On “Nephilim Grove,” veterans Novembers Doom have built a Frankenstein’s monster of parts from Black Sabbath, Baroness, Opeth, mid-tempo Slayer, Katatonia, Nevermore, Razor, and Death. To make the metaphor even weirder, picture the monster playing a tennis match with himself of harmonized clean vocals and Akerfeldt-ian Death Metal growls.

Their patchwork of styles are sewn together masterfully into one skin, but the main fabric across the skeleton is Doom (It’s right in the band name, after all). The opener, “Petrichor,” starts out with a solid, off-the-shelf Iommi-style riff, but soon counterbalances with the melody. It’s this latter element that really wins the day. This part of their sound, while built from multiple influences and sources, is a signature sound for Novembers Doom.
They rarely dive off into noisy Death Metal abandon - - but when they do, as in “Black Light” - - they effectively volley back and forth between harshness and tunefulness.
There’s a lot to like on “Nephilim Grove,” and most fans of modern Metal will find some happiness in this record. The two songs I mentioned are among the highlights, but I also dig the title track and the Fiona Apple-esque piano in “What We’ve Become (Matte Variant).”*

*As an aside, I always like when bands do alternate takes on their own songs. Ten points to Novembers Doom for this kind of experimentation, and for letting us in on the experiment.