About Noumena

There are at least three artists named Noumena: (1) Finnish metal band (2) n9 (earlier Noumena) (3) Noise/powerelectronics project originally from Pittsburgh, PA (1) Noumena is a Melodic Death Metal band from Ähtäri, Finland, formed in 1998. The band's name comes from the word noumenon, a philosophical term used by Immanuel Kant. It consists of five members: vocalist Antti Haapanen, guitarists Tuukka Tuomela and Ville Lamminaho, bass guitarist Hannu Savolainen and drummer Ilkka Unnbom. The roots of Noumena's music may be found in the Scandinavian death metal tradition and 1980s heavy metal. After two demo tapes and few gigs the band made a record deal with a Singaporean label on summer 1999. The debut album was recorded during the very same fall at Astia-studio. The album was eventually left unreleased, because the label went bankrupt and the deal went off. Though Noumena didn't find a label to release their debut, they continued with their efforts among the metal music. Forcefully the band did another demo tape on spring 2001, which got good reviews. The years of perseverance were finally rewarded, when on fall 2001 Australian label Catharsis Records decided to release the still unreleased Noumena material. The result was an album called Pride/Fall, released on August 2002, which included songs from 1999 and 2001 sessions. After a couple of still years, on January 2004, Noumena did a 4-track promo, which was a jackpot. Thanks to the promo Spikefarm Records made a deal with the band. The band spent the next October and November in studio Sundi Coop making the album Absence, which will be released during spring 2005. On records and gigs the additional vocals will be sung by a long-time partner Hanna Leinonen. With the help of the intensive new album 'Anatomy Of Life' and all the years of experience, Noumena will, with their flinty and leaden music, renew the periodic system of metal music! (2) ... (3) Mike Shiflet (Caldwell frontman/Gameboy Records mogul) and Aaron Hibbs (Sword Heaven), both of whom were living in suburban Pittsburgh in the late nineties, started performing under the name Noumena as an outlet for their more experimental work. Noumena recordings and performances were never the same twice, with releases ranging from half-hour-long guitar drones to ear-splitting powerelectronics to performances pieces involving cooking a meatlof in a microwave, Mike stripping while playing bass, or Aaron repeatedly climbing a rope to the ceiling and letting himself fall to the ground, to cite three of the band's more memorable live performances.