Somewhere between black, doom and avant-garde metal, „The Contagion In Nine Steps“ by the British LYCHGATE is a highly interesting record – musically as well as lyrically. In our interview, mastermind and multi-instrumentalist Vortigern gave us deeper insight into many things like the album’s lyrical concept about group psychology, the impact of social media in that regard as well as his view on the British metal scene. You can read all his answers below:
With LYCHGATE you play avant-garde black and doom metal. What was your intention when you launched the project in 2011? Why did you feel the need for a new band, even though you all have other projects as well?
It was not possible to do anything like we do in LYCHGATE in another project. I was playing in other bands, but to explore new territories it was necessary to form LYCHGATE. It was not necessarily like that on the first album though – the first album was more about paying homage to some old demos from 2006 etc. (there is technically a project which foreshadowed LYCHGATE, between the years 2002-2004, called Archaicus – we will re-release those demos this year).
Avant-garde is a rather vague term. What do you think is the special thing that makes you an avant-garde band?
I try to avoid using this term because it gives people the wrong idea about what to expect. It was given to us by the public and the press and we went with the flow due to the lack of references and similar bands. The word „progressive“ can also sometimes be misleading.
Even though we know what avant-garde means, I took the liberty of looking it up for this question, and according to the Cambridge Directory it is indeed defined as, „…ideas, styles, and methods (that) are very original or modern in comparison to the period in which they (are)“. It is also, „…a critique of existing aesthetic conventions“ and a „rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elements, and the idea of deliberately challenging or alienating audiences“.
So, technically LYCHGATE fits these definitions, and I feel the quote answers your question, with the exception of the last point probably. One might say we will continue down the paths mentioned in the quote. I stand against stagnation and repetition of old formulas, but the motto I nevertheless like to take for LYCHGATE is usually “tradition and innovation”.
The United Kingdom is not as famous for its extreme metal scene as for example Norway, but there are definitely some respected bands. Do you think there’s a certain characteristic that defines your scene?
It’s important to never forget that the UK is famous for more classic metal bands like Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Venom, Judas Priest and then later doom metal bands like My Dying Bride, Cathedral, Esoteric, Solstice, Electric Wizard, Paradise Lost and of course death metal bands like Carcass and Bolt Thrower, or indeed thrashy bands like Sabbat and Onslaught. In contrast Norway has mainly just offered black metal as the main export. But for the UK these days, it’s different times of course and I don’t think there is a defining characteristic anymore in the way that there used to be in the 80s and 90s (the names above speak for themselves really). There are a number of current well-known bands in all metal sub-genres; mainly more commercial styles (e.g. Haken, Tesseract etc.). But from the darker side of metal there is, for example, Cruciamentum and Grave Miasma. Lvcifyre is in the UK, but some might say it’s a Polish band. Also, in my opinion the best black metal project from the UK is Extinction. Isenscur, Hateful Abandon and RID are good too, plus The One (if it can be counted). Fen and A Forest Of Stars seem to have a strong following as well.
Your style is quite distinctive, yet you certainly have certain musical role models, right? Soundwise, your guitar playing partly reminds me a little bit of the first few Opeth albums. Do you consider them among your influences or are your inspirations to be looked for elsewhere?
I never got influenced by Opeth, but I like the first few albums. From metal the main influence is probably Emperor. After that it’s Morbid Angel, Nocturnus and Unholy.
I assume you are also inspired by non-metal music, right? Which artists are important to you in this regard?
The main one is Art Zoyd. Univers Zero are also important. I’m also influenced by a range of classical music from Bach to something more modern like Messiaen. However, I tend to like the period where the late Romantic period meets the 20th century innovations in music, or rather the earlier developments of the 20th century in general: Rachmaninov, Ravel, Martinu, Marcel Dupré etc.
Although your music is very remarkable, you can be called an underground band because of your rather small fanbase. Does that bother you? And what do you think would be the reason for that?
Ultimately the music of the 2nd and 3rd albums is not easy-listening, so that means that the fanbase cannot ascend much beyond “acquired” tastes. However, with our future releases, who knows which direction this will take? Maybe it will be more digestible.
I think if I was genuinely bothered I wouldn’t have produced such albums in the first place. The most important thing is the art. So, the only thing that would bother me is if someone said they wrote something for the express purpose of satisfying what is popular. I find that a disappointing attitude. Music should never be released with the aim of achieving a certain (larger) fanbase size. It should be released with the aim of genuinely expressing something – and if people like it, great. If not, so what?
With „The Contagion in Nine Steps“ you recently released your third record. Among other things, you lyrically deal with group psychology. What is your personal connection to this topic?
I became very interested in this topic because of the new ways in which crowd or group psychology could be realised after the birth of the Internet. Suddenly we went from a series of civilizations to a globalized monster with a new way of exchanging information and influencing people via big tech companies and information filtering. It’s particularly interesting to consider this power in light of political events.
How are these „nine steps of contagion“ to be understood?
The number nine is only metaphorical. I found it amusing that some people commented on being mildly annoyed that the album has six tracks, not nine. In my opinion it would have been just too obvious to say, “in six steps”. Anyway, the “nine steps” fits better with the lyrical metaphor, which is the approximate amount of stages of civilizations in Europe, where a contagion or group psychology affected its changes and evolution: Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Christianization of Europe and the loss of paganism, the French Revolution, to later events – even WWII.
Would you say that you yourself are also affected by the psychological phenomena that you address?
I think we all are. Are we all infected by the spread of an idea in society? Yes.
What do you think is the most apparent difference between „An Antidote For The Glass Pill“ and your new album?
Well, ‘The Contagion…’ is generally slower and less aggressive. It also features less use of organ and more use of choral passages, and more dynamics. Our new work next year will be faster and more upbeat.
I guess the feedback on „The Contagion In Nine Steps“ is pretty favorable, huh? What do you think were the aspects that were praised the most?
I suppose the atmosphere of it – the mind-bending aspects of it. The album can be like a “trip” or journey. People liked the production too.
Previously, you performed organ personally, but a guest musician did it on your latest record, right? What is the reason for this?
Actually, this might be a mistake on metal-archives. I never played organ on any of our records, apart from a few parts (I don’t really count this). My sister played on the first album, then Kevin Bower on the second, then Vladimir on the third. The reason is because composing everything, scoring it and learning how to play it is already enough work. On all albums I’ve performed nearly all the guitar parts, so that’s enough to focus on. It makes no sense to have to play organ or piano as well when someone else can do it, but next time I might do it myself; we’ll see.
This time there are also two guest singers to be heard: Chris Hawkins and Alexandros. How did it come about and in which way do they work together with Greg’s vocals?
On ‘The Contagion…’ I wanted to not sing any of the clean vocals. So, I tried it this time with two guests – both of whom I knew personally already – and both of whom brought something valid. Next time I can imagine myself singing some clean vocals, as was the case on the ‘An Antidote…’ album.
On the artwork you can see a blurry building inside a human head, as well as a few shadowy figures. Who created it and what is the connection to the lyrical concept?
It’s by a French/Canadian artist called Michel Guy. He also did the artwork for ‘An Antidote…’. You might imagine that what I expressed to him and what he ended up drawing were two different things. The original brief was very specific, but I conceded to his artistic freedom in the end. The cover is connected to the lyrical concept since it represents the contagion sweeping through a crowd.
Have you planned any live shows in the near future?
There is nothing booked at the moment. We’ve had a few discussions with various promoters. It’s likely concerts will begin in 2019.
Now we come to our traditional Metal1.info Brainstorming. What comes to mind while reading the following terms?
Symphonic black metal: Emperor
NWOBHM: Iron Maiden
Nationalism: Brexit?!
Consistency vs. innovation: Innovation
Social media: The death of actually being sociable…
Soccer World Cup: Croatia (laughs)
Finally, thank you again for this interview. I leave the last words to you:
Thank you for the interview and interest. Stay in touch!
24. September 2018 Stephan Rajchl
Dieses Interview wurde per E-Mail geführt.
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