Dante
November Red

For january this year the german band Dante has decided to release the album called November Red, an album with a strange title but a very good looking cover artwork. It is the third album by these infernal germans going through the circles of hell perhaps, but this album only contains seven tracks on around one hour’s playing time. I guess progressive metal you say and that is how they are described in the short biography that accompanies the promo copy, nothing in that biography suggests how they decided to call themselves Dante. One has to wonder if it was from the literary reference or from Starhunter, or maybe something completely different. They are said to deliver a perfect combination of heaviness, musical ambition and emotionality, I guess we will have to look closer at that.

They are said in the short biography that they are filling the gap between modern prog metal and old-school progressive rock, that might be but can’t that be said about many bands if we are honest? They do work in mostly long songs that are epics that feels as though they are telling a story and they are usually built from combining very complex structures with simpler ones. It is a balanced production that is very well built and arranged very well in the combination of sounds and moods. Organs have a prominent position as has the good vocalist with a storytelling voice that carries the songs really well. I would call this a very well made and performed album.

And the songs are really good as well which makes it a great album when summarising it, and that is thanks to a trio of excellent songs that creates this good sensation when listening to this album that remains interesting all the way through despite it reaching the hour in playing time. And this trio of greatness is the opening tone setter Birds of passage, the highlight of the album which incidentally is the shortest song on the album and the only one reaching less than six minutes of playing time and it is called Beautifully Broken and is a very atmospheric ballad. Then we have the ending epic which is the album’s title track which ends on a high making this a great piece of music well worth looking closer at.

So, Dante’s third album which is their label debut on Massacre is a great progressive metal album that impresses more than most progressive metal albums I have heard in a while. This means that if you like progressive metal you should not miss this album, it is infernally good so no circles of hell when listening to this piece.

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