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I spent a long time as a non-fan of Novembers Doom, but then The Pale Haunt Departure really impressed me, and I was looking forward to this one. I know I'm not the only one who has been wondering if they could pull off another album as good as that one. Well, putting all fears to rest, Novembers Doom went ahead and just made that album over again.

The Novella Reservoir is a fine album, but it is just a rehashed version of the last one, to the point that sometimes it's hard to remember this is a different disc. You start out with the pummeling opener "Rain", and then things settle down into a more familiar groove. There are no bad songs on here, and the moodier tracks like "Twilight Innocence" and the excellent "Leaving This" are some of this band's best material. But on the heels of the enormous leap they made to The Pale Haunt Departure, this album has a tremendous feeling of 'heard this song before' pervading it. Fans of the band will not be disappointed by this disc, unless it's by the fact that for the first time in their long career, Novembers Doom have failed to progress even a little. If you liked their last one, you will like this one too, but if you're expecting another great leap in songwriting, you will be disappointed.