EPK – A Flock Named Murder – Garden of Embers (single) (2022)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
For fans of Agalloch, Neurosis, Cult Of Luna, The Ruins Of Beverast, Emperor
Single Title: Garden of Embers
Release Date: November 30, 2022
Label: Self-Release
““Garden Of Embers” is as musically elaborate as it is emotionally dramatic. It weaves and balances complex counterpoint melodies and shifting instrumental dynamics with moments of heaviness, grit, and ferocity. It is somber and then uplifting, before concluding as a story of tragedy. It’s both ethereal and crushing; exuberant in its delivery while powerful in its presentation. It’s a song that will pull you in, and won’t let you go until it decides it’s done – and when that happens, you won’t forget what it did to you.”” – A Flock Named Murder
Facebook.com/AmongTheFlock | Instagram.com/aflocknamedmurder | YouTube
Aflocknamedmurder.bandcamp.com | Apple Music | Spotify
““Garden of Embers” is a long song, allowing significant room for A Flock Named Murder to create an experience that is indeed elaborate and powerful, descending into emotional valleys and rising to peaks of intensity while not losing the thread of the song’s harrowing and often punishing narrative. The almost mystical ring of the guitar makes the music seem wistful, musing, and mesmerizing at first, but like embers given air, the song slowly begins to ignite. The heaviness of the bass rears its head and the drums tumble, the guitars begin to seethe and seem more yearning and then distraught, and the screamed vocals are shattering. The fevers and turbulence in the music crest in striking fashion. The mercurial maneuvers of the guitars and bass seize attention, but there’s a rippling and writhing riff that burrows deeper into the head as it comes, goes, and returns. The experience becomes sweeping in its panoramic scale, but confusion and anguish come through in the wailing of the guitar and the wild cries of the vocals as well, feelings that hit hard even as the rhythm section put on an electrifying show. Indeed, the whole song is electrifying, and completely immersive. There’s an extended guitar solo near the end that’s somehow both heart-breaking and spectacular, a magnificent and ultimately inspiring passage that provides the track’s true crescendo before its softer, sadder, but still beguiling conclusion. And so “Garden of Embers” isn’t just a way to fill a silence for fans of AFNM, but a significant accomplishment standing alone and a striking reminder of how easy it is to get lost in what they’re capable of doing.” – No Clean Singing
“Every now and then, we’re given a record that manages to take metal and spin it right on its head as the band in question really changes things up. It’s because of acts like YOB, Tchornobog, and the aforementioned Inter Arma that we’re able to still get unique morsels of art like this one in these times, and I’m more than happy to put A Flock Named Murder in that small yet very capable company of top-tier bands. “An Appointed Time” is a record that’s still getting my blood pressure to rise just by listening to it, and I can see it growing on me even more to become one of my favorites of the year.” – HEAD-BANGER REVIEWS
“A band that can do so much in just five tracks is just the sort of band that many of us simply flock towards. It’s thanks to acts like Tchornobog that we’re always on the lookout for bands that really toss out the idea of genre boundaries to create something unique, and A Flock Named Murder did just that with their debut. To say that “An Appointed Time” is an expansive record that feels as though it’s always reinventing itself with each track to become something bigger than a mere debut, and it couldn’t have been done better.” – HEAD-BANGER REVIEWS
“The music builds an increasingly ominous and unnerving mood and then boils over in an effusion of battering drumwork, febrile bass notes, and writhing riffery, only then to segue into vibrant strummed guitar, a gloriously spiraling solo, and a dose of big, head-moving rhythms and anthemic chords. Tumbling drums and desolate guitar reverberations draw the trip to a downcast close.” – NO CLEAN SINGING
“Fantastic blackened sludge/doom. Heavy, mesmerising, progressive. Sad. Painful. Stabbing. Yes, the record has similar artwork made by Adam Burke, to Lurk’s glorious epos from this year (artwork by the same artist) and explore similar genre. AFNM’s album is definitely among the finest releases this year. Seems to be that the blackened sludge with post- elements is getting speed.” – BLESSED ALTAR ZINE
“Nor is this a gimmick band; there’s plenty else to draw you to An Appointed Time. There are down-right groove metal influenced sections on that first track, which make us think of Gojira of all things. Elsewhere, the blackened moniker takes over, creating blistering, acidic tracks that double down on the already present grandiosity with tremolo-fast riffs and blast-beats. But what will echo through your ears as the album ends is that very specific, very hard to create feeling of classic metal; everything on display here just blends into this feeling that you only get when listening to really well made and passionate metal. Can that be a genre? It is now and A Flock Named Murder pull it off to a fascinating degree.” – HEAVY BLOG IS HEAVY
#21 out of Top 35 of 2018 at HEAD-BANGER REVIEWS
#11 out of Top 11 of 2018 from KALYMAH at METAL.IT
#29 out of Top 50 of 2018 from Count Vlad at BLESSED ALTAR ZINE
#9 out of Top 30 of 2018 from KMaN at BLESSED ALTAR ZINE
Top 50 of 2018 at ChaliceOfBlood.net
#21 out of Top 50 from West Maddox at BLACK METAL DAILY
[Download Single Cover | Download Single Lyrics]
Single Title: Garden of Embers
Release Date: November 30, 2022
Label: Self-Release
Track Listing:
1. Garden of Embers – 14:17
Single Recording Credits:
All songs performed by: A Flock Named Murder
All songs written by: A Flock Named Murder
Produced by: Roland Rodas at Cavern Of Echoes Studios
Mixed by: Roland Rodas at Cavern Of Echoes Studios
Mastered by: Roland Rodas at Cavern Of Echoes Studios
Album Artwork by: Ilyse Krivel and Bryan Bray
Recording Band Lineup:
Ryan Mueller – Guitars, Voice
Mike Wandy – Bass, Voice
Cam Mueller – Drums, Lyrics
Live Band Lineup:
Ryan Mueller – Guitars, Voice
Mike Wandy – Bass, Voice
Cam Mueller – Drums, Lyrics
Mike Binns – Guitars
Canada’s A Flock Named Murder is a driving pummeling force that weaves themes of existentialism, inner struggles, and personal conviction together with ethereal and crushing black metal. They have a new single ready for the world, the complex and powerful “Garden of Embers”. This single is a small offering for listeners to ferment on as they embark on producing their next full-length album. It’s one of the many journeys that will be embarked on throughout the album showcasing emotional peaks and valleys and its fair share of dynamic composition – instrumentally, vocally, and structurally. The band explains the single:
““Garden Of Embers” is as musically elaborate as it is emotionally dramatic. It weaves and balances complex counterpoint melodies and shifting instrumental dynamics with moments of heaviness, grit, and ferocity. It is somber and then uplifting, before concluding as a story of tragedy. It’s both ethereal and crushing; exuberant in its delivery while powerful in its presentation. It’s a song that will pull you in, and won’t let you go until it decides it’s done – and when that happens, you won’t forget what it did to you.”
Lyrically, “Garden of Embers” is a post-apocalyptic tragedy exploring themes of personal desolation. It embodies a stark reflection of physical death in things we hold dear, giving way to death of the self, but as more of a dissolution than a rebirth.
The next full-length album will begin its production in the very near future, and there are plenty more ideas at varying levels of completion beyond that. Diverse, sprawling, and melodic, A Flock Named Murder is recommended for fans of Agalloch, Emperor, and Cult Of Luna.
2018 – An Appointed Time (full length album)
2016 – Ephemeral – EP (under the moniker Sovereign)
SHARED STAGE WITH:
Oranssi, Pazuzu, Rosetta, Falls Of Rauros, Imperial Triumphant, Miserere, Luminis, Hexis, Panzerfaust, Immortal, Bird Insect, Ark, Ashbringer, Nesseria, Erimha, USA Out Of Vietnam, Uhtcearu, Drofnosura, Ischemic, Idol Of Fear, Arbor
BAND STORY ANGLES / FUN FACTS:
1. Ryan and Cameron are brothers who have been very close all their lives. Aside from playing music together, they’ve also trained in martial arts, and have both worked in woodworking and carpentry.
2. Mike joined the band when he and Ryan were driving back from a metal festival in Montreal, and Ryan played him the early mixes of An Appointed Time. A Flock Named Murder needed a bassist after Sean left the band shortly after recording, and it just so happened that Mike was a bass player.
3. The earliest incarnation of the band was known as Goliath, before going under the moniker Sovereign for many years. Personal feelings toward the name Sovereign (as well as numerous other bands sharing it) led to the band renaming themselves to A Flock Named Murder, which was originally a title for a yet-unfinished song.
ashermediarelations.com 