Black Metal Lightning Rod Liturgy Hits Subterranean Friday

By Casey Moffitt in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 9, 2015 6:55PM

photo credit: Erez Avissar

Brooklyn-based quartet Liturgy has had its share of both detractors and heralds, putting itself in the perhaps enviable position of being one of the more controversial black metal acts.

However, the controversy mainly lies in how the band's architect, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, pursues his own vision for black metal. Ditching the long-held principals of pagan ritual or negativity, Hunt-Hendrix expounds upon ecstasy and affirmation. These themes are further explored in the band's third studio effort, The Ark Work, which was released last month.

As much as we applaud any artist for turning conventions on their heads and attempting to create something truly unusual, The Ark Work is a really difficult listen.

We're not here to point our finger at Hunt-Hendrix and giggle at interviews he gave five years ago or pound away at his manifesto, Transcendental Black Metal. In fact, it's kind of cool to have an ethos for your band rather than wander through the wilderness and ask "what are we doing next?" or maybe "what's going to move some units?" Parliament-Funkadelic had ethos and it was awesome.

A lot of the molotov cocktails hurled at Hunt-Hendrix have been rather childish and personal and we're really more interested in using this valuable cyberspace to examine the music.

The Ark Work, like Liturgy's previous material, really pays lip service to black metal but the reality is that it's a math rock album. We thought math rock had elegantly been put to sleep sometime in the early to mid aughts and we've rather enjoyed its absence. But here we find it all over The Ark Work.

Rarely do the drums maintain any kind of steady beat, but rather blast away, then smash and then return to blasting, then go back to smashing. It's a ruckus but nothing that establishes any kind of groove.

The Ark Work also features layers upon layers of dissonant guitar parts, along with midi-produced string and horn parts that add to a headache-inducing swirl that is noisy and obnoxious.

Rarely do the songs on The Ark Work progress or evolve. They revolve around a certain theme or two, which comes back rather quickly and continues in a circular arch with the only difference in levels of dynamics. Again, this is similar to Liturgy's previous efforts.

The one thing Liturgy does differently than before? Hunt-Hendrix trades in his atonal screaming and screeching for atonal chanting, but it serves the same effect.

Oddly enough, for all the noise, smashing, guitar layering and blast beats, The Ark Work isn't very heavy. The tones achieved on this album are rather thin and tinny and it all adds up to noisy mess that's hard to enjoy. The band's video for "Quetzalcoatl" really boils down The Ark Work quite nicely.

Again, we applaud efforts for trying something new and Liturgy is free to have fun with their combination of math and black metal. But we certainly didn't find it any fun at all. And we like music that is fun.

So, if you're looking to make yourself miserable Friday night [Ed. note: And we mean that in the most positive way possible, given the genre we're discussing.], go check out Liturgy at Subterranean. It should be really hard to have fun there.

Liturgy performs on Friday, April 10, at Subterranean, 2011 W. North Ave., 9 p.m., $10 / $12 at the door, 17+