Dutch experimenters, A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, feel the calling of improvised post-metal as their artistic mission. Aaron Turner (ex-Isis/current member of Neurosis) is the most famous person committed to this vision with Sumac, yet it’s a challenge many metal bands would rather avoid. How do you use spontaneity as your guiding force with emotions running so high? We can find out in the group’s debut EP.
The sense of unease is palpable from the first shaky rhythm of opener, ‘The Massacre of Flour’. It’s deliberate and intriguing enough to raise a finger to your chin. In this world, excess guitar distortion and gut-wrenching vocal shrieks are the harsh recipe for your spiritual needs. Like Godflesh, the low-tuned bass receives its dues from the thick end of a plectrum as drums clatter and form beats. Yet sticksman, Derek Twiss, bring the dynamics down to near silence after two minutes and thirty seconds as e-bows and ambient pedal loops form ethereal audio clouds. You can hear pleasant melodies trying to break through the haze as Joost Verhagen sings his way back into your consciousness like Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) with Mandelbrot shapes in his eyes. The finale is not quite the build up we needed but they release the tension with a short burst of manic screaming.
Music like this can go wrong quickly, and that’s part of the fun. ‘I Fuck People’ is the definition of improvised saxophone-led noise metal. Here, vocal lines befitting of a bursting stomach ulcer impose their words on the regular beats. Without a drummer marking the 4/4 movements, it would be utter chaos. You know it might stop and find a way to reset with quick on-the-spot thinking. Putting this into practice is easier when noise and misplaced chords are at the core of what you do. John Zorn would be impressed. Anyone who remembers his Painkiller project with Mick Harris of Napalm Death in the early 1990s will smile in satisfaction.
A permanent benefit of listening to this EP is the way it allows you to dab a cold towel on your head when things become too hot. The intro to closing effort, ‘Towers of Silence’, takes you to the scorching summer afternoon of Andalusia where the sweat stings your eyes. Adding a screech of amp noise in the background is a clever way to throw you off balance. You’re never sure if it’ll transition into a pounding mudslide of doom metal or if it’ll stay in the clear lane of a cross-country road where no other vehicle appears on the horizon. Screaming about the “end of time” over the minimalist guitar shapes suggests the former, but they leave you in suspense with exotic harmonies that veer towards the Middle East for tone and mood. The crushing atonal blows of the guitar are absent at the finale, yet you’re not disappointed.
A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers can see a future where “free metal” has the respect of those that marvel at free jazz. It’s probable they have no strong opinion on what people call it, but they’re confident it’ll sweep you up in its spiritual intensity.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 08/05/2026
Record Label: Self-released
Standout tracks: Towers of Silence
Suggested Further Listening: Painkiller – Guts of a Virgin (1991), Burndy – Burndy (2025), Low Before the Breeze – A Hole Beneath the Home We Shared (2025)