NOUMENA is a Finnish melodic death metal band founded in 1998, consisting of Suvi Uura and Antti Haapanen on vocals, Ville Lamminaho and Tuukka Tuomela on guitars, Hannu Savolainen on bass, and Ilkka Unnbom on drums. They have returned with a new album called “Death Walks with Me” after 7 years of absence (since the release of "Anatomy of Life" in 2006).
The album contains 11 tracks with some noticeable changes; we can clearly notice that they added a clean female doom voice. Many of their fans were against that, since they think that only the growling/grunting (and maybe a male clean voice) in a melodeath album are able to satisfy their desire, and Antti's growling is really awesome. I actually tend to agree; I wouldn't say that Suvi’s clean voice isn't good; she has a really nice voice, it just doesn't connect with Antti's growling; a clean male voice would have been preferable.
In terms of music, I would say there’s a "development". It’s a bit “heavier” and “stronger” compared to their three previous albums. The addition of some atmospheric instruments like cello (in "Sundown"), French horn (in "Season of Suffocation"), mandolin (in "Mysteries of Motion"), piano (in "Sundown"), tambourine (in "Handful of Dust")... gave the album an epic atmosphere full of emotions mixing with the guitars, which surprised me with their melodic riffs and awesome solos by Ville Lamminaho & Tuukka Tuomela, in which we can taste some progressive. As for Hannu Savolainen and Ilkka Unnbom, they both played an important role in making the whole album melodic and atmospheric; there’s a marked touch of the old In Flames. That's what I actually liked in the album. And regardless of Suvi's clean voice, she also participated in the additional growling in "Handful Of Dust", "Play Dead" and "Mysteries Of Motion".
The lyrics are perfectly written; every song is full of emotions and deals with an interesting topic. Even the titles were well chosen; they are so deep, I would say! They make you wonder about the songs.
I also would like to throw a glance at the artwork cover! It's actually the first thing that attracted me once I took the CD! It's so dark and mysterious, there's a secret in it, which makes you feel excited to listen to the album!
And despite the disagreement in the vocals, the album was good in general; I especially appreciated the fact that they are back with a change in the music to show more of their capacities and to avoid becoming “typical” and… "boring" maybe? Anyway, "Death Walks With Me" couldn't only be listened to by Melodic Death Metal fans but it can be recommended also to the listeners of Progressive and Doom.
Noumena just showed us more of the Finnish power!
