Release Date: October 01st 2023. Record Label: Trepanation Recordings. Formats: CD/DD/Cassette
Nothing Stays Hidden In Daylight - Tracklisting
Hydra
Aphelion
Dense Macabre
Cromlech
Members
Voi - Drums/Vocals
Dave - Guitars
Top - Bass/Vocals
Matteo - Guitars
Review
Nothing Stays Hidden In Daylight is the new album from Post-Metallers Novere who fuse world-building mechanics with a despairing Progressive Sludge Metal sound. Taking cues from bands such as Cult Of Luna, Amenra, ISIS and Mastodon then this album is quite a different style of Post-Metal from Novere. As they weave Psychedelic and Ambient Soundscapes with a focus on diverse storytelling that A Perfect Circle are known for. The end result is enigmatic and deliciously twisted especially when the clean vocals appear in contrast to the harsh vocals that Noverre use as well for the more despairing moments of the record which comes into focus on the outstanding opener Hydra.
Novere expand their Post-Metal/Prog Metal sound over four tracks that build upto over forty minutes of classic Post-Metal themes whilst still allowing Novere the opportunity to impress with their own unique style of Creativity with the Progressive Sludge guitars and Alt-Metal themes that ultimately reside within this album.
Novere operate with a more Ambient Post-Rock sound on the mellower and quieter moments of the album especially on the soulful second track Aphelion. This track alone reminds me constantly of Cult Of Luna classic landmark album Eternal Kingdom whilst still being its own thing. As the music has similar Post-Metal beatdowns and breakdowns that expand into different areas of Doom/Sludge Metal with Novere impressing with the multitude of different sounding grooves contained within the gloomy background. The vocals add another layer of violent aggression and brief moments of sonic ferocity allow this to be one of standout tracks with Novere showing a gritty outlook to their music.
Third track Dense Macabre is a soulful and haunting Post-Rock driven score with Alt Rock/Gothic sounding vocals leading a song with a more thoughtful and emotional centre at it's creative core. There are twinges of sludgy Post-Rock sounds but this is mostly a Gothic based Post-Rock track with Novere showing a more damaged version of themselves which perhaps conjures up some of the most emotionally charged vocal imagery on the entire album. With intense instrumental work, Novere are in their creative element here, perhaps from a storytelling aspect at least.
The final track Cromlech is an epic style of Post-Rock/Post-Metal aggression with a bleak Progressive Doom/Sludge Metal sound slowly working it's way up. Shades of ISIS (Oceanic era) Post-Rock mythology once again allows Novere the perfect opportunity to weave their own style of Post-Metal dominance. When the outburst of aggressive harsh vocals appears then Novere are back where they belong playing different levels of punishing and deafening amounts of Post-Metal grooves that surprised me at how "riff-centric" the music becomes. There's a cool sounding Ambient/Sonic atmosphere on the later stages that brings a more Post-Doom environment for Novere to build their sound upon and deliver one final round of first rate Post-Metal heaviness to the underground masses.
Nothing Stays Hidden In Daylight has some top-notch talent behind the scenes with Joe Clayton (Pijn) on recording duties and the legendary Magnus Lindberg (Cult Of Luna) on mastering duties. So Novere have backed up their phenomenal talent with some other Post-Metal heavy hitters that help to make Nothing Stays Hidden In Daylight quite frankly another brilliant and worthwhile addition of outstanding releases to come the UK Post-Metal underground scene. This is a must have release.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Novere and Trepanation Recordings for the promo.
Nothing Stays Hidden In Daylight is available to buy on CD/DD/Cassette now via Trepanation Recordings.
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