Four Days at the Precipice is the sophomore album from Phantom Lightkeeper, Justin Beahm’s solo music project that debuted in 2025 with the LP Shore Ghosts. Four Days at the Precipice presents a diverse tapestry of sound that take listeners on a descent into new heavy and ethereal territory with side roads into shoegaze and haunting ceremonial realms. NOW SHIPPPING – click here to order.
While Shore Ghosts was a surf-drenched exploration of isolation and discovery, Four Days at the Precipice is a dark 14-track trip into the unknown that reflects the scary journey Beahm took while recording the album. The liner notes tell the full tale, but in short this record was captured in a remote cabin over the better part of a week when Justin’s heart circuitry was giving out, and he was quite literally dying as he laid down tracks. After returning home he was shuttled to the emergency room, had heart surgery, and spent a week in the hospital watching a blizzard engulf the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This experience informed the album’s cover of the theme from John Carpenter’s The Thing.
Once he was able, Justin returned to the cabin recordings, fleshing them out and finishing what he had started. As he says, this is the soundtrack to his journey to the edge and back, adding up to a deeply personal creative endeavor that defies genre classification and leads listeners through a forest of emotion.
As was the case with Shore Ghosts, the Four Days at the Precipice vinyl has been pressed to the highest quality standards by Waxwork Records, this time on sanguine red wax. Vinyl is limited to 100 numbered copies. CDs are also limited to 100 copies. Distribution is through Reverend Releasing.
The album’s cover image is by Tanya Marcuse. Visit her site HERE. All promotional images of Justin are by Canyon McCarty. Visit his site HERE.
‘FOUR DAYS AT THE PRECIPICE’ REVIEWS
“Phantom Lightkeeper pushes boundaries with every track…” – Surf Music and Art
“The album has a brooding, inward-looking sound…how you might feel tiptoeing through a graveyard…Halloween’s coming, be sure to listen…” – KFJC FM Los Angeles
TRACK BREAKDOWN
Four Days at the Precipice kicks off in heavy fashion with “Hidden Mother,” a reference to the creepy practice of a mother hiding under a black cloak to hold her child still for the long exposure time early portrait taking required. “Francesca Woodman’s Camera” is a tribute to the titular photographer, presenting a reflection of her incredible work and short life full of peaks and valleys. “Blood March” and “The Ritual” are moody, ceremonial explorations of new Phantom instrumentation. “Cover the Mirrors” is a tape echo rumination on the practice of covering mirrors in the room where someone dies so their soul avoids being captured in the glass. “Abominable” is a juke joint burner featuring additional lead guitar from Shane Johnson. “Fire Spirits” and “Those in the Twilight Time” blend echoes of Dick Dale with fuzzed out metal stomps, and are as close as this record gets to the first. “Four Days at the Precipice” and “Four Days at the Precipice ii” speak directly to Beahm’s near death experience and emerging from the ether as a survivor. “Coffin Belle” is a hypnotic funeral dirge referencing a Victorian-era device that allowed someone buried in error to pull a rope in their coffin and ring a bell to alert the living to their grave mistake. “Alone” provides quiet, acoustic respite, and includes environmental sounds captured at the cabin. Present again is a nod to filmmaker and composer John Carpenter with the “Main Theme from The Thing” that cresendos into densely layered chaos, and the record rounds out with a loud and rowdy take on The Misfits’ “Die, Die My Darling” featuring Shane Bundy on bass guitar.
ORDER INFORMATION
Four Days at the Precipice is now available. The album will be available on streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.) on September 18th.
International customers can contact Justin HERE to make arrangements for purchase.
Press and retail inquiries can be directed HERE.
– Vinyl is limited to 100 numbered copies
– CD limited to 100 copies
– All vinyl orders ship with chandan incense, Ghost Pine perfume oil from Lvnea Apothecary,
Phantom Lightkeeper sticker, and certificate
– The first 50 vinyl orders come with a deck of Phantom Lightkeeper gypsy witch fortune telling cards numbered in correspondence with vinyl copy
– All CD orders ship with a Phantom Lightkeeper sticker
– All orders include digital download of the album
Upon ordering, you will receive an email verifying your copy number (if on vinyl).
Digital download link and tracking will be sent when orders ship.
PRESS FOR SHORE GHOSTS
“Really great. Cool, spooky stuff!” – Rob Zombie
“It feels like a motorcycle ride to the end of the road, that liminal space where the world falls away and sound becomes wind, memory, and motion.” – Filmmaker E. Elias Merhige (Begotten, Shadow of the Vampire)
“With Phantom Lightkeeper, Beahm writes a book of mystery and horror. His unique blend of instrumental perfection demands multiple listens to appreciate the scope and depth of what one musician can offer.” – NewAgeMusicReviews.net
“Beahm is the force behind his own gothic, dreamy one-man-band that offers up an amalgam of haunted surf twang, ambient washes, and eerie, mediative gloom.” – Delirium Magazine
“(Phantom Lightkeeper’s music) is populated by the ghostly echoes of lost horror films and the vanished people who once marveled at them…feels like a fading memory that will never truly vanish…” – Rue Morgue Magazine
“Phantom Lightkeeper crafts instrumental music that brings haunting atmosphere, fuzzed out sludge, and cinematic soundscapes into the mix.” – BloodyDisgusting.com
Phantom Lightkeeper is the solo music project from Justin Beahm, who is best known for his documentary film work for Paramount Pictures, Shout! Factory, and Arrow Video. With Phantom Lightkeeper, Beahm trades visual storytelling for a new experiment in instrumental surf that brings haunting atmosphere, fuzzed out sludge, and cinematic soundscapes into the mix.
Phantom Lightkeeper’s debut album Shore Ghosts was released October 10, 2025 from Reverend Releasing in conjunction with Waxwork Records. Shore Ghosts is limited to 100 hand-numbered copies pressed on spooky white vinyl, and also available on CD. NOW SHIPPING, and orders come with the immediate download of the album plus bonus track “Fire Spirits.” Digital orders on Bandcamp.com.
ORDER LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
With Phantom Lightkeeper, Beahm plays all instruments and wears his influences on his sleeve. Echoes of Dick Dale, The Melvins, David Lynch, and Link Wray are heard throughout. “Sundance (For Link)” is dedicated to Wray, whom Beahm befriended on the legendary guitarist’s US tour in 1997. “All Hallow’s Eve” (“Halloween Theme”) is a rowdy reworking of the iconic theme from Halloween (1978), presented as a tribute to John Carpenter and the film franchise that played a key role in Beahm’s early film industry forays. “Idyllwild” evokes the serene peace found in the namesake California mountain town Justin refers to as his “home away from home.”
“Phantom Lightkeeper is a mix of many things I love,” Beahm says. “I have been a drummer all my life, but when I picked up the guitar it really lit a fire in me, and the music grew into a hybrid of everything I listen to and watch. The foundation is classic surf, but I kept feeling the urge to transition to heavy moments and add things like a funeral dirge, church organ, snarling monsters, a ghostly chorus, and ambient sounds of isolation like rain, wind, and storms.”
“Stephen King has always maintained he starts writing without a plan and follows his characters wherever they lead him, and it was the same with me and the tracks on Shore Ghosts,” Beahm shares. “It was a process of discovery and so fun to follow the music wherever it led me. The end result is one of the most creatively satisfying experiences I have ever had, and I hope listeners enjoy.”
Each copy of Shore Ghosts on vinyl has a copy number noted above the UPC code on the back cover, and also includes a certificate verifying what number you got. The certificate arrives in the package in a black envelope sealed with a red wax stamp.
ALBUM COVER PHOTO BY NICKY NARC
JUSTIN BEAHM PHOTO BY CANYON MCCARTY
INTERVIEWS
PHANTOM LIGHTKEEPER – SHORE GHOSTS ALBUM REVIEW BY SURF MUSIC AND ART
BLOODY DISGUSTING SPOTLIGHT ON SHORE GHOSTS BY PHANTOM LIGHTKEEPER
PHANTOM LIGHTKEEPER INTERVIEW ON RUE MORGUE TV
INTERVIEW ON SHORE GHOSTS AND PHANTOM LIGHTKEEPER ON IOWA BASEMENT TAPES
RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE ALBUM REVIEW
