The stage of a London venue like the Astoria is not always the best environment to enjoy or appreciate your very first contact with a band - especially if that band happens to open for a really unique outfit such as My Dying Bride. Even though all the odds would be clearly against them, and knowing that they would have to struggle in order to unveil their riffs under tons of distortion, the Italian outfit Novembre dominated the stage of the central London venue, and managed to make quite a huge impression to me.

I admit having a soft touch about bands that are not afraid to express their emotional side, the fact that Novembre definitely falls on that category seemed very promising. On the other hand, I can not say that their live performance gave me a clear picture of what these Italians are all about, so I decided to wait for the release of "Materia" in order to reach my conclusions.

Being part of a label that has atmospheric giants such as My Dying Bride and Katatonia among their ranks can be quite intimidating for any band that belongs in that genre, but even though a few influences of both outfits can be found in this eleven track release, Novembre's approach to the genre is slightly different. One of the first things that one can notice about this southern European outfit is that they use a very specific formula in order to create their compositions. This involves an acoustic guitar theme as an introduction, and a break in the rhythm half way through the song, and even though the majority of the compositions in "Materia" follow those strict rules, the album is far from being repetitive or boring...now, how is this possible?

Well it definitely is possible, simply because this trio has incorporated quite a few different elements within these strictly constructed compositions, and the result certainly worked to their benefit. Take, for instance, "Jules" and "Geppetto": even though the idea behind the creation of both compositions is the same, the former is far more technical and experiments with sounds and influences that reach as far as U2 and The Edge, whereas the latter is much more emotional, with a melodic line that sounds as nostalgic as the music of children's fairytales.

Nostalgia is a very appropriate word in order to describe Novembre's approach to atmospheric music, and that can be found everywhere in this album - from the Pink Floyd sounding intro of "The Promise" to the strong rhythmical tunes of "Memoria Stoica / Vetro".

The only thing which could probably put off people from buying "Materia", is the band's decision to sing the majority of the album's composition in their native language, but even though my inability to speak or read Italian make me feel like I have lost a significant part of the spirit of the album, it is not enough to make me dislike this really good effort.

Listening to "Materia" has been both an interesting and pleasurable experience, and I will definitely recommend it to every music fan. What is very interesting is that the band will once again support My Dying Bride on their upcoming tour, but now that I am better acquainted with part of their material, I will be better prepared. I suggest that you also book your tickets now - you will definitely not regret it.

****

Review by John Stefanis