Numenorean - Adore

So upon some suspicion I had of this band being fraud, I did a little sleuthing and confirmed that Season of Mist did indeed unfortunately sign an illegitimate band. A bunch of liars, Numenorean are not actually from Numenor at all; they’re a bunch of regular, unspecial dudes, with no royal Gondorian ancestry, from Alberta. They’re just a group of Canadian phonies! Well nice try, phonies! You can’t fool this guy so easily!

Okay, dumb jokes aside, Numenorean do hail from Canada and Adore is their sophomore LP, which I heard about though rather typical means. I had heard some good things about the album via word-of-mouth leading up to its release and figured why not check it out. I don’t really know anything about the band aside from their origin and that this is their second LP, but it doesn’t really factor much into the music on here.

Adore features mostly a pretty thickly atmospheric and ethereal mix of even parts black metal and post-metal, which probably beckons comparisons to Deafheaven, but what Numenorean are doing is probably a little more akin to the sludgier side of post-metal from the likes of Isis and Pelican than Deafheaven. The band do a fine job of keeping the heavy instrumentation afloat in the lighter atmosphere they set.

And it really is the creativity with which the group manifests their atmosphere that makes this album. The haunting drone of organ and spiritual choral vocal echoes of “Nocebo” provide a most effective opening ceremony for the album before it dives into the blackened post-metal that begins with the next song, “Portrait of Pieces”, whose reverb-laden guitar intro and dynamic shifts through double-bass and atmospheric clean sections shows that the band is not simply out to set a mood. Rather, the atmosphere of Adore is both made possible and reinforce by the diversity of compositional feels throughout each song on the album, and while I said earlier that they weren’t approaching post-metal/blackgaze the same way Deafheaven do, Numenorean seem to have at least taken inspiration from the emotional dynamic of the Americans’ catalog. The somber interlude-type tracks like “Stay”, “Alone”, and “And Nothing Was the Same” certainly suggest them taking a cue or two from Sunbather. I would say that Numenorean’s lighter atmospheric sections generally spark more of a sober, introspective mood, however, than Deafheaven’s vibrant emotional vulnerability, which is not to say that Numenorean’s music is cold and sterile by contrast (as the soulful delayed guitar leads and ethereal harmonies of “Coma” suggest), just more somber than seething.

And Deafheaven is definitely not the only influence the band sports upon their armband as the heavy Emperor vibes of the song “Horizon” and the hardcore vocal technique opening the more emotionally open and volatile blackgazer “Regret” indicate. The band’s Deafheaven influence, however, refuses to go out suppressed in the album’s closing moments, during which the melodic chorus of vocals immediately elevate the definitely very Deafheaven-inspired blackgaze guitar catharsis of the seminal title track, but it’s the dynamic bass lines and gorgeous Kerry-McCoy-esque guitar atmospherics that really raise the song to the bar set by the rest of the phenomenal preceding tracks.

Even though it’s not the most complicated thing, this album honestly took a few listens time to figure out completely, just to readjust to picking apart the elements going into the construction of its atmosphere after it so quickly and thoroughly sucked me into said meditative atmosphere the first couple times. But the closer listening to the intricacies and the play-off between the various stylistic elements throughout Adore hardly kills the joy of it. Rather, it’s fascinating to hear how the band strings together all these styles into one conglomeration that truly is their own. Honestly there’s really nothing to complain about with this album other than my wishes for maybe a lengthier cut or too and maybe some more impact from the interludes. But overall, Adore is an excellent record, surprisingly unique for all the obviousness of its influences, and one that I will definitely be listening to on the misty early morning hikes I’ve committed to and look forward to on my days off. Also I completely imagine that the valiant swordsmen of Numenor would indeed dig this shit. Indeed, this album is pretty damn great and alongside Sermon’s Birth of the Marvelous, definitely a contender for my favorite album of the year.

Night fog/10