I often argue that growing up Catholic feels like a heritage in and of itself. The appreciation of archaic ritual, the Gregorian chanting, the pungent incense, the Gothic architecture, the sense of the supernatural in the house of worship, and, of course, the music. Catholic music, despite being offered up as a means of praise, is often rather dark and pensive. Minor keys contrast starkly with the more traditional use of the pipe organ. It’s an instrument that recalls The Phantom of the Opera, a host of Gothic film scores, and your parents’ favorite Easter hymns; yet, the organ is not an instrument we associate with much outside the confides of grand architecture or Sunday services.
While black metal has embraced aspects of Catholicism (or rather, their inverses, naturally) to create music that invokes a different channel of the esoteric occult, Lychgate tackle a wide range of various musical traditions to craft something that is unique and exciting. The Contagion in Nine Steps concerns itself not so much with your stereotypical evils (no mention of Satan or misspellings of the word “of” here) but with humanity’s innate ability to devolve into chaos in the herd. On their engrossing and challenging third release, Lychgate tackle crowd psychology from a philosophical and historical point of view. Much like the music itself, it’s a record that unfolds itself brilliantly when you give it the time and courtesy of attention.
Interestingly, The Contagion in Nine Steps is yet another sonic shift for a band who hasn’t written the same album twice. While their debut was a tasty batch of avant-garde black metal, An Antidote for the Glass Pill was a real head-trip, the type of audio nightmare that dropped the listener into something singularly frightening, only to twist and unwind itself into more horrors along the way. It also happened to be worth the effort and attention, though there was a sense of immediacy despite the audio aggression on hand. The Contagion in Nine Steps still sounds a bit like a nightmare, but this is much more deliberate, more controlled. The latent funeral doom influence is more pronounced; the avant-garde classical influence leads to something rather beautiful, and the use of pipe organ has been reigned in to match the mood more than dominate your psyche like An Antidote did.
I mentioned Catholicism at the onset because Lychgate’s latest really does invoke that sense of wonder and awe that can come with sharing a special moment with a swath of similarly-minded individuals in a massive space, think the cathedrals and basilicas in Europe. The Contagion in Nine Steps conjures up images of a post-apocalyptic even occurring in the Vatican City, and the psychological and physical despair that would ensue amidst some truly gorgeous backdrops. The record, if it isn’t patently obvious yet, is still slightly jarring, but instead of coming across as challenging, Lychgate’s latest is electrifying and intoxicating. The biggest challenge is not getting sucked deep into whatever Hellhole the record invokes. Nobody sounds like this, but I could imagine Hooded Menace and Blut Aus Nord coming together to craft the soundtrack to a Catholic horror film, and the results not being too far off. Those willing to take the plunge will be rewarded.
