Oromet - The Sinking Isle (Album Review)

Release Date: November 07th 2025. Record Label: Hypaethral Records / Translyvanian Recordings. Formats: Cassette/CD/DD/VInyl

The Sinking Isle - Tracklisting

1.Hollow Dominion - 20:49

2.Marathon - 11:06

3.Forsaken Tarn 11:21

Member

Dan Aguilar: Guitar, Vocals

Patrick Hills: Drums, Bass, Synth, Backing Vocals

Review

The Sinking Isle is the second full length album from Funeral Doom Metallers Oromet who build a bleak cinematic world where they blend elements of Prog Metal, Doom, Sludge, Ambient Metal and Psych Metal against a backdrop of extended Post-Metal structures. The atmosphere still stays within the boundaries of Funeral Doom with the dreaded vocals from lead vocalist Dan Aguilar creating a depressing style of music very early on within the album.

Oromet fuse sounds from bands such as YOB, NEUROSIS, PELICAN, BELL WITCH and MOURNFUL CONGREGATION across three epic tracks which leaves you questioning how bleak does the record actually become whilst still retaining an uplifting vibe throughout the whole album. Oromet adds a world-weary storytelling aspect to their music with the lyrics portraying a sense of despair with subtle Post-Metal guitars that match the epic synths from Patrick Hills that’s one of my favourite aspects of the whole album.

The opening track Hollow Dominion is quite a subversive song with Oromet providing different areas of Funeral Doom and Post-Metal soundscapes which is quite SPACED OUT and emotionally rewarding when the more extreme passages appear. The song is quite slow for the most part but Oromet do speed things up to a regular mid-paced delivery which allows the band to add multiple levels of Psychedelic and Sonic based wonder which gives their music quite a forward thinking style. Add a mammoth twenty minute plus runtime that allows Oromet the perfect opportunity to redefine the Funeral Doom landscape in their own unique creative image. 

The following two tracks Marathon and Forsaken Tarn continue that epic Progressive and Psychedelic journey with even more intense bouts of pitch-black Doom Metal surroundings with a Post-Black Metal attitude forming within Marathon that becomes the main way for Oromet to experiment with their music to even greater effect. Despite the harsh elements and gloomy synths, Dan and Patrick never lose sight of their overall mission and that’s to provide a thrilling bleak narrative to their music but still experimenting with their music by providing some of the most original Funeral Doom songs you’ll hear this year.

The album could have easily become quite theatrical but to Oromet’s credit they keep everything real and grounded even when they inject sudden bursts of COSMIC ENERGY into their music. The Progressive flow of The Sinking Isle never waivers with Oromet playing beautiful and brutally constructed works of music that can be considered timeless and masterful at the same time.

The Sinking Isle is an absolute masterpiece that pulls no punches but still leaves you a shivering wreck and supremely hopeful at the same time. Yeah, this is perhaps the FUNERAL DOOM METAL album of the year right here. What more can I say? Add this one to your collection now. 

Words by Steve Howe

You can buy The Sinking Isle via the links below:

CD, Digital and Vinyl via Hypaethral Records 

Cassette, CD, Digital and Vinyl via Translyvanian Recordings

Links

BandCamp | Instagram

A Flock Named Murder - Incendiary Sanctum (Album Review)

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

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram