Letters To The Other Side — Limited CD Edition
THANK YOU for taking time out of your doom scroll and checking us out. Small bands like us are alive because people like you are generous with their attention, I aprecaite you more than coffee right now!
If you’re a bit confused, hi, we’re NIOVEL: a two-person symphonic metal band from middle-of-nowhere Germany (somewhere in the Rhineland… where all the castles are). One of us used to be an accountant. The other is a programmer. We are both VERY into video games, and sometimes our songs are basically the boss battle themes we wish we’d had.
We just finished the Kickstarter campaign for our fifth album, Letters To The Other Side. We expected around 70 backers. We ended up with 257?!
Like… what do you mean 257 strangers on the internet love our particular brand of Nightwish-meets-Loreena-McKennitt symphonic metal so much that they just get all of our albums (there are 5!) in one go?
Are you sure? In this economy???
We are still a little shook.
And for the VERY first time in our five-year history, we got to have some money left for fries after ordering ourCDs and making new merch. Like…wdym this band thing might actually work and pay our bills??
You Still Do CDs???
Speaking of CDs…yes, we still make CDS!
When we made our first album, we planned to release it digitally only. Buying hundreds of CDs on the off chance someone would want a hard copy of our silly little symphonic metal album felt… delusional. Also: how do you even make CDs? Are CDs still a thing? Do people even own CD players anymore?
So we pressed upload on the album…
And the VERY FIRST comment was: “Can I buy a CD of this somewhere?”
We thought it was a fluke. Then more comments came in. “Do you have a CD?” “Is there a physical release??”
We slept on it. Then slept on it some more. Eventually we burned the album onto a CD just to listen to it in the car — and something clicked. Holding the thing in your hand. Putting it into the radio. Letting it play from beginning to end. It felt different. Kind of like having a bowl of real ramen instead of instant noodles. Much. More. Satisfying.
So… CDs.
Instead of doing a normal pre-sale through our own website, we launched a Kickstarter campaign for the CD release...we felt a liiiiiiittle brave but also...we still needed to make absolutely sure you weren’t collectively trolling us.
You weren’t.
Five years later, Kickstarter is still how we release our albums first. After that, we offer the remaining copies here, because it’s not your fault the universe didn’t tell you about us on time.
How did you make it all the way to Album 5?
Well, we did that first Kickstarter campaign. Then the second. The third. And now we’re on our fifth.
Honestly, we didn’t know we would make it to album two. Or three. Let alone FIVE albums in five years.
Letters To The Other Side is hands down our best release yet — and not in the “every musician says that about every album” way.
It has:
the most tempo changes we’ve ever done on one song (Letters To The Other Side)
the longest track we’ve ever written (Stones of Sorrow — over 15 minutes!)
the most guest vocalists we’ve ever worked with (yes, kind of like Avantasia… but mostly with girls)
and a slightly unhinged duet with Herbie Langhans that we almost deleted because… well. That’s just part of the process.
It also has a pirate song.
A. Pirate. Song.
Fiene cannot stop dancing when it comes on. It’s called For Gold Prevents The Grief — which feels very on-brand for a former accountant writing about her favorite subject: treasure.
Letters To The Other Side - The Album
Inquisition - 1:15
So The World Might Be Mended - 6:17
Moonbeams - 5:23
For Gold Prevents The Grief - 3:45
Letters To The Other Side - 4:54
In The Hallway - 6:49
We Will Fly - 6:17
Iridescent Embassy - 4:34
Hidden In Plain Sight - 4:48
Stones Of Sorrow - 15:16
The NIOVEL CD Collection
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably not here by accident. You’re either extremely curious… or incredibly bored. Personally, I’m hoping it’s the first one.
Maybe you’re one of those people who still listens to albums front to back. Maybe you grew up on Nightwish or Within Temptation and still kind of miss that feeling.
Maybe you have a carefully curated CD collection… or maybe they’re just all over the place and permanently living in your car because they still work when the internet doesn’t.
Maybe you think 15-minute songs aren’t weird — they’re necessary.
If that sounds like you, you have two options.
You can grab a CD of Letters To The Other Side and experience our newest album.
Ooooor — if you’re the collector type or into doing things “in the right order” — you can get the full NIOVEL catalog on CD and listen your way from “first song enters the chat” to “oh, we have backing vocals now” all the way to “NOW WE’RE COOKING.”
Both exist.
Both are limited.
Choose your own adventure below.
(btw…most new listeners end up choosing the full collection.)
Get The NIOVEL Collection
limited pressing of 500 copies
you save €30 on the collection
pre-orders ship in April
