Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Novembre - Wish I Could Dream It Again... (1994)

I've listened to Novembre for a couple months then turned away from this band. Their 1994 debut is probably why. Re-recorded in 2002 under the name Dreams D’Azur, Wish I Could Dream It Again was produced with prolific Edge of Sanity frontman Dan Swanö, and what do we get?... F***ing poor production and execution, that's what.

Now I have heard early Ulver before via one of their black metal albums a year before this review, so I know lo-fi production when I hear it. But this sh*t makes Nattens Madrigal sounds clean in comparison. While it has some nostalgic vibes, it sounds more like a dream than reality, and I don't mean it in a good way. The instrumentation not having enough emotion does not help with the low mix. The harsh vocals sound a little too breathless, but they aren't as bad as the g****mn awful singing.

Not everything has gone down to sh*t though, as we still have some killer tracks with a stable formula, starting with "The Dream of the Old Boats". 5 tracks later, "Swim Seagull in the Sky" starts with a keyboard intro that's more depressing than depressive, but when the guitars roll in, they actually sound more powerful than the monotone that has dragged through most of the other tracks, though the soloing still slightly annoys me. The two-minute ending is perhaps the best moment of this ill-fated album, with all of its f***ing glory. "The Music" is also filled with nice music.

So yeah, that's pretty much all the highlights there. Really. The heavier black metal sections sound too dirty, the cleaner parts are too weak, and... F*** the more acoustic tracks. The album is passible while not really worth returning to at all. If you're looking for other albums of progressive/gothic/black metal, there are way better ones out there. And this was the same band who would make what I thought was a masterpiece in Arte Novecento a couple years later....

Favorites (only ones I like): "The Dream of the Old Boats", "Swim Seagull in the Sky", "The Music"