Review: Novena – Eleventh Hour

Style: traditional progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Haken, Slice the Cake, Dream Theater
Review by: Andrew
Country: UK
Release date: 6 March, 2019

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the March 2020 Pt. 2 issue of The Progressive Subway]

Way back in 2016, a little band called Novena released an EP, Secondary Genesis. I first listened to Secondary Genesis sometime around 2018, and it kind of blew my mind. Let me start by saying Novena is something of a prog metal supergroup, featuring vocals from not only Gareth Mason of Slice the Cake, but also Ross Jennings of Haken. Also including members from several other big prog names like Slugdge, Novena’s lineup is pretty damn stacked. So when I first discovered them a couple years ago, I was flabbergasted that they weren’t more well-known.

After years of radio silence, last year I heard the news that Novena had a full-length LP fully written and recorded. That full-length, which we now know as Eleventh Hour, became my most anticipated release of 2020 by a long shot. When it finally released in early March, it basically became the only thing I listened to for a good couple of weeks. And for very good reason.

Eleventh Hour epitomizes everything I love about progressive music. There is such a wide array of musical territory covered in Eleventh Hour’s 72-minute runtime that you might think it is more than one album. Despite the huge variety of genres and ideas, there is never a dull moment or a passage that feels out of place. 

Harrison White, the primary songwriter for Novena, has a strong musical theater influence, and it is on full display throughout the album. From the solemn spoken-word poetry on “Sail Away” and “Lucidity” to the eruption of emotion present in several of the later tracks, Eleventh Hour simply oozes feeling, meaning, and purpose. Gareth Mason provides harsh vocals throughout the album – he only briefly appears early in the album, showing up more frequently as it progresses. His fantastic harsh vocals serve as a counterpoint to the soothing timbre of Ross Jennings; he is the darkness to contrast Ross’s lightness. Gareth’s dark and looming presence comes to an explosive head in the final track “Prison Walls” with a roaringly emotional and heartbreaking monologue before a devastatingly heavy breakdown. 

I don’t want to go into any other specifics of the album – I want you, the readers, to discover it for your own. Eleventh Hour has so much to offer, so much replayability, so much nuance, that I am fairly certain there is something here for any person on the planet to enjoy. Novena is undoubtedly one of the greatest new bands to hit the progressive music scene. Anything else I could write here would be superfluous; simply a rephrase of the same three words: Listen to it!

Recommended tracks: 22:59, Lucidity, Corazón, The Tyrant, Prison Walls (just listen to the whole thing ok)
You may also like: Maestrick, Artificial Silence (bandcamp), Flaming Row (bandcamp)
Final verdict: 10/10

[Editor’s note: also check out our interview with Harrison White from earlier here]

Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Frontiers Records – Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter

Novena is:
– Ross Jennings (vocals)
– Harrison White (guitars, keyboards)
– Dan Thornton (guitar)
– Matt Lowe (bass)
– Cameron Spence (drums)
– Gareth Mason (vocals)