And this album never lets you down for these kinds of familiar, pleasant feelings from other sounds, but still at the same time, overall sounding like no one else. This album is full of energy and anger throughout and is essential who needs relief in a violent fashion. Tracks like ‘PowerStation’, ‘HMS Blackwater’ and ‘Arogonaut’ each equally show the perfect amalgamation of Hardcore and Post-Metal NCF seem to have mastered here, in their own ways. In fact, this crossover (combined with the concept feel of this album and its accompanying artwork) makes the ordeal feel very like say, a Mastodon album, but without all the solo’s and slightly cheesy metal edge.

It’s clear from listening to this album that NCF have learned a lot from the many great artists and influential bands they have worked with over the last couple years. They’ve come a long, long way since their debut ‘Blackest Ballads’ MCD, and since then have played with bands such as Converge, Modern Life is War, The Hope Conspiracy and Bleeding Through, just to mention some. And despite how good that aforementioned CD was, NCF have evolved incredibly well into a much more mature, unique and potentially groundbreaking band. There’s an incredible sense of urgency and a desire to stay as original and passionate as possible at what they do from the album, which is heart-warming despite it’s dark exterior. Many times does this album feel like say, Mogwai, with the guitar effects taken out, and with Hardcore Punk jolted through at a wattage rate waiting to inevitably overload. And yet somehow, it doesn’t.

That’s not to say this album is without its flaws. There are only so many times they can get away with the obscure rhythm section breakdowns, and at times, this feels perhaps a little over indulgent. But they do it so convincingly that these things can be overlooked. What’s more, there is still a lot of room for improvement, some times it sounds a little bit unfocused, but again, and this is a rare occurrence and is easily outweighed by the positives this album has to offer. The prospect that November Coming Fire still have a lot of potential left in them is an incredibly exciting one, but whether they will be able to manage it next time, I don’t know.

In true concept album style, the amount of actual “Anthems” to be considered is quite minimal. This may put some listeners off, but please don’t as this is an incredibly stimulating and challenging listen. And besides, when finale ‘Closure’, (rather cheekily stuck at the end of the album), crashes in, you can’t help but want to punch the air in a mix of anger, passion and emotion. After a fairly “Epic” album, there isn’t a better track to finish on than this one minute fifty punk anthem followed by come-down esq. soothing sounds of waves crashing. The track title proving more relevant than perhaps first thought.

This is a stunning album. Some Converge fans would argue that this, is what ‘You Fail Me’ should have been, as you can’t help but feel that this album is a direct creation of that record, but to simply narrow it down to that would be to be unfair on the Kent quintet. If anything, this album proves NCF’s worth is a crushing, refreshing and energetic short story of an album, fuelled by the personal conflicts of the band, and that they are, here to make a difference.