Aphotic

Mike Feldman replaced Chris Visco.

The band heard Feldman playing as part of the local bands Degradation and Judas Beast (a tribute band that performed cover songs of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest ). Considering his manner of performance suitable for Novembers Doom, he was invited to audition and then invited to join the group ^[1] .

The first performances of the new group took place in their native Chicago, and then in Europe as part of the 2.5-week tour, held in early 2010 ^[2] .

Work on the album began in early 2010 before the final European tour. After returning from Europe and a short rest, work on the album was continued. Roberts said that their group did not succeed in working on the album on the road, only 1-2 riffs occurred to him during soundchecks and nothing more ^[2] .

In early November 2010, the group announced the beginning of the recording of the album. To record their eighth album, the group again chose the Racin studio Belle City Sound, continuing to collaborate with Chris Visco and Swedish producer and musician Dan Svaneo ^[3] .

According to Paul Kure, the group conducted work on the new album according to a new technique. When creating previous albums, guitarists, as a rule, brought almost ready-made song music, after which the other members of the group adjusted their parts in these songs. This time, all the participants worked together on the material from the very beginning, thanks to which each of them was able to make a greater contribution to each composition. Kure positively evaluated this approach, believing that when leaving for the studio, the group was more self-confident, more ready for recording and more satisfied with its material ^[4] . Typically, the first ideas were proposed by Roberts and Marchese, after which the rest of the participants began to propose their own ideas and changes. Similarly, for Aphotic all the riffs and stubs of the song were written by them ^[5] . But this time, Feldman also took part in the creation of the blanks, which was unusual for them, since bass players until that moment extremely rarely took part at this stage. Despite the fact that Kür was still engaged in texts, this time Roberts also contributed to their correction, mainly by helping with decision-making ^[2] .

The change of approach, according to Kure, to the creation of the album was not something consciously planned, but rather a necessary measure. Often, before working on the next album, the group would solve the next problems with the line-up. In addition, there were cases when, due to events in his personal life, one or another member could not work on the album on an equal basis with everyone, and the other members began to think that they were adjusting to this member, thereby preventing the group from giving all its best. ^[4] . Cur compared these situations with a kind of “filter” through which all the ideas proposed passed. This time the group was able to abandon this “filter” and while working on Aphotic, each of the participants contributed to the creation of new material at each stage ^{[4] [5]} . This is precisely what Roberts explained to such a big difference between the songs of the album. He said that thanks to the participation of all members of the group in the early stages of songwriting, it was possible to avoid a bias towards the excessive influence of only one member of the group on the material ^[1] .

A similar opinion was expressed by Roberts. According to him, the group wrote the previous album shortly after the change of the drummer, which had a depressing effect on the group. And while working on Aphotic , despite Feldman’s not so long ago, there was no such problem, since the team had already managed to work together by this time. Thanks to this, the group was able to work calmly and devote enough time to study the details before recording ^[6] . However, when the album was already half recorded, Horn announced his move to New Mexico. For some time, the group decided whether he could continue to participate in the recording or not. Thanks to his experience, Horn was able to successfully complete the recording of his parts, periodically coming to the studio ^[2] .

When working on Aphotic , the experience of working on previous albums was also taken into account. When working on The Pale Haunt Departure (2005), the group sought to do something new compared to To Welcome the Fade (2002). Work on The Novella Reservoir (2007) was a similar step forward for the group. But Into Night's Requiem Infernal (2009) was an attempt by the group to look back and rethink all that she had done on previous albums. Cur said in an interview that it was such an attempt to take all the best from old material and create an improved version: “Therefore, I think that when people listen to Into Night's Requiem Infernal , they don’t hear progress, they hear how we try to do that what we can do best. ” And before starting work on a new album, the group ended this period of their life, having decided that it was time to move forward and “try to create something new, which they only touched in the past” ^[4] .

To work on the album, Dan Swaney was again invited, with whom the group collaborated since the time of work on The Pale Haunt Departure (2005), respectively, Aphotic became the fourth album of Novembers Doom, which he brought together (in addition, he also worked on the album Disposing of Betrayers from These Are They). Chris Djuričić, who previously played the Novembers Doom on bass, was invited as a recording engineer ^[7] .

Like the previous album, Aphotic was also due to be released by The End Records. The spring of 2011 was indicated as a preliminary release date. Paul Kure then stated that the participants "plan to get something new from the group." According to him, the basis of the new material is all the creativity of the group, which has evolved over the years, but in a new direction ^[3] .

The recording of the material ended in September 2010. In October-November, the mixing of the album ^[2] was completed. In February 2011, it announced the completion of work on the album and the release of the album in May 2011. Cur said that “the goal of the group is never to repeat itself” ^[8] .

To create the cover for the new disc, the group again resorted to the services of Tommy Genest, who drew the cover for the previous album of the group. Genest suggested some of his ideas, but Kür, who had his own idea of ​​the cover for the new album, explained to him what was required of him. Roberts said in an interview that the design of the album is connected with the songs on it, and especially with The Dark Host, which opens it. He believed that this song and the cover set the tone for the rest of the material, and despite the difference between the songs, a gloomy mood dominates it ^[6] .

List of Songs

All lyrics are written by Paul Kure , all music is written by Novembers Doom members.

Genre and style

Speaking about the Novembers Doom genre, Roberts emphasized that the group itself never positioned itself as a doom metal group. In his opinion, such labeling was associated with the presence of the doom metal component in the group’s work, as well as with its name. Roberts himself preferred to define his music primarily as dark metal rather than doom metal. According to him, their personal experiences of musicians and various external events have a great influence on their music ^[9] . Roberts emphasized that in the work of Novembers Doom musicians prefer to go forward, not limited to just any specific genre framework, and negatively spoke about attempts to artificially simplify their work, characterizing it as “doom metal” ^[1] .

Roberts said that while working in the studio, the group continued to experiment with new ideas and sound. When working on Aphotic , two goals were pursued: to make a high-quality product and at the same time it should not be like old material, but maintain the recognizable style and sound of Novembers Doom ^[9] . Robertsa admitted in an interview that to record this album he had to retreat about the usual approaches to recording guitar parts: somewhere he had to play more skillfully, and somewhere, on the contrary, he had to restrain himself and play more primitively than he wanted ^[2] .

As for the elements of death metal, to a greater or lesser extent characteristic of Novembers Doom albums, the musicians did not plan to specifically use them. Roberts attributed this to “natural causes." According to him, the album has the influence of a wide variety of styles and genres, many of which have nothing to do with doom metal and death metal ^[1] . Cur, in turn, denies the influence of his side project These Are They on Novembers Doom material. For example, despite the fact that the material for the albums Disposing Of Betrayers (2010) and Into Night's Requiem Infernal (2009) was written at about the same time, the themes of both these albums and both groups are very different. Compositions of Novembers Doom are dedicated to personal experiences, and for These Are They the material is searched on the Internet ^[7] . In addition, according to Kure, in Novembers Doom he is trying to try new approaches to performing vocal parts, and These Are They are “old-school aggression” and “tribute to his death metal roots” ^[1] . Therefore, from the point of view of Kuhr, there are no intersections between these two groups ^[7] .

Subject and title

As a rule, the lyrics of each album were related to Kür's personal problems. So, for example, songs from the To Welcome The Fade album were related to the issue of human significance, songs from The Novella Reservoir were dedicated to water and everything connected with it. Religion was studied at Into Night's Requiem Infernal , and Autumn at The Pale Haunt Departure . The main theme of Aphotic was darkness in every sense of the word: not only blackness, but also that darkness that lives in the souls of people. Actually, the name of the album Aphotic was taken in honor of the afotic zone - a scientific term for a section of the seabed that is inaccessible to the world ^[4] . Kühr defined it like this: " Aphotic is the complete absence of light." At the stage of working on the lyrics, the music for them was dark and gloomy, so Kür believed that the name should also reflect the theme of the songs, so he wanted some kind of short and interesting title, expressing the essence of the album with as few words as possible. The word "Aphotic", in his opinion, came up perfectly ^[5] .

Roberts noted in an interview that the name of the album, chosen by Kure, in turn significantly influenced the theme and sound of the songs ^[9] . Even those fragments of compositions that sound quite soft are not “glimpses”: they are all the same darkness and hopelessness. “Darkness definitely dominates the album - both in music and in lyrics,” he emphasized ^[1] .

Work on the lyrics on similar topics is a kind of therapeutics for Kure. He himself indicates this as one of the main reasons why he still continues to do his work: “This is for me. I write for myself, I write my own therapy. ” For Kure, this is also an opportunity to free oneself from the tension that accumulates from daily problems ^[4] . The process of writing songs he even called "catharsis" ^[5] .

Roberts, on the contrary, emphasized that when working on the new album, the group significantly departed from the expression of personal torment. He said that the disc contains both personal and emotional compositions (“What Could Have Been”), as well as fictional dark stories (“Six Sides”), more characteristic of The Knowing album ^[6] .

Songs

Sasha Horn called the song “Harvest Scythe” one of his two favorite songs from the Aphotic album. He explains this by the fact that she attracts him as a drummer, and he likes to play it. An avid follower of punk music for its "slackness," Horn, while working on Harvest Scythe, tried to reproduce the same feeling. He used a similar approach when working on Shadow Play, but to a much lesser extent. Draft versions of both songs were written by Horn and Roberts in the basement of the latter’s house ^{[2] [10]} .

As a rule, on each of the albums, the group tries to write a song that goes beyond most of its work. Kür explains this with a great influence on the work of the group of various styles, since none of the members of the group is limited to listening exclusively to metal music. Kür himself believes that it is difficult to define a specific genre for Novembers Doom: “People call us death metal band. Well, “What Could Have Been” is the farthest thing from death metal that can be. ” The band had previously recorded the ballads Autumn Reflection, Twilight Innocence, and If Forever, and decided that the next ballad would sound different. Larry Roberts got the idea to write an acoustic part without drums and bass, but using vocals, piano and violin. As this idea developed, the group came to the understanding that for its execution something special was needed and for its execution it was decided to invite Anneke van Girsbergen ^[4] . Cur and Roberts explained their choice by the fact that they are long-time admirers of Van Girsbergen's work and, in addition, she is a long-time friend of Paul, whom she met during one of the tours several years earlier ^[1] . Thanks to a personal acquaintance with her, Cur turned to van Girsbergen with a proposal to perform vocals in this song, in response to which she replied with consent ^[4] .

Working together with Svane on the composition "Of Age And Origin - Part 1", the group did not plan to use it as a vocalist. Kure sent him a note and suggested the idea of ​​putting some kind of vocal effect on the chorus. Together, they began to sort through various options: Svanoe sent new versions, but they did not like Kura: “I just don’t feel it. I do not like this effect. He is not where I need to be. ” Kür explained that he wanted the line of verse to be quietly performed along with the growl during the chorus, rather than using the “echo” effect. Then, in response, he received a new version in which Svanëo laid down his soft vocals and added growl. This option quite suited Kura ^[7] .

“Of Age And Origin - Part 2” became a composition that made Kure nervous, as his voice was slightly higher than what was needed for her recording. Until this moment, Kyur did not have to sing in the studio in this range, so before recording he was afraid that he would not be able to cope with the task. Unexpectedly for him, the recording was quite easy. Curt admitted that this episode made him think about taking a few vocal lessons (he had never learned this before) ^[4] .

In February 2011, the first song from the new album was published. She became Of Age And Origin - Part 1: A Violent Day , posted for free listening on the official page of The End Records label on Bandcamp ^{[11] [12]} .

The video for the song “What Could Have Been” was published on May 5, 2011 on the band’s official channel on Youtube . The video was shot by Tony Miles and Cage XXI Enterprises, who also shot the band’s previous videos for the songs “Autumn Reflection” and “A Eulogy for the Living Lost” ^[13] . Roberts did not take part in the filming due to health problems ^[2] .

To support the new album, the group planned already in May to start touring the eastern part of the USA: Boston, New York, Delaware, Chicago. By summer, it was planned to cover the regions located in the Midwest, and I wanted to visit the West coast of Kyur in September. The main goal of 2011, he said, was to cover as many major US markets as possible. However, the personal life of Novembers Doom musicians made it very difficult to achieve this goal, since they could only afford short tours, no more than a week in a row ^{[6] [7]} . Concerts in Europe were planned for early 2012 ^[2] .

It was planned to perform the entire Aphotic at the concerts, however, the performance of the song “What Could Have Been” caused difficulty. The problem was that van Girsbergen performed a significant part of the vocals for this song, and this was the whole composition. But since Anneke lives in the Netherlands, it was obvious that for the sake of performing only one song she could not come. To solve this problem, an option was discussed, which included showing a video clip shot for this song, and Cur and Roberts had to play their parts on stage for this song. Cur emphasized that "this is not the song that we plan to play in our regular set throughout the tour." It was only about one show, within which the group would play the entire album from beginning to end, and at other concerts would perform an adapted set list ^[7] .

In May-June, performances were successful, but Kyur and Roberts had to deal with health problems ^[2] .

In May 2012, Kure and Feldman announced the creation of their own label Charred Owen. According to them, the reason for its creation was "nostalgia and the desire to see their work, released on an immortal format - vinyl." The first release of the new label was a double vinyl joint re-release of Aphotic with The End Records, released on June 19 of that year ^[14] .

• Aphotic on the official Novembers Doom website . www.novembersdoom.com. Date of treatment January 25, 2013. Archived on February 5, 2013.
• Aphotic on the AllMusic website (retrieved January 25, 2013) .
• Aphotic on Discogs
• Aphotic on Last.fm
• Aphotic at Rate Your Music
• Aphotic on MusicBrainz
• Aphotic on Encyclopaedia Metallum

Add. information

• Interview with Larry Roberts from Novembers Doom on MMR (link not available)