ADAM LYTLE Shares Blistering First Single ‘BLACK MASSES’ (Out Now) from New Album ALTARS (2nd May)

ADAM LYTLE Announces New Album ALTARS (2nd May 2025)

& Shares Blistering First Single ‘BLACK MASSES’ (Out Today)

File under: Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, Scott Walker, Nick Cave.

WATCH ‘BLACK MASSES’ VIDEO BELOW | STREAM HERE

New York singer-songwriter Adam Lytle announces his second album Altars, a new chapter in his fevered exploration of the human condition and no better depicted than in the darkly electrifying first single ‘Black Masses’ (out today).

‘Black Masses’ is an industrial-gothic-rock fever dream of pounding drums, pulsating bass and screeching metal which sonically evokes its dark subject matter. “It’s a parable” explains Lytle. “A time-worn story of how the power-hungry use violence and religious fervor to achieve what they feel is their divine right to lead.” 

The accompanying film, shot on grainy 16mm, stars Sean Shannon as a desperate priest losing his grip on reality. Shot by Douglas K. Horton, directed by Patrick Cecilian, and edited by Bill Kemmler.

New album Altars follows Lytle’s 2023 debut album This Is the Fire which drew comparisons to the work of Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt and Scott Walker, and is a more earthbound and opaque sound. Altars was created alongside long-term collaborator/producer Jonathan Schenke (Liars, Parquet Courts) and a collection of guest musicians; combining a live-band sound with unique sonic experimentations.

Lytle describes Altars as “A collection of songs that is united by their unwavering examination of Devotion. It’s a raw and unrelenting record but there is a strange, fragile beauty throughout.” The album spans from finger-plucked guitar in its opening to an electric swagger, industrial beats to throbbing bass, T-Rex-like stomps to darkly atmospheric romanticism. It is a collection of soul-stirring anthems of destruction and rebellion. Lytle’s equally menacing and seductive vocals explore the messiness of life with poetic and razor-sharp observations, befitting of the current day turmoil but inspired by humanity’s historical chaos with Lytle’s travels to the Boulevards of Paris, the mountains of Granada and the city of Arles, France a big influence.

ALTARS TRACKLIST:

Strange Thunders

Lead On Desire

Sister Wave

Midnight Shakes The Memory

That Was Me

Sanctuary

Heaven

Black Masses

Nothing Lies Beyond

Hollow Eyes

Sea of Tears

Altars was written by Adam Lytle, produced by Jonathan Schenke and features guitarist Cameron Kapoor, drummer William Logan, bassist Kevin Copeland, percussionist Mauro Refosco, vocalist Kristina Moore, and multi-instrumentalist Oli Deakin.

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