novembre
URSA COVER
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URSA COVER SML

URSA Tracklist
1. Australis
2. The Rose
3. Umana
4. Easter
5. URSA
6. Oceans Of Afternoons
7. Annoluce
8. Agathae
9. Bremen
10. Fin

URSA’ is the seventh and latest album from Italy’s atmospheric death/doom metal purveyors, Novembre, and is set for release on 1st April on Peaceville Records on CD and vinyl.

After a period of inactivity since 2007’s ‘The Blue’, which involved the departure of longstanding member Giuseppe Orlando, Novembre returns with a new set of potent and poignant tracks, effortlessly transitioning between soothing, epic, melancholy and intense, from what is one of the originators of the whole atmospheric death/doom scene. Headed by founding member and writer Carmelo Orlando, & with a reinvigorated musical alliance with Massimiliano Pagliuso, the line-up is completed by Fabio Fraschini (previously bassist on the ‘Materia’ album), and David Folchitto on drums. There is also a special guest appearance from Anders Nyström of the Swedish Doom masters KATATONIA, adding his own unique ‘cold’ touch to the album’s single track ‘Annoluce’.

‘URSA’ was recorded at Blue Noise Studio, and PlayRec studio by Massimiliano Pagliuso, then mixed and mastered at Unisound Studios by Dan Swanö (Opeth, Katatonia, Bloodbath), Cover art comes courtesy of Travis Smith.

Carmelo Orlando comments on ‘URSA’:

”This album is a very important step in my life. It got me closer to what some may call ‘maturity’. I’ve been able to delve even deeper into the chasm of the subconscious and unearth gems I didn’t think existed. Lyrically and conceptually I explored new shores. I moved my ever-inwards headlights, and for the first time I dared to point them outwards, against the squalor of this Orwellian apocalypse we’re committing towards the Earth and its sons, on a daily basis, in quasi-total indifference.
The album is indeed called URSA (the acronym for “Union des Républiques Socialistes Animales”), which was the title initially chosen for the French translation of George Orwell’s masterpiece novel ‘Animal Farm’.”

URSA is available to pre-order on CD & LP from www.peaceville.com/store

Pre-orders from the Peaceville Store receive a free 3-track EP including an alternate version of ‘Annoluce’ plus 2 exclusive tracks

The seeds of Novembre were originally planted in September 1990 in Rome, Italy. Then known as Catacomb, their early recordings of unusual gothic doom metal were to quickly gain the band interest. It was around 1993 that the band decided that a name change was in order, and Novembre was born, evolving into one of the premiere European atmospheric doom bands.

Watch out for Novembre on tour in 2016.

www.facebook.com/Novembre-9166507723/

copyright 2016 Giacomo Mearelli from Agenzia2D – click on images to download high res

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NOVEMBRE BIOGRAPHY

It was back in September 1990 when the two brothers Carmelo Orlando (guitars and vocals) and Giuseppe Orlando (drums) formed the band ‘Catacomb’. About a year later, in November 1991 they released their first demo, ‘Unreal’. Despite its poor sound-quality it immediately raised peoples’ interest among the then-flourishing death metal scene.

The 7″ EP ‘The Return Of The Ark’ (released by Sacra Sindore Records) followed in early 1993 and due to its unusual mix of melancholic gothic doom with classic influences caused even more exposure and popularity in the world-wide underground.Read More

Soon after they renamed the band ‘Novembre’, as the former moniker did not represent the bands steadily progressing sound anymore. Things finally felt right and around the same time Novembre signed to Polyphemus Records.

In the fall of 1994 the band recorded their highly-acclaimed debut, ‘Wish I Could Dream It Again…’ in Dan Swano’s Unisound Studios. This was right around the same time as other leaders of the initial atmospheric scene recorded their first and early albums, making Novembre among the first bands inventing and playing this sound.

After two more years of hard work Novembre released their second album, ‘Arte Novecento’, which showed the band developing into an even darker direction.

In spring of 1997 Massimiliano Pagliuso (guitars) joined the band as a second guitarist, and towards the end of 1998 they inked a worldwide deal with Century Media Records.

After months of intense rehearsals their third album, ‘Classica’, was recorded at the band’s own The Outer Studios in Rome in summer 1999 and mixed in Andy LaRocque’s famous Los Angered Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden. Classica was supported by a European tour with Moonspell, Kreator and Witchery in January, 2000, as well as a gig at Leipzig’s Wave Gotik Treffen Festival. Since the show went down great they were invited for the following year’s festival too.

Classica’s successor came to light in the fall, 2001. Novembre entered The Outer Sound Studios again to record ‘Novembrine Waltz’. In order to add the icing to the cake they went to Sound Suite Studios near Marseilles and mixed the album with producer Terje Refsnes (Tristania, Sins Of Thy Beloved, Morgul).

During November and December 2001, the band supported the album on a European tour along with the outstanding talents of their old friends from Opeth and Katatonia which marked one of the many highlights in their career.

Even though things were progressing superbly, Novembre felt it was time for a little journey into their past: ‘Wish I Could Dream It Again…’ sold out extremely quickly and is nowadays a highly sought-after rarity. Many of the new fans who missed the chance to purchase the debut album back in the day were eager to get their hands on a copy and more than willing to overspend for a second-hand copy. In light of this situation, Novembre decided to re-record the songs of the album, once more in their own Outer Sound Studio during the summer of 2002, both to give a new sound-treatment to these formidable and well-regarded tunes, and to give fans the possibility to complete their Novembre collection. To mark the difference between “old” and “new” versions and avoid further confusion, the band decided to rename the album with the title ‘Dreams d’Azur’.

One thing that contributed to make the album an exquisitely honest recreation is the appearance of the former band members: Thomas Negrini on keyboards and Antonio Poletti on guitars. A perfect mixture of heavy guitar tunes of progressive Death Metal and the melancholy of Gothic Rock, Dreams d’Azur is both modern and timeless.

Meanwhile things started to fall apart between the band and the label. It seemed as though they had nothing else to give each other. Both parties agreed to terminate the deal, leaving Novembre free to search for a more appropriate record label.

It wasn’t long before Novembre’s freedom came to the attention of the British legendary label, Peaceville Records. A label that, with the bands they produced and the albums released, traced a deep and binding mark on Novembre’s song writing spine. Definitely the label they should have always been signed to.

Since the signing of the deal in 2004, the band locked themselves up in their garage to write their fifth and best album ‘Materia’ once again recorded in their Outer Sound Studios. The charge to give Materia the best sound Novembre has ever had was given to the Helsinki’s Finnvox Studios where the band recorded all the rhythm guitars and completed the final mix. Materia was released in April 2006. Many lucky fans managed to catch Novembre as main support to My Dying Bride on 18th November 05 at The Astoria, London and 19th November 05 at Rios in Bradford.

After the release of Materia Novembre got straight to work on the follow-up, and it didn’t take long, with the band being highly productive throughout 2006 & early 2007. During 2007 Novembre recorded their new album, to be titled The Blue, at their own Outer Sound Studios, then taking it to the famous Finnvox studio for mixing. The album art was once again handled by Travis Smaith, while a video for the opening track Anaemia was produced. The album saw it’s release in late 2007 and gained a great reaction from fans hoping for some of the band’s earlier aggression to re-emerge. This was backed up by live appearances, most notably a UK tour with Doom legends Paradise Lost.

As the record industry took a near-extinction downfall and the Internet changed the whole world’s economy, making it unclear on “who plays what” and “who sell records to who”, the band decided to withdraw for another spell of hibernation. The hiatus was long enough to give everyone in the band the necessary time to think long and hard on the right life’s choices to make. Eventually this brought Giuseppe to leave the band in order to concentrate more fully on his multiple other projects.

At the other end, Carmelo never stopped writing music, and in a reinvigorated musical alliance with Massimiliano, on May 2015 he started the recording of a previously unexpected new album. Great musicians are invited to the party, such as Fabio Fraschini (already bassist on Materia), and David Folchitto on the drums.
And last but not least, Sir Anders Nyström of the Swedish Doom masters KATATONIA, which, with one of his best solos to date, gave a unique ‘cold’ touch to the album’s single track “ANNOLUCE”.

The task of “mixtering” (mixing and mastering, as he likes to call it) is given to Dan Swanö, the man that gave shape to NOVEMBRE’s first two albums, and to the whole Death Metal scene.

The result is ”URSA”; Novembre’s seventh opus, and the first of their albums with a social-animalist touch in its themes. The release date was set for March 25th 2016 on Peaceville Records as the band prepared themselves for touring work in the coming months.