A Flock Of Murder - Incendiary Sanctum

A Flock Named Murder is a Canadian metal band who formed in 2018.  Their latest release, “Incendiary Sanctum,” is their second full-length; they have also released a split. 

The band’s sound is dynamic and covers a lot of ground; death, black and post will all be found here, wrapped up inside four long songs.  The album manages to be over an hour long so those with short attention spans might want to look elsewhere.  I’m a doom and prog fan so the song lengths don’t bother me.  

Regardless of length, a song has to be good and keep my attention—none of these songs had a problem with that.  In fact, each song glided by very quickly because their structures are engaging and the band uses their time well.  There isn’t any fluff or passages that seem to be filler—everything in the songs needs to be there and would fall apart without.

I’m happy to report the production/mix is on point as well—with these songs being stuffed to the gills, every detail needs to be heard to make it easy on the ears to explore these worlds in song form.

The band can play as smooth and beautiful as a warm spring day or they can be as violent as anything else you’ll likely hear this year.  This ebb and flow feels very natural one second to the next and I never thought anything was forced.

The album opens with “Garden of Embers,” and gorgeous clean tones that build-up steadily into a roaring inferno.  The vocals are ghostly and ghastly but still filled with expressiveness. The heavier guitars are a huge wave of melodic heaviness, bolstered by a sea of double bass and strong pulsating bass.  The middle portion of the song introduces blast beats as it pushes towards an intense level of extremity.  This passage leads into an amazing guitar solo, recalling the best moments of the song's melodies while the drums keep the song raging.

“Pierced Flesh Catharsis,” is a more immediate side of the album with a fury that reaches a boil, spills over, and starts all over again until around the 4:21 mark.  From here, the song takes a step back to focus on deep, vibrating clean instrumentation.  It builds back up with a slower, doomy style passage that steadily builds up on its own.  Some of the best riffs and heaviest moments are around the 8 minute mark, total crushing power.  

“Eulogy Fields,” is the longest song on the album but also the one I found to be the most adventurous.  It explodes outward in the opening moments, a crashing mash up of power riffs, thunderous bass, searing vocals, and towering drums.  For the first few minutes, it sounds like an earthquake, the musical landscape shifting to accommodate the extremes.  Then the speed is poured on and their blackened aspects shine through.  The middle portion is lush, detailed clean soundscapes that may sound different than what came before but still work within the context of the song.  The later half of the song finds the cleans mixing with a slower passage before laying thick their post elements, complete with an amazing solo.

The final song, “To Drown In Obsidian Tides,” is my favorite of the four.  It’s stark and possibly the darkest song on the album.  It is also the most riff-based on the album with a lot of super-fast, aggressive parts.  The melodies are more subtle this time around but there are some clean passages but those two are a little more dense and dark compared to some of the ones in the previous songs.

A Flock Of Murder’s “Incendiary Sanctum,” is a convincing and engaging mix of a lot of different styles that always work together for the good of the greater whole.  The album plays off it's light and dark elements perfectly. If you like extreme metal that isn’t afraid to incorporate different styles, this one is for you.

Rating: Excellent