King Gorm Premiere Lost Single “Escape”
San Diego progressive rockers King Gorm release their new single “Escape” this Friday, June 5. You might recall the richly melodic, Mellotron-prone outfit made a self-titled debut (review here) during the lockdown summer of 2020, fueled by the songwriting and production of Francis Roberts, who at the time had just come through Old Man Wizard and was a pirate in The Dread Crew of Oddwood, but has in the years since moved to the more futuristic theatrics of Electotron, while drummer Dylan Marks has joined up with prog-death legends Atheist. So yes, busy elsewhere. “Escape” is not new, and it is not signaling a return from the band. It’s an old recording — I don’t know from exactly when, but let’s assume somewhere between 2019-2021 — and a one-off. The point is if you’re thinking there might be more coming, my direct understanding is no, that’s not the case.
I liked this project when they came out. The prog elements carried over from Old Man Wizard shone bright with a lineup that changed over time around Roberts and Marks (before and after the record), and even in “Escape,” they’re able to convey cinematic gallop without giving up the impact of the song itself. Twist and sprint were features on the self-titled as well, as a song like “Beyond Black Rainbow” can still attest, but 
“Escape” makes the tension part of the theme, and as you can see in the lyric video premiering below, that theme is more modern than one might at first expect. A verse about basically falling in a hole on your phone presents “Escape” less as a triumph than a kind of sad need of our age. Someday someone will do a moratorium on what this era of technology did to human brains. It will tell us a bunch of things we’d probably otherwise already know.
The swells of keyboard and the push to the end speak to something of a triumph, but “Escape” doesn’t go over-the-top in that or anything else in its tight four-minute run. Its execution might feel unassuming for the occasion, but again, this isn’t intended as a portend, and I’m not sure I’d call it a memorium either, it’s just a thing that Roberts happened to find on an old device and was compelled to finish. It is that, however — finished — and reminds me of a lot of what I dug about this band in the first place while they were going. It was a weird time, obviously, but there was a cross-generational creative reach in their songwriting and dynamic, and King Gorm‘s songs were wrought with purpose and a forward-looking mindset, as classic as they might sound on their face, nodding in the direction of the ethereal while holding to structure and standing apart from the psychedelia typifying San Diego’s underground at the end of the 2010s.
Maybe you heard King Gorm around the album, maybe you didn’t. If not, I’ll gladly point out that music doesn’t have an expiration date — especially good music — and that the album is streaming at the bottom of this post in case you hear the single and want more. Without the promise of a record to come, “Escape” is a little bittersweet, maybe, but for sure emblematic of what the appeal of the band was in the first place.
As always, I hope you enjoy. The info/lyrics in blue came from the YouTube page for the lyric video.
King Gorm, “Escape” lyric video premiere
Releases June 5: https://kinggorm.bandcamp.com/track/escape
“Escape” was recorded a long time ago and was thought to be lost on a damaged old device. We were able to recover the tracks and replace the last few missing parts to get it out into the world. This is not part of an album.
Bass, Drums, and Keys recorded live by Francis Roberts, Dylan Marks, and Reece Miller.
Vocals, Guitar, and Synths added later.
Lyrics:
Life is like a broken record spinning on repeat
Hopelessly returning to the place we didn’t meet
Love is kinda funny when you’re living it alone
Standing in a crowded room and staring at your phone
Fall in love with strangers and fall in love with narcissists
Keep on wasting all your time with automatic hypnotists
Staring at your mirror into someone else’s world
You check out
Feel safe
Forget
Escape
released June 5, 2026
Music & Lyrics by Francis Roberts
Guitar, Synth, Vocals, and Illustration by Francis Roberts
Live recording:
Drums – Dylan Marks
Keys – Reece Miller
Bass Guitar – Francis Roberts
