If you follow the world of black metal at all, you probably have an
opinion on Liturgy. Before Deafheaven (although not that much before
Deafheaven) Liturgy were the band that the internet black metal
community loved to argue about. The group’s strange and intense blend of
Transilvanian Hunger-style black metal with Lightning Bolt-style noise
rock would have ruffled a few feathers even if frontman Hunter
Hunt-Hendrix weren’t writing pretentious manifestos on “Transcendental
Black Metal” and hanging out with members of Vampire Weekend. It’s been
four long years since their last full-length Aesthetica dropped, during
which half the band left and the other half jammed with Peter Fonda on a
major network. They have since reconvened and released their third
full-length, The Ark Work.
Opening the record, “Fanfare” lives up to its name, with the blare of horns that seem to announce the coming of royalty. However about halfway through, synthesized horns start to overtake the natural ones, and the sound becomes more of a twisted, jumbled mess with something more sinister bubbling underneath the surface. It is not until the next track “Follow” that we get Liturgy at full force. It sounds like a mathier, more technical version of the band we heard on Aesthetica, but polarizing frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s throat-shredding screeches (one of the most authentic black metal assets the group had going for them) have been replaced with tortured moans and atonal mumbling, not unlike Iceage’s Elias Ronnenfelt.
Opening the record, “Fanfare” lives up to its name, with the blare of horns that seem to announce the coming of royalty. However about halfway through, synthesized horns start to overtake the natural ones, and the sound becomes more of a twisted, jumbled mess with something more sinister bubbling underneath the surface. It is not until the next track “Follow” that we get Liturgy at full force. It sounds like a mathier, more technical version of the band we heard on Aesthetica, but polarizing frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s throat-shredding screeches (one of the most authentic black metal assets the group had going for them) have been replaced with tortured moans and atonal mumbling, not unlike Iceage’s Elias Ronnenfelt.
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