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I'll be upfront and admit the name A Flock Named Murder would have made me pass on this by itself, but then I saw they named influences like Agalloch and The Ruins of Beverast and immediately found the single to see how they measured up. All it took was one listen of the excellent "Pierced Flesh Catharsis" to convince me I needed to hear the rest, and now here I am explaining why this has made my short list for the best black metal I've heard all year.

A lot of black metal bands go for the post-inspired well of Agalloch, but they generally lean too hard on mood and forget to write real riffs and songs to go with it. This is really what sets A Flock Named Murder from many of their limp, noodly contemporaries, for they write long, detailed songs that live on shimmering melodies and often beautiful guitar work that carefully develops until springing forth into new directions, all while having riffs with real bite to them and pummeling sections that add momentum to the compositions as needed. They even slow down and get fairly oppressive in a way that really does recall later The Ruins of Beverast, albeit nowhere near as dense and hateful, and all these elements are capable of sustaining the lengthy tracks that don't even fall under 13 minutes each and giving them a depth and emotional resonance well outside the grasp of lesser bands.

All that said, they do sometimes spend a little too long developing the moodier sections of their songs. It never gets boring or frustrating, but it does leave you wondering if they could have shaved a minute or two off and been better for it. Further, the closing track doesn't quite stick the landing compared to the tour-de-force that precedes it, sounding less inspired and focused as it makes its way to the finish line. Still, these are pretty minor complaints for an ambitious and often captivating album that's eaten me alive for weeks, and I am excited to see where this band goes, something I'd have never expected to say about a band with that name. Among the year's best.