Style: Progressive Metal, Melodic Death Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Arch Enemy, Aephanemer
Review by: Christopher
Country: Finland
Release date: 28 October, 2022
Some albums lend themselves to a strong introduction, others don’t. Numento were founded in 2004 by a group of school friends, although Metal-Archives puts their formation at 2010. Whatever the case, in that long period they’ve only released two albums, the second of which, The Vile Entity, only just came out.
Blending a modern progressive metal sound with a strong melodeath core, Numento are on well-worn ground, but they manage to stand out thanks to the strong vocals of Katri H-A. Her cleans have a belting force reminiscent of Cammie Gilbert (Oceans of Slumber), while her harshes slice knife-like through the melodies (and are bolstered by the lower harshes of guitarist Atte Asikainen). At some turns she heads into the operatic stratosphere, at others she’s gnashing her teeth like she’s auditioning for Arch Enemy. Her versatile delivery is without doubt Numento’s greatest asset.
When it comes to the music, Numento are as varied as their vocalist. The title track cycles through a bunch of styles: frenetic melodeath riffs, power metal-esque vocal acrobatics, eerie Opethian sections, and more besides. However, the versatility promised by the title track is never quite delivered on thereafter. As The Vile Entity runs on, Numento play it safe; each song feels like a fairly standard melodeath track with a gimmick worked in. It works, for the most part—the tracks are well composed, lively and fun. My reservation is that Numento demonstrate early on what they can do when they push themselves, then rest on their laurels for the rest of the album.
Backing choir is added on quite a few tracks which is a nice accompaniment that will always win my approval, but here it’s somewhat unobtrusive to the point of being barely noticeable. Again, it feels like Numento’s ideas are good but their execution is too tentative. It’s almost like they said “we don’t want to overdo it” about all of the more creative decisions they made, and I’m begging them to overdo it more. Because it’s those moments that stick with me: the long operatic high that bifurcates “Hadal Ground”, the jazzy solo that tops off “Invisible Friend”, the black metal style intro to “Mother of Evil”, and the epic closer “The Necromancer”, which has a few choice compositional highs which I won’t spoil. And yet, these moments feel too few and far between. I don’t want to diminish The Vile Entity too much—it’s a charismatic record with strong talent behind it. But I just find myself wanting a little more, something to elevate the obviously and consistently good into the realms of the truly impressive and memorable.
Numento demonstrate gorgeous vocals and adept musicianship but squander it by playing things just a little too safe. There is versatility on offer here but I would’ve liked to hear more of the creative blending that occurs on the title track. It starts to feel like a showcase of melodeath tracks with prog moments, rather than a truly progressive album. The Vile Entity is a good album, at times very good, but I just want Numento to push themselves further because they clearly have it in them. C’mon guys, next time go for the gold—I know you can do it.
Recommended tracks: The Vile Entity, Hadal Ground, The Necromancer
You may also like: FireProven, Keoma, Burden of Life
Final verdict: 6.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Numento is:
– Katri H-A (vocals)
– Atte Asikainen (guitars, vocals)
– Aleksi Vehmassalo (guitars)
– Mikko Virtanen (drums)
– Simo Mattila (bass)
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