Kyle Ball is best known as the former vocalist of Decibel favorites Wake. But he also has a profound affection for even darker sounds. At the height of the pandemic, Ball and a few collaborators released a killer black-metal-style cover of the Misfits’ 1983 crossover classic Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood. Now he’s turned his attention to his own filthy black metal hybrid with Lysergic. Stream their new EP Towering Altars of Misanthropy below.
“I started Lysergic in the fall of 2023 while I was still in Wake,” Ball says. “Wake was changing and focusing on more expansive and less aggressive sounds, but I still had a crucial need to make unrelenting and brutal metal, so I decided to start this project. The idea was to take the bestial black death sound and smother it in grindcore, industrial, noise and psychedelic soundscapes, with lyrical content about psychedelics, blasphemy, Satan, suicide and ritualistic sacrifice… a sort of love letter to the Satanic panic era and how much chaos it created in the 80s and 90s, as well as a burning hatred towards modern Christianity.”
Towering Altars of Misanthropy was initially self-released on cassette; Decomp Regalia will be releasing a vinyl version later this year. “I think it takes the sound that was laid down on the full length but turns up the brutality and aggression and pushes out a far more raw and chaotic experience,” Ball says. “This will be the last release as a solo effort, and the live band will be collaborating on the next full-length.”
