Release Date: May 02nd 2025. Record Label: Hypaethral Records. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Incendiary Sanctum - Tracklisting
1. Garden Of Embers - 14:40
2. Pierced Flesh Catharsis - 13:07
3. Eulogy Fields - 18:56
4. To Drown In Obsidian Tides - 17:27
Members:
Ryan Mueller - Guitars, Voice
Mike Wandy - Bass, Voice
Cam Mueller - Drums, Lyrics
Review
Incendiary Sanctum is the second album from Post-Metal collective A Flock Named Murder and is a record that lives upto its EXTREME METAL sensibilities with it’s inspired take on all things Death, Thrash, Doom, Sludge and Black Metal with a harsh Progressive Metal outlook. The record has a gloomy Psychedelic outlook which can be quite abstract and wonderfully aggressive throughout.
The album contains four tracks with the shortest running under fourteen minutes and the longest over seventeen minutes. This is a lengthy album running for sixty two minutes with A Flock Named Murder exploring many different styles of extreme music with expert timing and precision when the band switches from Post-Metal surroundings to a heavier style of music. Taking cues from the likes of Wolves In The Throne Room Agalloch, YOB, Neurosis and Cult Of Luna for the most part.
The album stands on its own creative merits when the band pushes the Post-Metal envelope further with moments of Post-Rock bliss and Classic Heavy Metal guitar shredding which you’ll experience very early on within the superb opening track Garden Of Embers. The track is brutally destructive, aggressive, technically brilliant and wonderfully melodic. A Flock Named Murder blends Ambient Post-Rock sounds with a non-stop style of thrashy beatdowns, sludgy grooves and Progressive Rock/Metal flair which adds a trippy surreal element to the record which I didn’t expect at all.
A Flock Named Murder lay down the building blocks for the rest of the album within the opening track and they decide to go all out for complete POST-METAL domination with further excursions into extreme surroundings with an incredible display of technical proficiency that manifests into epic fast-paced instrumental movements and incredible vocal displays from Ryan Mueller and Mike Wandy. The real star for me on the record is Cam Mueller on drums. He’s a FUCKING MONSTER behind the sticks with Ryan on Guitars and Mike on Bass still providing brilliant work themselves but Cam’s performance is on another level throughout.
The other songs on the record allows A Flock Named Murder to create some of the best Post-Black Metal grooves I’ve heard since the early days of Wolves In The Throne Room especially on tracks Pierced Flesh Catharsis and To Drown In Obsidian Tides. The record has its fair share of subtle calm moments but with a sense of eerie danger never too far behind which allows the deeply rich and multi-layered Psychedelic movements and Ambient themes to develop a highly original and organic style of music which can be described as uplifting in places.
However, A Flock Named Murder always return to their EXTREME ways by developing and delivering a masterclass in Post-Metal brutality which has a menacing sense of realism and purpose which matches the actual concept of the whole album. Another aspect I loved was how the whole record sounded. As the record has a raw stripped back sound and rustic energy which flowed beautifully and allows the different musical elements to become quite poetic, organic and brutally devastating at the same time.
My final thoughts for Incendiary Sanctum is that it's perhaps going to be considered one of the most innovative, most important and landmark albums from the Extreme Metal scene in the years to come.
WOW. End Of.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Earsplit PR for the promo.
Incendiary Sanctum will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Hypeathral Records from Friday May 2nd 2025.
Links
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