NUMEN – Er

vote
7.5

• Bands:
  NUMEN
• Duration: 00:36:53
• Available from: 12/06/2026
• Label:

• Les Acteurs De L'Ombre Productions

The name of these Numen, we will be honest, comes to us almost as new: however the band has not only been active for twenty-nine years, but has also published five full-lengths, of which this “Erre” is the latest released. We therefore thank Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions for their kind assistance, and all in all this mysterious apparition under our radar also gives a certain aura of mystery to the Basque band's black metal.

Theirs is a black metal which, while not betraying the fascinations of a certain folk vein, an element which always stands out when listening to bands with less usual origins than others (and which is not lacking here either, given that among the instruments Numen have an alboka, a typical instrument from the Basque Country), sharpens the blades and launches itself into a vortex of blind rage. A chaotic, violent, brutal black, capable of alternating total abnegation towards the most total fury with elegant and functional tempo changes in keeping the listener's attention high, has total possession of “Erre”: he dismembers the sound, dissects it and recomposes it by playing with the various parts, inserting moments in some magical and imaginative points, others 'only' (and normally) infernal.
There isn't even a melodic component missing: it works very well in acting as a link between one blast-beat and another, as happens in the ending of “Kez Beteriko Zeru Penatua”. And after all, it is there that Numen manage to make traces of their personality heard: within a very marked taste for a musicality capable of appearing within passages that 'break' the blast-beat, or in disturbing openings of acoustic guitar, bass lines full of apprehension, instruments sometimes interspersed with a lament which, listening to the work on headphones, at the first listen made us turn to check that there was no one behind us (as happens in the end of “Hustasuna – Oroitzapen Galduen Putzua“).

In short, the strength of these guys definitely lies in the more melodic and nostalgic sorties that even within very sustained songs: this tendency makes the songs easy to memorize and with that something extra, they instead appear more in the background when you just go straight and fast. Although the sharper parts have no formal deficiency and, indeed, confirm the group's abilities – even technical ones, with a mention for the use of the bass, which does not simply follow the guitars but very often creates its own pattern to support the song – in these more tense moments the points of reference emerge a little too far from the grooves, calling into question the band's personality a little.

The only flaw we want to find in this album is perhaps this, together with some slightly long-winded points (“Euria Infernuko Sutan” has some crazy parts, but it seems to want to reach nine and a half minutes at all costs) which invalidate the listening experience a bit, and make “Erre” a work with excellent moments and others 'only' good: in a period in which almost all the bands follow trends and paths already traced, the overall approach is already very valid, God forbid, but although some of the plots woven by the Basques are excellent, we weren't able to really exalt ourselves as we would have liked throughout the album. Very, very good, but not (yet) great.