Second album from Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Adam Lytle. Altars blends folk and gothic influences with dashes of heavy rock and industrial – with the influence of Cohen, Walker and Cave never far below the surface
Release Date: 2nd May 2025
Label: Self Release
Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital
A HEADY MIX OF STYLES AND INFLUENCES
He’s a new name to At The barrier but Altars is Brooklyn singer-songwriter Adam Lytle’s second album. It follows his 2023 offering, This is the Fire and, this time around, he’s treading heavier and more experimental ground whilst retaining contact with the gothic, folky melodicism of his earlier work.
Indeed, Altars sees Adam incorporating 70s rock, 60s psychedelia, industrial and komische influences into his music and his experimentation has borne fruit. Adam’s music has always drawn comparisons to the work of Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker, Townes Van Zandt and Nick Cave and those influences pervade Altars but, this time around, the boundaries are far wider.
ALTARS IN A NUTSHELL…
Altars is poetic and dark-but-not-entirely-so. There are moments of surprising tenderness slotted in amongst the desperation and dystopia. Describing the album, Adam says: “[It’s] 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… I’m interested in expressing a broad range of human emotion through my songs; there’s a duality of light and dark in everything. I believe it’s the artist’s responsibility to explore both sides, even if it’s uncomfortable.” Words that summarise Altars in neat nutshell.
Produced by Parquet Courts collaborator Jonathan Schenke, Altars features Adam’s vocals and signature nylon string guitar, backed by a hand-picked, accomplished band. Jonathan himself plays synth, piano and Fender Rhodes, Cameron Kappor is on electric guitar, William Logan on drums, percussion and additional piano, Kevin Copeland on bass, Oli Deakin on electric guitar and keyboards, Mauro Refosco on percussion and Kristina Moore completes the lineup with her outstanding backing vocals.
CUTTING THROUGH SOLID ICE
We’re introduced gently. Opening track Savage Thunder picks up where This is the Fire left off, with a passage of fingerpicked nylon string. The percussion is soft and respectful before, as the pace and intensity pick up, spacy electric guitar joins the mix. There’s an otherworldly feel to the song that hints at the heavier moments to come… And the first of those moments makes its appearance as a choppy electric guitar lick introduces the excellent Lead on Desire. The song is strongly reminiscent of Another Brick in the Wall; it gets the feet tapping and the guitar solos are so sharp, they could cut through solid ice.
The comparisons to Nick Cave are particularly evident in Sister Wave, a song that manages to be both dark and uplifting at the same time. Acoustic guitar sits in pole position whilst sprinkles of electric guitar provide the decoration and the song drives along at a nice pace. The folky Midnight Shakes the Memory is described in the album’s press release as a “soul-stirring anthem of regret,” and that’s a thoroughly accurate representation. The song has the feel of a sixties folk-revival number and it’s not as dour as the title might lead the unsuspecting listener to believe.
A DETAILED TAKEDOWN OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Resonant electric guitar takes the lead for the swampy That was Me, a blues-infused song of betrayal. Adam’s vocals have a bitter edge as he sings lines like: “Don’t hide your scalpel in rags of kindness – I’ve seen the cruelty you harbour” but that bitterness is sweetened – slightly – by Kristina’s discrete backing vocals. And the bitterness is dissolved entirely for the folky Sanctuary; the darkness remains but glimmers of optimism shine through.
Described as “… a detailed takedown of western civilization…” the epic Heaven is the album’s centrepiece. Doors-like in it’s driving rhythm and crashes of electric guitar, it’s a song that gives the listener much to ponder, with deep, dark lyrics that offer a multiplicity of interpretation options. It’s fast-moving and it’s tightly controlled, even when the band start to get seriously psychedelic.
A BLEND OF INFLUENCES
A solid drumbeat and rumbling bass provide the foundation for Black Masses, the album’s rocky lead single. The anti-war rock of early Black Sabbath meets the sonic experimentation of Throbbing Gristle and the result is serious weirdness with a compulsive beat and Adam’s lyrics are as bitter and cynical as the mood requires. So, it’s a complete contrast when Adam resorts to his fingerpicked nylon strings for the gentle, atmospheric, Nothing Lies Beyond. His lyrics are equally gentle and tender as Adam pledges commitment and fidelity in statements like: “Nothing came before you, nothing lies beyond.” And the tender mood is retained for the intimate Hollow Eyes, a song that (to me at least) recalls Blood on the Tracks Dylan in its structure and lyrical content.
And to close: Adam summons the spirit of Leonard Cohen for final track Sea Of Tears, a song that is so respectful in its construction and delivery to the influence of the great man that you’d swear it was one of the Laureate’s lost laments. The lyrics reveal Adam at his poetic peak and, I guarantee, you’ll want to study them closely.
IN CONCLUSION…
Altars is an album that offers the listener much to enjoy and much to ponder – but I’ll conclude by quoting a passage from the album’s press release which, I believe, summarises the aura of Altars is far better words than I could ever put together:
“Altars is a record that arrives at a moment of great turmoil. The air is thick with the promise of something dark and destructive. Where many artists have stood at the edge of this darkness and turned back, Lytle leads us deeper into the void. He sings for the ones who feel too much, the ones whose hearts beat in rhythm with the sorrows of the world, the ones who have loved, lost, but are still standing. Like the great poets of the underworld, his songs echo in the silence long after they’ve ended. Altars is raw and unrelenting, a cocktail of desire, dread, blood and redemption. A haunting reflection of an unremitting world.”
Interested? Well, if you are, you might wish to put a date in your diary. Adam Lytle will be visiting the UK this summer and he’ll be playing at The Green Note in Camden Town, London, on 23rd July… See you there?
Watch the official video to Black Masses – the album’s lead single – below:
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