Genre/Influences: EBM, dark-electro, industrial.

Background/Info: Set up in the late 80s by Canadian musician Don Gordon, Numb became an influential band and especially during the 90s. The sound became progressively harder, reaching a kind of hard-core industrial style. Twenty one years after the last album (cf. “Language Of Silence” released on the legendary Zoth Ommog label), Numb is back!

Content: Forget about the albums released in the 90s, “Mortal Geometry” sounds as the ‘new’ Numb or should I say a return to the sources. The songs are moving in between sophisticated EBM and dark/minimal electronics with an industrial flavor on top. The songs are carried by solid bass lines, industrial sound treatments and a few trance passages. I also noticed a few more cinematic-inspired cuts. There are several instrumental tracks featured while most of the vocal parts feel a bit like an extra effect.

+ + + : This album has nothing to do with the Numb-releases we’ve heard in the 90s. The electronic compositions have this Canadian sophisticated sound, which might remind a few other compatriots. But Numb has been never a copyist and strives for a personal sound. It feels like ‘updated retro-electronics’ based upon great sound manipulations and a high tech production process. There are not a lot of vocals, but the way they’ve been produced is deadly efficient. There are several great songs featured at this opus. 

– – – : Each album always has a few forgettable cuts. I’m not a huge fan of “How It Ends”, which according to me doesn’t really deserves its place among the great tracklist.

Conclusion: Numb strikes back with style and an incomparable sound intelligence. It’s amazing to see how veterans from this scene still have more creative input than young and so-called ‘talented’ artists. This is a great album!

Best songs: “When Gravity Fails”, “The Waiting Room”, “Complicit Silence”, “Summer Lawns”, “Redact”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: https://mortalgeometry.com / www.facebook.com/groups/227641055342

Label: www.metropolis–records.com / www.facebook.com/MetropolisRecords