Ahead of its December 19h release, UK avant-Death/Black Metal band LYCHGATE premiere their labyrinthian new album “Precipice” on  YouTube. In a little under 50 minutes, the band layer fusion riffs, leads and rhythms into skewed melodic entanglements which erupt into strident bludgeon – balefully contrasted with spacious, keyboard-led, classical/jazz-inflected passages rich with tension-heavy dynamics. The players bursting forth in a rush of devastatingly claustrophobic vocals and finely-honed avant-Black Metal mastery.

Listen here:

The aesthetic universe of “Precipice” is influenced by various works of literature and film, as main composer Vortigern elucidated in a recent interview with Rock Hard Italy:

“I wanted the theme of “Precipice” to be a logical progression from previous themes (the Panopticon, surveillance, loss of the individual, crowd/”swarm” psychology etc.), without repeating ourselves. I also wanted the source – E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909) – to be from the early twentieth century. And while the theme is arguably a simplistic one, it’s also powerful. It was chosen roughly halfway through the writing of the music. I found there was a good structure to work from and a means of linking its themes to other sources. For example, ‘Mausoleum of Steel‘ literally refers to the hexagonal cells people live in in the novella, but it’s also themed on Plato’s allegory of the cave, where prisoners are chained in a cave, and their reality consists of shadows: second-hand copies of reality, rather than direct sources. Even more importantly, the prisoners do not wish to leave, since they know no better life, or other version of this reality. Other literary influences included H. G. Wells’ “A Story of the Days to Come” and “The Sleeper Awakes“, T. S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland“, and Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra“.”

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“Precipice” will be released on CD, vinyl – including an exclusive DMP variant – and digital on December 19th. A special t-shirt design will accompany the launch. Pre-orders are possible via DMP’s EU, US and Bandcamp shops.

LYCHGATE was formed in 2011 by Vortigern (guitars) with the collaboration of Greg Chandler (vocals and guitars), Aran (Bass) and T. J. F. Vallely (drums). In 2012, the self-titled debut was recorded and then released in the first quarter of 2013 through Mordgrimm and Gilead Media. The material on this album was partly inspired by demo material from a pre-LYCHGATE project known as ARCHAICUS; demos that would later be released through Cult Never Dies and entitled, “The Early Years – ‘Beneath the Horizon’ and Other Demos, 2002​-​06“.

Between January 2012 and December 2013, Vortigern wrote material for the second album entitled “An Antidote for the Glass Pill“, which was thematically inspired by Bentham‘s concept of the Panopticon. It was recorded almost entirely at Priory Studios intermittently in the second half of 2014. It was then released through the Finnish label Blood Music in August 2015. The album was a significant step in the development of LYCHGATE‘s sound, with the utilisation of organ as a compositional backbone to all tracks, along with influences from late 19th century/early 20th century art music, Rock in Opposition, musique concréte and 1940s-70s cinema. Besides the core line-up and addition of Alan Webb on bass, the band invited Kevin Bowyer to perform all organ parts.

The press received “An Antidote” highly, with praise given to its uniqueness and forward-thinking approach. It has been featured in lists for the top metal albums of the 2010s, from Angry Metal Guy and Invisible Oranges. Shortly after the release date, a European tour was conducted with NIGHTBRINGER in November 2015. The following year, the band performed the entire album with real organ at Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

In August 2017, LYCHGATE entered Orgone Studios with producer Jaime Gomez (ULVER, PARADISE LOST, ORANSSI PAZUZU) to record the third album for Blood Music, entitled “The Contagion In Nine Steps“, in which the band adopted generally slower tempos, and psychedelic atmospheres. The album was inspired by the Stanisław Lem novel “The Invincible (Niezwyciężony)” and variations on the theme of group-think and crowd psychology.

During August/September 2019, an EP entitled “Also sprach Futura” was recorded at Priory Studios, inspired by the film “Metropolis” (1925/1927), and Lem‘s “Golem XIV” (1981). The work was quicker paced, and more similar to “An Antidote” than its predecessor. It was released on Debemur Morti Productions in March 2020. A subsequent European tour with WHITE WARD was regrettably cancelled due to the global pandemic at the time.

In 2025, LYCHGATE entered Priory Studios to record “Precipice“. It is due to be released in the winter of 2025 through Debemur Morti Productions.

LYCHGATE 2025 are:

J.C. Young “Vortigern” – Guitars, Organ, Piano, Orchestration
Greg Chandler – Vocals
S.D. Lindsley – Guitar
Tom McLean – Bass
T. J. F. Vallely – Drums