ALBUM REVIEW: Anima – Noumena

Metal has always dealt with emotions, particularly negative ones, throughout its history. That emotion drives many bands forward and brings in fans that can relate to it in some way. On fifth album Anima, Finnish melodic death metal veterans NOUMENA set out to reinforce this mould. Dealing with themes of loss and death from various viewpoints, Anima is a folkier beast than before. At an hour long with eight songs it’s also wildly ambitious. Having smoothed the edges of their sound, NOUMENA weave wistful and yearning melodies into their sound to craft longer, less immediate songs. There’s more in common with INSOMNIUM and introspection than the furious charge of AT THE GATES.

Choirs back thoughtful acoustic opener Kaiku before melding into first track Saatto. The band show their full hand here, contrasting Antti Haapanen’s whispery gutturals with Suvi Uura’s floating, serene singing. The repeated rhythms they use are meditative and trancelike. The folk elements are brought to the fore throughout especially on guitar leads and solos. Anima has high points throughout where the folk elements meld beautifully with death metal, to stirring effect.

The midsection of Seula lets a serene melody shine through before opening into a dramatic charge and the opening of Ajaton employs similar melodic stylings. Totuus is the longest song on the album by a country mile, consisting of several movements joined together by bridging moments such as duelling vocals and a tasteful guitar solo around the halfway mark. This point also sounds like a natural end point due to repeated patterns before breaking completely for an acoustic passage. Piano ballad Joutsen closes the album; the folkier emphasis of Kaiku and this bookend the album neatly, with emphasis here squarely on Suvi’s range. It makes for a haunting sendoff that tugs at the heartstrings masterfully. 

To be ambitious is one thing but execution is quite another and NOUMENA don’t quite have the songwriting nous to make it stick. The songs aren’t bad, just overlong for the relative dearth of ideas. This leads to riffs or melodies outstaying their welcome and listener fatigue sets in. Antti‘s gutturals are a low point of the album, being very one-note and uninspiring. Suvi Uura’s emotional and musical range is much more convincing. The focus on the ‘beauty and the beast’ vocal trope lets the album down as a whole; focusing on one voice or more variety in harsh vocals would certainly help. 

Unfortunately, the lack of self-editing is frankly criminal. At just under an hour, an entire quarter of the album is one song and it’s unnecessary. Were they to rein in some of their longest songs this would improve matters and reduce listener fatigue. Only two of the songs on the album are below five minutes long (Kaiku, being the opener, definitely doesn’t count). All the rest sit between six and nine minutes or even a whopping fifteen. This kind of length constantly is fatiguing and far too easy to disengage from. The production does them no favours either. It sounds flat and too busy, despite its otherwise reasonable dynamic range.

The melodic, instrumental passages that draw more heavily on NOUMENA’s folk influences, along with Suvi Uura’s haunting voice are the album’s high points. Sadly, the album is overshadowed by the lack of self-editing and monotonous growls and for all its boldness and ambition, doesn’t live up to its promises.

Rating: 5/10

Anima is out now via Haunted Zoo Productions.

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