Novelists are a progressive metal band from Paris who were formed in 2013, when Florestan and Amael Durand met former A Call To Sincerity members Matteo Gelsomino, Nicolas Delestrade and Charles-Henri Teule. After a series of singles, they released their debut album in 2015, and following on from touring Europe with the likes of For Today, Breakdown Of Sanity, Dream On Dreamer and Silent Planet they are now back with their second. Keyboards and sax play an important part on some of the numbers, such as the atmospheric “Monochrome”, but sadly the press release doesn’t say who else was involved, which is somewhat strange.
What is also unusual is that unlike many bands in the genre, they are coming at it from the view of Meshuggah, and throw in elements of hardcore and death as well as the more usual progressive stylings. But, instead of sounding like a mish-mass, musically this always seems to make sense. Although French they sing in English, and this does make the album easy to approach from a lyrical point of view, and Matteo has a melodic voice that certainly fits in with what is going on with the rest of the band. This feels fresh and exciting, and with the support of Arising Empire behind them it will be interesting to see what happens with these guys over the next few years.
