Hello Hannu, how are you doing and will you start by giving the readers of Scandinavian metal a background infomation on Noumena and please also try to explain your playing style.

Well, I’m doing just fine and I’m eagerly waiting for comments on our new album.

Noumena was formed in 1998, in a small Finnish town called Ähtäri. A lot has happened during Noumena’s history, but I think the release of our debut album "Pride/Fall" (2002) was somewhat a triumph for us. After a few demos, lots of difficulties, several happy moments and loads of beer it really felt like an achievement. Now, we have played our melodic metal for seven years with no changes in the line-up and here we are.

About our playing style. To keep it short: we have really solid rhythm base, crushing riffs, catchy melodies and growling vocals. Then some clean male and female vocals to spice up the soup. That’s about it, I think.

You will release your second album 'Absence' on April 13th, 2005 through Spikefarm Records. Are you guys satisfied with the outcome? Do you think you have created "the perfect" album?

We are very happy with the outcome indeed. I think everyone of us has listened "Absence" at least a hundred times, and it still sounds great! I wouldn’t dare to speak about a “perfect” album. If "Absence" was our “perfect” album, we should stop playing, right? We succeeded well with this one, but I think we still have quality melodies and songs coming. Anyway, I hope our new album will be a significant milestone in our career.

I must admit I haven't heard your debut album "Pride/Fall" from 2002, how would you compare "Absence" to your debut?

First of all, "Absence" is an entity. The most songs were written during some 8-9 months and rehearsed tightly before our studio session. Pride/Fall is “a compilation” of material recorded in 1999 and 2001. That’s why it’s little uneven. I think there are great songs on our debut and some of them we certainly play live. But we consider that on Absence we have found ourselves, which can be noticed on the sounds, on the songs and on the atmosphere all together.

After giving "Absence" a proper listen I can't seem to stop enjoying the incredibly good melodies. I actually start to think of classic In Flames era, you know around 1997/1998 when In Flames released "The Jester Race" and "Whoracle". Is it safe to say that old In Flames have infuclened you guys quite a lot? Also, what's the most important metal bands that have inspired Noumena?

Yeah, melodies are definitely a kind of Noumena trademark. I can’t stop enjoying them either. When we founded Noumena, In Flames was one of our – at least my - favourite bands (especially "Subterraean", "The Jester Race" and "Whoracle"), but we never wanted to follow their tracks. During the years In Flames has been one influencial band among the others. There are so many bands we have listened to, and I think that one of Noumena’s strengths has been the variety of influences. And we all five don’t listen to same bands. But to name some, Iron Maiden, Edge of Sanity, Amorphis and My Dying Bride have given us good vibes.

I also fell in love the female vocals on this album. Judging from your website she isn't a fulltime member of Noumena. Can you give us some facts about her? Also, are the growls and clean male vocals done by the same guy?

Hanna Leinonen is a session member in studio and on gigs. Hanna spent her youth in Ähtäri, like we Noumena guys. She has sung in choirs and so on. Back in 1998 we asked Hanna to sing a little bit on our first demo. Since then she has always helped us if we have needed female vocals. Hanna is really pro, and her voice fits nicely to our music.

Our vocalist Antti Haapanen is responsible for growlthings. Guitarist Ville Lamminaho did some backing growls and other things on Absence. Clean male vocals are done by guest vocalist Tuomas Tuominen. He sings in an enjoyable Finnish metal band Fall of the Leafe. When we rehearsed for Absence, Ville had plans to include clean male vocals in some songs. He had listened to FotL’s latest album and proposed that we could ask Mr. Tuominen to visit our album. Tuomas was (suprisingly) eager to co-operate with us. We had really great time, and you can hear that he was the right geezer to sing on Absence.

Aight, about songwriting. Who is the main songwriter in Noumena and how is the songwriting process? In the same run I would appreciate if you could give me some info on the lyrics. Any special topics the band bleed for and how important is lyrics in general for Noumena?

Guitarists Ville Lamminaho and Tuukka Tuomela are the main songwriters in Noumena. On Absence there are six songs by Ville and four by Tuukka. I myself compose really seldom, but there are a couple of Noumena songs written by me. Usually the two guitar heroes write songs at home, they pre-arrange them and send them to others for comments. Then, we rehearse a song together, we rearrange it if needed and maybe adjust the structure. Everyone has relatively free hands to decide how to play his own parts. The green fruit of a song is pushed through Noumena “filter” or “grinder” and the result is what it is…

Ville and I are the main lyric writers. Antti and Tuukka also have contributed some texts for Noumena. Lyrics are an important part of our songs, although we don’t have any particular mission or goal to achieve with them. We don’t write any “dragons and swords” -stuff. We tell stories where world around us and fictional elements unite. Impressionistic glimpses of moods, fates and incidents.

Any immediate touring plans?

We are planning to play some gigs in Finland after the album is released and the audience has become familiar with it. We are eager to tour outside Finland as well, though I’m afraid that our foreign fans will have to wait for a while to see Noumena live.

Will you make any music videos this time around?

No plans about music video this far.

Do you feel the metal scene in Scandinavia today is very much alive? I especially think the Finnish metal scene is just getting better and better. What is your view on this matter?

I try to stay updated with all the remarkable Scandinavian metal bands and good bands from other genres too. That’s not an easy task, as there are so many interesting groups rising their heads from the underground nowadays. I agree with you, Finnish metal scene has evolved greatly during the last ten years. Internet and computers have made it easier and cheaper to record music and spread it out to the audience. Bands and musicians are quite talented and so are engineers and producers. But the thing I’m really waiting for, is something ground-breaking and fresh. For instance, I’m not so enthusiastic about this death thrash –boom, though there are some nice bands playing that kind of metal, too.

How do you look upon the Internet and music, free mp3s, filesharing etc?

Internet is really a goldmine for someone who needs information about bands, who wants to find something new and interesting and likes to hear some samples. Nowadays consumers don’t have to buy albums without knowing what they are about to get. I think there’s nothing wrong with listening Noumena’s Absence and then decide whether to buy it or not. People can walk in record store and listen to music, I think that’s quite similar thing.

On the other hand, I can see why record companies and artists are concerned about the filesharing. They can’t sell as much CDs as earlier and the whole music scene or industry suffers from that. But I’m not sure if it is because people listen to illegal mp3’s, or because they won’t buy an album they don’t like. From my point of view, pirate CDs are much worse problem than filesharing in Internet. I have many friends, who find new bands with the help of filesharing and then they buy lots of CDs. Unfortunately everybody isn’t like that…

Forgive my ignorance, but what does 'Noumena' mean?

Noumena is latin, a philosophical term, it’s plural of noumenon. Noumena means “things in themselves”. Noumena is an unknowable, undescribable reality that, in some way, lies "behind" observed phenomena. Got that? :)

Ok, the time has come for my standard question. Can you make a list of what you think are the 5 best Scandinavian metal releases ever?

Damn you, this is an awful task. There are so many great Scandinavian metal albums. I want to give an opportunity here to other band members as well. So this is the list of albums Noumena members think that are great, have influenced us and are so called “evergreens”.

Borknagar - Epic (Antti)
Edge Of Sanity - Purgatory Afterglow (Hannu)
Tiamat - Wildhoney (Ville)
Amorphis - Tales from the Thousand Lakes (Tuukka)
Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant (Ilkka)

Thanks for answering these questions. I'm sure I'm not will be the only who got into Noumea after checking Abscene out. Do you have any final words to the readers of Scandinavian Metal webzine?

Do yourselves a big favour and get familiar with Absence. It’s definitely Finnish metal music at its best. Thank You!

[This interview was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]