Review Summary: No hope of escape
Master horror writer, Stephen King once described what truly scares people. Coming up with three different types of what we know as fear, "The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs… Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up… and the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there". Fear of the unknown; a vagueness, an ambiguity that presents us with a limit to our knowledge, language, and security. Lychgate, a group created by like-minded musicians from several already respected bands in black metal, death metal and funeral doom, brilliantly embody that third aspect of fear--terror. A feeling that when left unchecked can bring about absolute insanity, even in the most reasonable of us.
Their self titled debut impressively delivers a cacophony of monstrous guitar tones, relentless drum work and organs, ominous in their application and execution, each preying on our anxieties. The organ, while perhaps not the first instrument chosen when planning to play any genre of extreme music, nonetheless offers Lychgate an immense, macabre element to their sound. Helping them realize this sense of shadowy uneasiness that runs throughout the cold veins of the album as evidenced in "In Self Ruin". Other tracks like "Against the Paradoxical Guild" take advantage of Greg Chandler's bloodcurdling screams while the dynamics of the song highlight some of best tendencies of the black metal genre. Parallel to, at times, the 'wall of sound' used by some of Norway's more melodic bands during the second wave, like Emperor. The blast beats and tremolo riffs don't so much as bury you but instead focus more on enveloping you as they are used sparingly and at the most advantageous moments.
"Sceptre to Control the World" develops a more mid-pace brooding sound that showcases the groups ties with death metal and funeral doom. The grooves and rhythms set the mood while the drums pick up steam halfway through with a galloping frenzy topped off by Chandler's tortured grunts. One of the biggest accomplishments Lychgate brings to the table is that none of their instruments were processed. Recorded without the use of any editing validates the musicians merits and leaves the listener amazed at the technicality of the unrevised arrangements. Another worthy achievement the band accomplishes is managing to vary their sound song to song without losing the terrifying palpation felt on the album. Innovating and correlating each track without fluctuating from the core essence is harder done than said--Lychgate adapts themselves perfectly to aforementioned sentiment.
The ending numbers focus more on the death and funeral doom elements more so than black metal, marking a tightening grip as Lychgate engulfs the trepidatious listener. Once again, it comes back to that paralyzing thought, asphyxiation by an overwhelming terror. By the time penultimate number's brief acoustic moment, within the song's vast sound, is over that small crack in the window of hope has been closed off forever in front of you. Like a black hole, Lychgate's sound not only exhausts every viable source of luminescence but also expels it right back out. Left purged and obliterated by the overall experience. The album is a chilling expedition into the cryptic universe occupied by the impenetrable, inexplicable and unavoidable terror that lurks at the crux of their nature.
