Releases like this (or in this case, leaks like this) are what got me to start this blog way back in the winter of 2013. Albums which intrigue you in a way that you just have to tell someone.
I've already told my mother, the only person around who won't think I'm a nut for going crazy about a 56-minute long piece of not-black-metal and the response was pretty much "That's sweet dear". So here I am, hammering away at approximately 40 select pieces of computer hoping that I'll feel a bit more relieved once I click the button that says post.
Liturgy is one of the most controversial black metal bands active at the moment in the genre. This is saying a lot about their music when the genre they work in has been home to nazis, murderes and people like Varg Vikernes. Liturgy however, aren't controversial of their actions or their political opinions, Liturgy are controversial because their front man, and vocalist, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, has a few odd opinions of himself, his band, and American black metal music, which has come to piss off a ton of fans of the genre.
To give a quick recap: the Brooklyn artist wrote a manifesto about how he was supposed to create a new blend of black metal, a more Americanized version, just as there's a certain culture surrounding Norwegian and other kinds of black metal. Hendrix wants to call this "transcendental black metal", which, I agree, is a bit of a pretentious name to toss upon your own music.
Their latest album was supposed to be the first in this new genre that only Liturgy play music in (so far...) and while it was positively received critcially, there's no doubt that there are people out there who think Liturgy, Aesthethica and mainly Hendrix are pretentious hipster cunts who are attempting to capitalize on pushing the genre of black metal onto other hipsters who normally would stray far from this kind of abrasive, harsh metal.
People were already upset by Aesthethica despite the fact that it was a quite straightforward black metal album, albeit a bit more noisy, abrasive and homogenous than expected (it was also victim of quite awfully bad mastering and mixing, but that's just my opinion). The whole "transcendental black metal" was at that point just Hendrix sounding a bit full of himself and people didn't have too much to be angry about when it came to the music Liturgy was putting it.
However... it's no longer 2011. Four years have passed and if people had even slight reason to be pissed about what Liturgy was doing for black metal, they sure have lots of reason to be fuming right now.
I'll talk about this album from my personal point of view from now on because I'm not incredibly well versed in black metal (I haven't heard neither Darkthrone nor Filosofem actually) and this being a controversial release I might aswell write about it through my own subjective eyes and ears since I can't really be objective about this release.
I came home early on Friday after not having been home for 24-hours. Updated the usual blogs and pages and saw a lot of buzz about the new Liturgy album. People were going on about how this was the best album this year, how it would be remembered as the best metal album to come out in this decade and some anonymous dude on /mu/ even called it The Kid A of metal (which is a stupid comparison).
The first thing that hit me when I finally got to hear it are these bold midi-horns that sound so out of place on a record by the band called Liturgy. Two minutes of this continues, like a choir paving the way for the band's entry until it culminates in Follow. More midi-sounds follow as the chaotic sound of Aesthethica comes into play. The computerized bass feels like some kind of warmth as Hendrix comes in with these chanting vocals all sidechained to the hit of the snare, giving his voice a vibrating feel to it. The drums come back in with full effect as the background is filled with the sound of a crowd chanting and I think to myself "Hendrix has actually done it".
If you set out to make something called transcendental black metal that's supposed to be the American take on black metal there are a lot of things that you have to execute throughout your career for a genre that you yourself created should catch on and become more than a ridiculous name on music noone will remember in 15 years.
1. You have to make it sound American. Whether this is through badly done electronic additions, pompous, grandiose instrumentation or some kind of Hollywood-ization of your sound is the question.
2. It has to stand out, be unique. It can't be American black metal, it has to be transcendental, and that's what it has to sound like aswell.
3. It has to be good. Noone will care about your opinions when you're music were forgotten more quickly than your career ever existed.
I would say that all these three points were reached with The Ark Work and I'd claim that Hendrix finally found the sound that he was looking for.
First of all it sounds American. It sounds absolutely large, something that black metal usually doesn't achieve if it's not a big aim for the band and the album. It sounds pompous and it sounds very true to it's time with the electronic and computerized additions to the ideas of Aesthethica. Tracks like Quetzacoalt, Follow, and Kel Valhaal are great examples of this.
Second, it truly stands out. And if this album receives good reviews from places such as Pitchfork, I don't doubt that it will remain a talking point for many more years to come, not only for the controversy surrounding Hendrix' opinions of black metal, but also for how dividing this album has been between fans of music all around the globe. Kanye West's Yeezus was controversial upon release but I'd argue that this one beats even that one out.
The third point is more tricky to objectively discuss for me. Is it good? Is this album a mockery of black metal, going so far as even having a witch-house/hiphop track on here where Hendrix disses the industry and the fans of the genre, talking about his superiority to his peers and other contemporary acts. I can't of course not speak on the public's opinion but I would definitely say that it's heavily divided. Some seem to hate it and Hendrix along with it even more than before, and some claim it's one of this decades biggest musical efforts.
Oh. You want to know what I think of The Ark Work?