SOJOURNER are set to break a six-year hiatus with ‚Gateways‘, a seven-track album due July 10th, 2026 via Avantgarde Music. The record marks a bold evolution of the band’s atmospheric black metal sound, now featuring the vocals of Heike Langhan, known from DRACONIAN and REMINA.After six years of near-total silence, SOJOURNER are ready to make their presence felt once again. The international atmospheric black metal outfit, built around the creative partnership of Mike Lamb and Emilio Crespo, will release their new album ‚Gateways‘ on July 10th, 2026 through Avantgarde Music, on CD, LP and digital formats.
The band’s previous full-length, ‚Premonitions‘, arrived in 2020 via Napalm Records and was followed by a period of considerable change — lineup shifts, a return to Avantgarde Music, and a deliberate retreat from the public eye that allowed ideas and inspiration to accumulate organically. The result is ‚Gateways‘, a collection of seven tracks that represents both a return to form and a meaningful step forward.
Among the new material is ‚Epitaphs‘, a digital single already released in late 2024, which offered a first glimpse of the direction the band had taken. That direction proves to be both faithful and expansive: the dreamy, folk-infused atmospheres that have long defined SOJOURNER’s identity remain central, but are now elevated by the addition of vocalist Heike Langhan, formerly of DRACONIAN and REMINA, whose contributions bring a new emotional dimension to the band’s sound. Crucially, the album does not sacrifice intensity for melody — fast tempos and monolithic riffing are present throughout.
Guitarist and chief songwriter Mike Lamb has described ‚Gateways‘ as a labour of love, noting that it harnesses the essence of everything the band has created before while pointing toward new horizons. Preorders are available now via Bandcamp.