Bandcamp Numen have been at this since the late 1990s, and Erre, their fifth album, is steeped in their own soil: sung entirely in Basque, themed on the 17th-century witch trials that scarred the Basque Country, it is pagan black metal with a specific, haunted sense of place. The song titles read like incantations in euskera, and the music matches, atmospheric, glacial, and old in the way only a band this far in can sound.
The atmosphere is the draw. Numen build dense, claustrophobic walls of tremolo and then crack them open, “Errautsen azken arnasa” rising out of an airy acoustic intro into the crush, the contrast carrying the storytelling that the Basque lyrics hold for native speakers. “Euria infernuko sutan” is the standout, a rawer, more live-sounding track that the master mercifully leaves un-brickwalled, and it is where the band breathe and the primitive fury actually bites.
Where it stumbles is a familiar place: the loudness. Several tracks are mixed bright and scooped, the guitars scratching in the high end while the mids drop out and the low end loses definition, and the densest passages run hard into the limiter until they flatten and tire. Atmospheric black metal can wear a harsh, cold mix as armour, but here it tips a couple of times from cold into thin. The songs and the concept deserve a warmer, deeper master.
None of which dims the conviction. Erre is a proud, rooted, atmospheric black metal record from a band singing their own history in their own language, and that alone sets it apart from the pack. For the pagan and atmospheric crowd, and anyone who likes their black metal with a sense of place, it rewards the descent.
Erre is atmospheric, pagan black metal: dense tremolo walls cracked open by contrast, with an airy acoustic intro on “Errautsen azken arnasa” and a rawer, un-brickwalled live feel on the standout “Euria infernuko sutan”. The recurring limitation is the master, where several tracks are bright and mid-scooped, the guitars scratching in the highs while the low end loses definition, and the densest passages run into the limiter and flatten. The atmosphere and the all-Basque, witch-trial concept are the strengths; a warmer, deeper mix would serve them better.
Standout tracks: Euria infernuko sutan, Errautsen azken arnasa
