Academic, apocalyptic black metal unit Lychgate return with their third and most mature work to date, titled “The Contagion in Nine Steps”. Their new album will be release on March 30, 2018, via Blood-Music.
Lychgate are streaming the first new track from “The Contagion in Nine Steps”. The track titled “Remembrance” showcases Lychgate’s trademark black metal/funeral doom crossover alongside compositional elements reminiscent of the 20th century avant-garde.
Regarding the new track, the band comments:
“This is the “ceremonial” outro track, which brings the album to a close in a nostalgic, reflective and funereal manner. Unlike much of the rest of the album, it features only clean vocals and is consistently slow throughout. It is important to remember its place as the final track in the album, since frantic and bizarre tracks like ‘Hither Come the Swarm’ are a stark contrast to it.”
ARTWORK
Mixed and Mastered by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Opeth, Paradise Lost, Grave Pleasures), “The Contagion in Nine Steps” sees Lychgate continue to push their arcane darkness forward, casting off a large amount of its opulent organ work in favor of eternally reverberating guitars and extra clean vocal work, giving the perspective of a Satanic performance in a grand and opulent hall.
The album’s general themes are inspired by swarm behaviour exhibited by the machines in Stanisław Lem’s book “The Invincible,” as well as through Plato’s, Hegel’s, Le Bon’s, and Canetti’s ideas on civilization, consciousness, and crowd psychology.
TRACKLISTING
1. Republic
2. Unity of Opposites
3. Atavistic Hypnosis
4. Hither Comes the Swarm
5. The Contagion
6. Remembrance