Lychgate

Formed in London in 2011 around James C. Young, Lychgate brings together musicians active in several British and European extreme metal projects, including Greg Chandler of Esoteric, in a lineup where organ and keyboards occupy a central place. Lychgate develops a language situated between black metal, extreme doom and progressive metal, with long compositions, vocals that blend torn screams and lower registers, dissonant guitars and a harmonic approach that also borrows from contemporary music and certain gothic aesthetics. The project extends older ideas of Young, first sketched under the name Archaicus, before taking its current form with the album Lychgate in 2013. The band then refines its approach on An Antidote for the Glass Pill in 2015, and then on The Contagion in Nine Steps in 2018, two records that emphasize the conceptual dimension and labyrinthine writing of Lychgate. In 2020, the EP Also sprach Futura continues this trajectory with a tighter format. Not inclined toward regular live activity, Lychgate appears mainly in chosen contexts, notably on European tours and in specialized festivals like Roadburn, where its use of the organ fully contributes to the band's sonic identity.