The Last Nova
San Francisco, California, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
Nova – Nepenthe
Written By: Mike Acker
Label: Big Nothing - Rating: 3 out of 4 stars
In the second installment of the "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" series, space travelers Arthur Dent and Ford Perfect met a man named Hotblack Desiato, the lead singer of the band Disaster Area. Disaster Area is the loudest band in the universe, so loud that the audiences at their shows must be thirty-seven miles away in a concrete bunker for their own safety. Disaster Area’s massive stage shows finish with a space ship being crashed into the sun.
I say that to say this: If you are a band called Nova, your music should sound a little like a spaceship crashed into the sun. With their new record Nepenthe, the California based five piece band makes that happen.
The drumming of Rob Bujak kicks off the opening track, entitled “Supersonic Vagabond.” The strong vocals of Gabriel McGahee and the driving layers of guitar from Nick Young and Aaron Goforth, send home early what Nova is trying to accomplish with their sound: hard hitting tracks, strong guitar licks, and screaming vocals. My favorite guitar riff comes in on the fifth track, “Perfect Mistake.” The opening guitar part has a tinge of a classic rock riff, destined to be popular with head bangers and moshers countrywide as soon as they hear it.
There are two obvious measures of what makes a rock band successfully hard. The first is screaming, tantamount to hitting the high octaves by a songstress like Whitney Houston. The second: Going soft. The power ballad has been around as long as there has been rock music. Nova nails the screaming early and often, and Nepenthe goes soft just as well. “Our Last Goodbye,” the record’s sixth track, is part love song, part lament, and all slow power rock.
Nepenthe gets back to the roaring guitars, screaming vocals, and thundering drum lines for the second half of the record. The final four tracks of the album highlight, in different ways, what Nova does best, play loud and scream. “House Of Nepenthe,” goes slow and heavy, and loud of course. “3 Little Words,” is the albums darkest sounding track, due to the ripping opening bass line from Scott Proctor.
“The Letter,” Nepenthe’s final song, takes the level down a notch to close out. Not so low to reach ballad status, but soft and slow enough for the listener to take a breath. There are no exploding planets at the end of Nova’s Nepenthe. There is, however, enough explosive sound on the record for me to applaud the choice of the band name Nova, and not something less dynamic like Ray of Sunshine.
- http://chickswithguns.blogspot.com/
“Powerful bombastic sonic guitar assault for the senses, and emotional soulful singing.” - John Speckmayer
“Their songs are deliberate and melodious, blending the basic sounds of guitar, bass, vocals and drums into a heavy amalgam of hard, angry, and haunting songs that invariably transport you to distant galaxies of introspection and wonder. Their debut album promises, in their words, to be “…a good 50 minutes of unadulterated, sonically engorged ear food, and not the junk kind.”” - Alternativeworldfanzine.com
Discography
2008 LP entitled "Nepenthe Sessions" produced by Tim Narducci (Systematic/Spiralarms/White Witch Canyon)
"Nepenthe" full length released March 2009, distributed by SONY. Produced, recorded and mixed by Tim Narducci (Sytematic/Spiralarms/White Witch Canyon) and mastered by Steven Marcussen (Korn/Sevendust/Alice in Chains/Stone Temple Pilots).
"You Are Dirty Water" single May 2009.
Featured on Iron Man 2 video game released by Sega.
"Castles for Crows" 7 song EP
released Sept 2010. Self produced and engineered.
"California" single Sept 2010
Featured on MTV's RockBand Network
Photos
Bio
The sound of The Last Nova is exactly as you would imagine from the name. Big, bright and powerful. Its a heavy, anthemic, atmospheric and ever-shifting juggernaut that draws on the best of classic and contemporary hard rock. Essentially it is a sound that can knock you off your feet one minute, then pick you up and soothe you the next... The Last Nova began to take shape when Rob Bujak, living on the east coast, got his hands on some demos front man Gabriel Davy had been working on. "After I heard the songs I called Gabriel right away, and literally the next day, I shipped my drums out to California, bought a one-way ticket and joined the project."..
The line up soon rounded out with guitarists Aaron Goforth and Nick Young. Though the other members were separately involved with a variety of Bay Area-based rock projects, they realized quickly that none of these other bands matched the chemistry and intensity that they were achieving. The guys soon decided to drop what they were doing individually and make The Last Nova their top priority...
In 2008, The Last Nova took their songs into Sonic Room Studios with prolific producer Tim Narducci, resulting in their debut album Nepenthe... "Recording with Tim was a great experience," said Davy. "The guy is a natural songwriter, and has a great way of making you feel comfortable and giving songs just a tiny twist, making them take on new life." They then brought in mastering veteran Steven Marcussen (Sevendust, R.E.M., Alice in Chains) and released the album in April 2009...
A first taste of Nepenthe and you are hit immediately with visions of what this must be like live on a stage. There's a rawness that seeps through and defies its well-rounded production, revealing the mark of a band that knows exactly what it wants to do – hit straight through the heart of the listener. Hard hitting cuts like "Perfect Mistake" and "3 Little Words" contrast brilliantly with the soulful epics "Thought That I Knew You" and "Supersonic Vagabond", resulting in an album that has something for every rock fan... The band's growing reputation as an amazing live experience in conjunction with their accessible songs has garnered a dedicated following and mainstream buzz that continues to grow.
They've locked down endorsement deals with Dunlop, Peavey, Ampeg and others, and have landed a featured track off their debut record on Ironman 2: The Video Game. Davy knows the future is bright for The Last Nova. "I'm excited about the possibilities with this band," he says. "We all get along like family and the creativity we have together surprises me every time we write. It's great to be surrounded by guys you know are the real deal."
In the fall of 2010 the band released their second record entitled "Castles for Crows" on indie label Rogue Records America. The record single "California" is currently featured on the Mtv's RockBand video game network.
Tracks like "All in my head" and "Broken windows" show diversity and growth in not only songwriting and breadth of lyrical imagery but also in production and engineering as it was entirely produced, recorded and engineered by vocalist Gabriel Davy and guitarist Aaron Goforth. After the success of their last national tour in the fall of 2010 the band is currently in preproduction of new music and joined by Surge Monroe on bass guitar, in the initial stages of planning the 2011 tour season.
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