Nova Art - Follow Yourself review
| Band: | Nova Art |
| Album: | Follow Yourself |
| Style: | Progressive metal |
| Release date: | May 04, 2009 |
| A review by: | Bas |
01. Don't Follow The Crowd
02. Follow Yourself
03. Would My Soul ... (Deliverance Pt. 1)
04. Medium (Deliverance Pt. 2)
05. Sense Of Life (Deliverance Pt. 3)
06. Knowledge Garden
07. Just Raining [Instrumental]
08. Deceptive World
09. 2-35 Before The Roar [Instrumental]
10. My Essence
11. Lost In Dreams
With an absolutely fantastic cover art, the Russian progressive metal band Nova Art brings us their second output; Follow Yourself. Progressive music is a very broad term, so let me elaborate a bit. The group around singer and mastermind Andrew Nova mixes elements of darkwave and gothic with heavy metal, alternative metal, thrash metal, electronica and even death metal, nu metal and power metal. Vocal-work consists of both Andrews rather special, "distorted", clean singing style (which took me a few songs to get used to, mind you) sharing the spotlight with death grunts and shouting. Andrew shares the singing-duty with a female vocalist and as a prominent guest, Devon Graves (Dead Soul Tribe) appears on the tracks "Knowledge Garden" and "Deceptive World".
Between varied and catchy vocal lines, intricate guitar parts, great keyboard-backgrounds, a very precise drumming style, small bass interludes and various electronical sounds, Nova Art manage to create really complex and interesting songs. The two short instrumentals, "Just Raining" and "2-35 Before The Roar" deserve special a special mention too, as both are really good and also provide a welcome break to the difficult song structures of the rest of the album.
There's one big risk in mixing a lot of different styles together though; sometimes it just doesn't fit. That's a problem Nova Art have as well. Some parts just don't sound right. Not all of the song structures are able to convince me either. Further this is music that you really have to pay attention to, to be able to enjoy it to the fullest. And like I already said, the clean male vocals are very unusual and take a while to get used to, and even then they're love it or hate it.
In case you prefer straightforward music, have a problem with genre-mixing, hate anything with electronical elements or dislike music you have to get used to first; stay away from Follow Yourself, you won't like it. If you're fairly open-minded and like complex song structures though, check this out; you're in for an album full to the rim with small crannies and corners, and a lot of surprises and beautiful moments just waiting to be discovered.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 7 |
Written by Bas | 18.05.2009
Comments
Comments: 8
Visited by: 65 users
| Dane Train Beers & Kilts Elite Posts: 8902  |
I am going to buy this right now. A 9 for originality is what I am interested in hearing.
---- (space for rent)
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| Bas Retired Staff Elite Posts: 5591  |
Written by Dane Train on 18.05.2009 at 22:49 I recommend you to give the myspace player a listen first though, as especially the vocal work is really love it or hate it 
---- BAS - Beautifully Accented Sexiness
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| Karamunin Posts: 7  |
Anyone else notice how insanely similar this album's cover art looks to that of Winds album "The Imaginary Direction Of Time"? Good review though, Bas, sounds like an interesting band and I shall check them out laters
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| Italics Posts: 294 |
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| Bas Retired Staff Elite Posts: 5591 |
Written by Karamunin on 19.05.2009 at 00:16 Now that you mention it, they do look very much alike Let us know if you like the album, and thanks, I'm trying my best Written by Italics on 19.05.2009 at 10:15 They have two songs of the new album (the first and last song of the CD) and three older songs on their myspace page, the link is on the bandpage here on Metal Storm (or you can use to the myspace player embedded in this review, underneath the album cover you should see a green square with the "play" symbol in it, klick it and the player will pop up)
---- BAS - Beautifully Accented Sexiness
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| Susan Smeghead Elite Posts: 6941  |
It's like a metal sampler platter in each song! You're right, Bas, there is a LOT to get used to and wrap your head around. Nevertheless I think I'll buy it. I like what I hear on their website and I like a good musical brew sometimes
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Bas Retired Staff Elite Posts: 5591 |
Written by Susan on 20.05.2009 at 19:53 It's good stuff, so go for it
---- BAS - Beautifully Accented Sexiness
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| Jeeers Posts: 195  |
Not bad, not bad at all. If not for that russian accent  ... but music and songwriting is on the level. The song Follow Yourself is most interesting, I think. This band is worth to try out.
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