Nelkuled

Oromet: The Sinking Isle (2025)

Woooooooooaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh ...

Every so often, a brand-new band emerges fully-formed and armed with the whole package: the sound, the visuals, the vision, the vibe, and not even the unfortunate decision to only make their self-titled debut available on cassette can change that.

I'm talking about Sacramento, CA funeral doom duo Oromet, featuring vocalist/guitarist Dan Aguilar (also of Occlith and Battle Hag) and producer/multi-instrumentalist (drums, bass, synths) Patrick Hills (see also Occlith, Desiccation, Feral Season, etc.).

Coming together in 2022, the pair promptly proclaimed their nerdy credentials by selecting their moniker from J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings -- specifically some random hill on the lost island kingdom of Númenor.

This provenance accounts for the decision to title their 2025 sophomore album (luckily also issued on vinyl) The Sinking Isle, which, like its predecessor, assembled a towering, triple-threat tableau to welcome listeners into Tolkien-stoked imaginations.

However, although Oromet accept and live by most funeral doom ground rules, including agonizingly slow tempos, subhuman growls, de-tuned riffage, and vast, agoraphobic atmospherics, they boldly break others with their majestic, uplifting, even transcendent melodies, and total rejection of any clean singing.

Side A of The Sinking Isle harbors a single, 21-minute-long colossus called "Hollow Dominion" that quietly stirs on that mythical shore before plummeting to unfathomable depths and then gradually surfacing again amid both hopeful and forlorn melodies, sometimes reminiscent of Nautik Doom explorers Ahab.

One of two, eleven-minute excursions found on Side B, "Marathon" may be only half as long but is twice as sinister, cloaked by solemn choral chants; yet it too pivots mid-song into a haunting acoustic interlude that has more in common with blackened folk greats Agalloch than Evoken or Thergothon.

And the last of three, "Forsaken Tarn" (incidentally, a "tarn" is a deep mountain lake formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier), also forsakes utmost despair for distinct passages marked by militaristic percussion and soaring harmonies of a mournful but regal bearing.

Thematically, all three movements share what the band itself described as "the inevitability of collapse and the cycles of ruin and rebirth" -- a very Númenorian plight, even if Oromet's chosen "narrator" is possessed of a bestial roar more akin to a Balrog.

All kidding aside, Tolkien geeks will recognize direct emotional ties between Oromet's bittersweet, yearning melodies and the mortal Númenorian kings' curse of forever gazing west towards the forbidden, Undying Lands of Valinor, eternally beyond their reach.

To complete the picture, the band commissioned celebrated Tolkien illustrator Ted Nasmith to paint The Sinking Isle's cataclysmic cover art (note King Tar-Minastir's namesake tower) to illustrate Númenor's downfall: swallowed by the waves as punishment for mankind's hubris.

But Oromet need not fear divine retribution for taking their pride in a young career that's entirely deserving of the widespread acclaim bestowed upon their first two full-lengths, and I can't wait to hear what they do next.

p.s. -- In recognition of Pride Month 2026 and all my friends in the LGBTQIA+ community, I'll be posting my by-now-customary string of colored vinyl in a rainbow sequence.

Oromet [The Sinking Isle]. 2025. Bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Amazon, Youtube. Twitter(metalone). ----- Oromet [Oromet] 2023

Oromet [Oromet]. 2023. Bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Amazon, Youtube. Twitter(metalone).

Oromet are a Sacramento duo who play leaden funeral/death doom. Their second album The Sinking Isle will be out on November 7th through Hypaethral Records, with Transylvanian Recordings handling the physical releases.

[photo by Danny Ensele]