What I like most about Chicago‘s Novembers Doom is that they’ve never, ever fit. They weren’t death metal when they started out and that was the thing to be and now that their entire city is hopped up on doomly artistry and giant riffs, they’re playing death metal. Stubbornness is a virtue.

The PR wire has the goods on their upcoming eighth album. Dig it:

American dark metal pioneers Novembers Doom have commenced recording of their eighth full-length studio album, Aphotic. The album is set to be released on The End Records in Spring 2011. Aphotic is being recorded at Belle City Sound in Racine, Wisconsin, with longtime Novembers Doom collaborators Chris Wisco at the controls and Dan Swano mixing.

Frontman Paul Kuhr said, “We plan to capture something new from the band. This recording builds upon the foundations the band has laid over the years, but we are taking it into a new direction. We plan to redefine where we stand in our current genre. The darkness is coming, and we can’t wait until you’re able to hear it.”

Throughout the recording process, Novembers Doom will be uploading videos and studio reports to the band’s official YouTube channel. Clips of new material as well as band member updates will be available.

Novembers Doom have always been the American champions of a predominantly European sound. Formed in a tandem timeline with the likes of Paradise Lost, Katatonia and My Dying Bride, the Chicago outfit didn?t release a full-length until 1995?s Amid its Hallowed Mirth, when the Euro scene was already well established, and never really got their full due of credit or influence. Having of late adopted a less lavish, more immediate death metal sound, the band complete their second decade of existence with their seventh LP, Into Night?s Requiem Infernal (The End Records).

Even those who heard 2007?s The Novella Reservoir will be surprised at how much Novembers Doom have upped their deathly approach. The first two minutes or so of the opening title track are virtually indistinguishable from Amon Amarth, such is the thickened weight of Larry Roberts? and Vito Marchese?s guitars. Only when vocalist and lone original member Paul Kuhr switches from growls to his clean approach can they be told apart. There are two solid, weepy doom ballads on Into Night?s Requiem Infernal — ?The Fifth Day of March? and closer ?When Desperation Fills the Void? (the latter gets heavy at the finish) — but the larger portion of the record is geared toward a classic US death metal sound with flourishes of melancholic ambience. Sonically, it?s more Opeth than Anathema, though of course Novembers Doom was a band before either of them, so take that for what it?s worth.

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