LYCHGATE - Precipice 2LP (SWIRL) (Preorder)

NB! Preorder item, release December 19.

The sublime 4th full-length from UK avant-Black/Death Metal band LYCHGATE advances the kinetic potency of their 2020 DMP-debut EP, "Also sprach Futura", to a frightening level of mind-mangling intensity.

"Precipice" is progressive Extreme Metal plummeting inside a black hole: scorching, twisted and transfixing. The band have upped both the dystopic prog-Death quotient and their sense of experimentation, moving with formidable, mechanised poise and a surrealist's sense of dread.

LYCHGATE 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.

Interweaving literary, philosophical, and cinematic influences, "Precipice" is conceptually based on E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" (1909) - a story of humanity’s underground existence and total dependence on a god-like machine - and also draws from Plato's 'allegory of the cave', H. G. Wells' "A Story of the Days to Come", and T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land".

Double gatefold LP, pressed on transparent black heavy vinyl w/ yellow swirl. Side D contains no music. Comes with a 2-page insert and a download card.

Debemur Morti 2025