Noumena - Anatomy Of Life
Spinefarm

file under death metal / grindcore

Twan: The Finnish band ‘Noumena’ produces meldoic death and they’re not hesitant to let you know. A good grunt by singer Antti Haapanen, who also manages to come up with decent clean vocals, and reasonable guitar playing, in, sadly, not too challenging riffs, make an ‘okay’, but not very catchy, whole. ‘Anathomy Of Life’ mainly goes on and on where the listener does not. Noumena misses just that last ‘touch’ to give their album magic. The music is very full of atmosphere, but at the same time allows you to get distracted too easily.

The album has a few noteworthy songs, like ‘Moment of Pain’ and ‘Through the Element’, that score extra because of the added female vocals, that just give that extra bit of diversity the music requires, or the folk-like ‘Marionettes’. These songs aren’t enough to save the entire album, though. Fans of melodic death can and maybe should listen to ‘Anathomy of Life’, but this is not a masterpiece. The elements are there and the band appears to have it within them, but it didn’t work out. Hopefully it will on a next album.

Rating: 70/100 (details)

http://www.thenoumena.com