: english

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