Today, after the coming of bands that crossed brutal and melodic traits (as CHILDREN OF BODOM, DRAGONFORCE, AT THE GATES, DARK TRANQUILLITY, IN FLAMES and others), to do such thing is a two-way road: an extreme Metal act can use melodies on its work, and the same for a melodic Metal band. The referential frame used is important on such way, but you can throw it on the thrash can and do it your own way, as the Finnish quintet NUMENTO does, as heard on “The Antimatter Fantasy”.The album was produced and mixed by Chris Herrle, co-produced and recorded by Atte Asikainen, with helping hands of Aleksi Vehmassalo (one of the band’s guitarists who worked on the as recording assistant and did the artwork) and Katri H-A (recording assistant too), and with Thomas Feilner on the mastering.

The final result is something thunderous, intense and full of impact, allowing both aspects of the band’s music (aggressiveness and melodic appeal) to have a balanced sonority, and it is clean and defined as well. The quintet works on a trench that is called ‘Extreme Progressive Metal’, and it means that is a blend between traits of Power Metal and Heavy Metal with extreme Metal tendencies, what is the case of the band is ample, full of creative arrangements, excellent keyboards parts tempering the harsh screams of the vocals (but some clean moments are presented as well), and the technical/melodic appeal of their music is amazing, solid and hard as granite. It’s modern and catchy, and excellent, indeed, easy to fall in love with.

“Equinox” (excellent melodies, with charming changes from harsh to clean tunes of the vocals), “Opilion” (some Death/Thrash Metal traits are heard on the melodic guitar riffs, and what lovely chorus), “The Solipsist” (this one resembles a lot the early days of Melodic Death Metal, with tons of weight being expelled by bass guitar and drums, with very good rhythmic contrasts), “Gargantua” (once more fine keyboards fills the spaces of this melodic and melancholic song, with bass guitar and bass guitar creating fine rhythmic pictures, and tender melodies are heard in many moments), “Singularity” (another moment where the melodic side of the band’s music is prevalent above the aggressiveness, with charming melodic guitar leads), “Timetrap”, “Elevate” and “The Dark Web” (a song that can make ears bleed due its aggressive insight) form a set of excellent songs that only one word can describe: maturity.

Though NUMENTO is a young act that has a lot to offer, “The Antimatter Fantasy” is an amazing album, indeed.