Review: Erebor – Infinitus Somnium

Style: progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Black Crown Initiate, Opeth
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 4 July 2025

Progressive metal is a genre that thrives off pushing its own boundaries, each band trying to outdo their peers be it through instrumental prowess, philosophical depth, or sheer originality. As such, progressive metal is a genre defined by its high water mark albums: releases where an artist breaks free from the faceless crowd around them and manages to rise head and shoulders above, often inspiring a legion of copycats in their wake. In the wider prog scene, albums like Dream Theater’s Images and Words, Tool’s Ænima, and Meshuggah’s Nothing are such examples, but if one narrows their focus to progressive death metal, two bands come starkly into view: Opeth and Ne Obliviscaris.

While the bands’ respective sounds differ in some fundamental ways, their fusions of the unabashed viscerality of death metal with an insistence that the sub-genre could be something beautiful have made them the forerunners of modern progressive death metal. In the horde of imitators that now ape their every move, it can be hard to find music worth listening to over its muses, but perhaps it’s the struggle that makes it all the more pleasing when you find something worth sharing. Enter Erebor with Infinitus Somnium.

Eschewing the much more technical stylings of Inherent Malevolence, their debut release, Infinitus Somnium, or an infinite dream in Latin, sees Erebor honing their skills in longform composition. Made up of a single three-part track that comprises its entire forty-three minute runtime, this album is an exercise in tension and release. Across it, one is equally likely to hear a reverb-laden clean guitar ringing out in saccharine sadness as they are to hear a blistering solo or torrential blast beat. In fact, the tracks are more akin to post-metal in structure, with their meticulous buildups and decidedly epic climaxes, albeit with a clearly prog death texture. In my first listens, I struggled to work my way through a few of the more intense transitions, but as I became more familiar with the album, they went down easier and I now enjoy basically every moment.

The majority of the enjoyment I gleaned from Infinitus Somnium came from subtle ease and sway of tension between the guitar and drum parts to create spectacle. Take for instance, the rapid fire riffage and ensuing hailstorm of blast beats that begins the first heavy section of “The Endeavor.” The guitars alter their accent patterns to emphasize different parts of the drumbeat as the entire riff evolves into increasingly epic versions of itself, speaking to both the band’s compositional chops and their commitment to grandeur. And it’s that same commitment that makes dozens of moments across the album so engaging. From the actually hilarious drum fill that kicks “The Tower” into gear to the delightfully melodic and tastefully shreddy solos scattered across Infinitus Somnium, there is hardly a time while listening that I’m not smiling in the joy of prog death done well.

With its extended compositions and panoramic soundscapes, Infinitus Somnium demands comparisons to Ne Obliviscaris. The drumming across the album is wrought with the double bass heavy stylings of Dan Presland, and moments like the blooming chords around the middle of “The Endeavor” or the monumental climax of “The Apotheosis” sound as though Erebor’s guitarists may have a tape recorder hidden somewhere in NeO’s practice room. Erebor are clearly big fans of the death metallers from down under, and they wear their influences on their sleeve. 

Still, when you pit yourself up against one of the greats, you aren’t getting out of it scot-free. In a stat by stat comparison to NeO, Erebor holds its own except for in one category: the bass. Don’t get me wrong, Infinitus Somnium has plenty of bass sound—in fact, the mix in general is quite good—but the bass parts are just not that exciting. They weave their way through the drum and guitar parts like a corn snake through a field… and that’s all it does. On an album where every other instrument is free to explore the peaks of its potential, I expected one or two standout bass moments and never found them. Speaking of expectations, another element that Erebor lacks in respect to most other progressive death metal bands of this style is clean vocals, and their absence is noticeable. Many of the extended clean guitar sections throughout the album sound as though they were written around a lead melody, but nothing ever appears. There are a few intimate solos, and violin rears its head for a few seconds in “The Tower,” but the issue remains apparent as chords ring out and the drums chill out for a few seconds to support something that just never happens. Cleans very well may not be in the cards for Erebor, but they need to find something to fill the gaps in the softer moments. Bass perhaps? Thankfully, the harshes are totally serviceable and just varied enough to keep the sections where they are employed engaging.

Coming from a band that just switched from technical to progressive death metal and employing the ever risky album structure of one long song, Infinitus Somnium is an album that surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. While it doesn’t reach the same euphoric highs of the bands it imitates, it gets damn close, and I find myself wanting more in this long-form compositional style from Erebor. Who knows? With Xen out of band, any subsequent Erebor album may be the next best thing in the absence of Ne Obliviscaris.

Recommended tracks: The whole thing. It’s one long song.
You may also like: An Abstract Illusion, Serein, Tomarum, Citadel, Iapetus
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: independent

Erebor is:
– Will Unwin (bass)
– Tom Unwin (drums)
– Mia Bennet (guitars)
– Jordan Giles (guitars, vocals)
– Valentine Rodriguez (vocals)