EIGENGRAU [ˈʔaɪ̯gŋ̍ˌgʁaʊ̯; eye - gen - grOW]

Fusing complex rhythms with post-rock textures, emotive melody with post-metal heft, EIGENGRAU are an instrumental band from Newcastle upon Tyne.

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After a near-5-year hiatus, EIGENGRAU return with their new album, EQUUS.

Formed in 2016 in Newcastle upon Tyne by David Sowden (guitar), Richard Dye (bass), Tom Hepburn (drums) and Anthony Johnson (guitar, piano, synth), EIGENGRAU quickly built a reputation in the local scene for their mathematical complexity, angular compositions, ferocious intensity and emotional drive. Refusing to be constrained by boundaries of genre or conventional songwriting, the band soon developed a following culminating in the release of their self-titled 2017 EP. Further gigs around the North East followed, and a support slot for The Physics House Band suggested greater things to come.

However, work on a follow-up EP was interrupted by a range of factors: family changes, relocations and the 2020 COVID pandemic. Whilst several songs had been written and even performed live, any further progress ground to a half until in March 2024 EIGENGRAU were proud to be invited back to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Little Buildings, a grassroots venue instrumental in their development. The show was a success and spurred the band to relearn old songs and return to work on new ones.

More gigs arrived through 2024 and 2025, including many with the North East Mathia, an affiliation of like-minded and genre-adjacent bands who had supported each other in one way or another for several years. Several Mathia Fests followed alongside support slots with Newcastle prog/post-metal stalwarts Kylver and Brighton/London experiments/dark-prog pioneers Poly-Math.

So to 2026, where recording sessions at Newcastle’s renowned Blank Studios produced the long-gestating second release, EQUUS. What started as a joke (“Let’s make an album and call it ‘The Four Horsemen of the Post-Rockopalypse’) spawned a sprawling post-prog-psych mashup of swirling clarity and churning invention. Whilst each track brings its own style and narrative drive, the album taken as a whole ruminates on conflict, disease, poverty, death and, ultimately redemption. Rawcus yet reserved, crushing yet delicate, dense yet emotive, EQUUS is a modern and timeless statement on human nature, expressed through musical and emotional contrast and concord.

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