Aesthethica

Of all the post-black metal bands out there, Liturgy may be one of my favorite bands from the genre. While they started off on the wrong foot with a certain EP from 2007 that shall not be named, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix would truly begin to grow a small, but passionate fanbase with her 2009 debut "Renihilation". That album was pretty good, but the album that truly gave Hendrix and the band their sound was "Aesthethica" in 2011. Not only would the black metal parts in this album sound amazing, but Hendrix would mix in some experimental and avant-garde pieces that would give the album its own identity.

One of the album's strongest elements would be its instruments. Liturgy describes the music they make as "transcendental black metal". While the genre's name may sound a bit silly, the music they play here is definitely fitting to the genre. The guitar riffs have a more melodic sound than their previous album, and they play riffs that are rough in sound, but soft in composition. Greg Fox's drumming skills are also amazing in this album, as they beat very fast, but also play technical patterns that give the drumming a more grand sound. The other instruments that play are also great, as in the song "Helix Skull", we hear some synths that play a fast, epic tune that transitions into the next song very well. Some of my favorite instruments off the album are from the tracks "Generation", "Glory Bronze", and "Harmonia". There, these tracks put more emphasis on the guitar riffs, and they play some of the best riffs in the album. The instrumentals on this album are astounding, and are highly influential to the post-black metal genre.

Then there's the vocals. Hunter does the vocals here, and while I can't say they're the best, they are pretty good nonetheless. Her vocals mainly consist of high-pitched shrieks, and mumbles the lyrics a lot. While some may argue that her vocals are terrible, I'd say otherwise. For example, in the track "Returner", the song has a more complex and epic tone, with the guitars playing some short riffs and the drums beating in various patterns. This will be fitting to Hendrix's vocals, as her agonizing shrieks will flow well to the anxious instruments. She also changes them up in the song "Glass Earth", where she constantly chants the word "hey". Now this is easily the weakest song off the album, as Hunter's voice sounds very drowsy and uninspired. However, as the track progresses, her vocals get slightly better as she adds in more vocals to give the chants a more powerful tone. Despite one weak performance in one track, her vocals are overall great, and flow well to the diverse instruments.

The lyrics are also excellent. While they may not make any sense at first, you'll find that they have some meaning in them upon closer inspection. A great example would be in the track "Tragic Laurel", where this verse quote:

The tragic laurel goes
To the temples
As their doors come to a close

This verse talks about how a laurel is being taken to a dark temple. The overall theme on this track deals with how nature is being attacked by a greater evil, and the short lyrics are still great at giving some descriptive details about it. The lyrics are also executed better on the track, as the instrument's more somber atmosphere and sorrowful vocals fit well to the lyrics. Each track tells its own poetic story, and those stories are fitting to the instruments that play them.

Overall, "Aesthethica" is a very complex, but intriguing album. The instruments blend black metal and experimental elements well, Hunter's vocals are unique, and the lyrics have great storytelling. This album came out 2 years before Deafheaven's "Sunbather", and I can't help but think about have Deafheaven likely got some inspiration from them when they made "Sunbather". When it comes to Liturgy, this is easily one of their best albums and is highly recommended.

Black metal doesn’t like change. Or at least that’s how it used to be. The 2000s saw the emergence of new ideas in the genre that would develop into the trends that we saw at the beginning of this decade. Blackgaze and post-black metal were celebrating their peak and the values and virtues that were established in black metal during the second wave in the early 90s were shaken and reformed to achieve new sounds.

It was around this time that brooklyn-based Liturgy released Aesthethica, the follow-up to their 2009 debut Renihilation, that quickly became one of the most controversial albums of its genre. Aesthethica was hailed to be a bold and captivating album by some and labeled as pretentious and hipster by others. I believe, however, that this album was often rejected unjustly and that many criticized it, not for its content, but for who stands at the center of the project, namely the band’s guitarist and vocalist Hunter Hunt-Hendrix. Hendrix is credited for the music and lyrics as well as the design of the album and considers Liturgy’s music to be “transcendental black metal”, a term he coined in his manifesto of the same of name.

The values that constitute the core of transcendental black metal are polar opposites to the nihilism and misanthropy found in the second wave black metal of the early 90s. Hendrix views the band’s music as a vessel to explore concepts such as christian deliverance and puts a focus on positivity through affirmation and courage. The radical differences that are expressed in this juxtaposition are what I believe led to the harsh judgment and criticism that the band received from many. Music at its most basic, however, is free of ideology or philosophy. Music is the truest expression of the soul and I think that is what can be found on this album.

The triumph and elation that emanates from Aesthethica at its peaks is unmatched. The intensity and energetic yet sad splendor of songs like True Will, Tragic Laurel or Glory Bronze is overwhelming. Cascading and explosive drumming joins with wailing, distorted guitars to form a wall of sound that is only cut through by Hendrix wretched and distant black metal screams. True Will, for instance, starts off with layered, chanting clean vocals, a prominent feature in Liturgy’s music, that create an atmosphere of exalted sorrow before the instruments kick in like a roaring current. Nimble blastbeats navigate the melancholic yet bright guitar leads to their frequent climaxes that are backed by overflowing drumrolls and blastbeats of even higher intensity. The guitars are constantly racing as they spiral downwards only to ascend once more. Glory Bronze is another example of how electrifying this album is. The brightest sunlight radiates from the guitars as flurries of cymbals and drumrolls soar to ever higher reaches. The music briefly subsides around the mid-section of the song before the band initiates the final ascent. The composition returns to its initial state as the instrumentation grows even louder and even more intense than before, culminating in the most triumphant and grand climax of this album. In contrast to that the next song, Veins of God, features a fuzzy, stoner metal bassline that leads the song’s slow but steady climb as it’s guided by huge and majestic guitars, giving it a post-metal feeling.

Over the course of the album, Liturgy deliver a wide range of sounds but no matter the pace or intensity, their music is always highly precise and challenging, featuring odd time signatures, complex songwriting and math-rock influences that are most prominent on songs such as Returner and Generation. The band’s sound is further complimented by the fantastic production done by Colin Marston of esteemed projects such as Krallice and Behold… the Arctopus. But despite all the good things I can say about Aesthethica it is true that the album is highly eccentric. Aspects such as the frequently appearing layered clean vocals, that also make up the entirety of the track Glass Earth, or the chinking electronics at the very beginning of the album are sure to turn some people away; and they evidently did. The final product, however, is an album that is a bold and unique statement with a clear vision. Not many bands can fuse technicality and emotional suspense to create an album that is so triumphant, so visceral, so melancholic and yet so very exhilarating and liberating. No matter in which way this album is remembered, its legacy still stands strong.

Attribution: https://www.noisevortex.com/articles/looking-back-liturgy-aesthethica/

Liturgy are one of those bands that have become more well known for their antics, rather than their music or more specifically they’re better known for their outspoken frontman Hunter Hunt Hendrix. As many are already aware, Hunter wrote a manifesto entitled ‘Transcendental Black Metal’, which is four chapters worth of pseudo philosophical rambling about Transcendental Black Metal being the next step up from the “Hyperborean Black Metal” coming out of Europe. Needless to say it didn’t do the band much good in the eyes of the diehard black metal faithful. And of course there is the now legendary interview with Hunter, where he explains his “Transcendental” philosophy while the rest of his band sit uncomfortably, nervously smiling at Hunter’s musings about the next evolutionary steps of black metal that Liturgy aim to bring with their music.

I’ll be honest and say after reading the manifesto and watching the interview, I was whole heartedly ready to hate ‘Aesthethica’, and believe me I tried. I listened intently all the way through looking for things that I could rip apart, but all I could do was applaud the band for their tight performances and their creativity. Don’t get me wrong Aesthethica definitely has its flaws, but it has unexpectedly become an album that I’ve come to really enjoy and appreciate over the years, and I find myself regularly coming back to it.

Now HHH billed this as an evolutionary step for black metal, but to be completely honest this really doesn’t feel like black metal at all. It utilises some of the staples of the genre such as the tremolo picked guitars, the blast beats (or “burst beats” as Hunter puts it), and the shrieked vocals, but Jazz bands use walking bass lines and dominant 7th chords, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re playing the blues? If I were to try and sum up the sound of this record, I’d say that Liturgy are a math rock band trying to play black metal. They remind me way more of bands like Tera Melos and Hella than they do Emperor or Darkthrone. This may sound like a criticism, but honestly I think this works in the bands favour. Liturgy definitely do have their own unique sound and it’s one that I can really get behind (most of the time).

Hunter said in an interview that he listens to a lot of late romantic music, and one might interpret this as an attempt to sound cultured and intellectual, but Aesthetica does have quite an orchestral sound. I would say that the compositions on this album are more comparable to the work of composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich than any works from the romantic era, but nonetheless I can easily imagine a lot of the melodies on this album being played by a string orchestra.

Hunter also says in his manifesto that transcendental black metal aims to bring affirmation, and I will give him this, Aesthethica does sound pretty affirming. A lot of the melodies have a soaring majestic quality that give the album this feeling of ascension, which I assume is the intent. This is best highlighted on the opening track ‘High Gold’ and the lead single ‘Returner’. Now ethereal sounding black metal isn’t all that new a concept, I mean we have Alcest to thank for that, but what sets Liturgy aside is their ability to mix this up with odd time signatures and air tight technical precision. Bands like Alcest make you feel like you are gently floating up to the heavens, while Liturgy make you feel like you’re flying through the clouds at break neck speed, stopping for a quick breather, and then blasting off again. When Liturgy do this right it’s exhilarating, but they also milk it a little bit too much at times. Like on the track ‘Sun of Light’, which starts off okay, but then it just kind of meanders on for the rest of its six minute run time.

One of the big criticisms that I regularly come across from other reviewers is Aesthethica’s inconsistency in style, but for me the diverse array of influences that are displayed are what make it an engaging listen. ‘Generation’ is what a djent song would sound like if Steve Reich wrote it, ‘Veins of God’ borders on sludge metal, and there is an all-out mathcore breakdown at the end of High Gold’. Now that all sounds like a fun listen to me.

What I would say Aesthethica does have working against it though is its run time. The album goes on for a little over an hour, and I feel the album would flow a lot better if some of that were taken off. There are a few unnecessary tracks that I think could be dropped, such as the instrumental ‘Helix Skull’, which doesn’t really do much other than take up time. ‘Red Crown’ just give us a bunch of things we’ve already heard, and of course the absolutely grating ‘Glass Earth’. I have no idea how anyone thought a badly performed acapella chant fugue thing was a good idea.

In summary, when Aesthethica is doing something well, it’s awesome. When it’s doing something bad, it can pretty jarring, but for me its highlights overshadow a lot of its flaws, and whenever I come back to it, I always hear something that I haven’t heard before. The next evolutionary step in black metal? Probably not, but I do think Liturgy have managed to create a really unique blend of styles on this album, and as pretentious as Hunter comes off in interviews, I can’t help but admire the man’s ambition.

I also can't help but wonder how Liturgy's music would be viewed if the manifesto hadn't been released or if the band were to have taken a more secretive approach and remained anonymous, and simply let the music speak for itself? I think a lot of the hatred thrown at Liturgy does come from the association that has been made with its frontman, and that is a shame, because there's a lot on Aesthethica to be admired.This album definitely isn't for everyone, but if you're someone who's written off listening to Liturgy purely based on your impression of Hunter, I would challenge you to take a moment to separate the art from the artist and really listen. You might surprise yourself.

Black metal is clearly a traditionalist genre. It rarely welcomes deviation from the original blueprints laid out in its thrash-born first and Norwegian second waves. It's built around pitch black ideologies, a singular unmistakable sound, an aesthetic built from dark forests and record shop basements and solitary places both of the physical and mental forms. Deviants of the black metal way never stray too far from the path, allowing for even detractors to admit that some aspect of whatever new take on the genre still retains that black metal vibe. Bands that stray even further are met with harsher criticism from the subgenre's most adamant followers. Zealotry is as prevalent as corpse paint when it comes to this highly extreme breed of metal. I've been a fan of black metal since I was young, having started with bands like Immortal and Mayhem, then later discovering first wave visionaries such as Bathory and Venom, before coming to appreciate the new American third wave, with forerunners like Xasthur, Leviathan, Nachtmystium, and Deafheaven. The strange new post-black metal movement is in full swing now, with Deafheaven leading the hipster charge with groups like Numenorean, Les Discrets, and now the highly polarizing Liturgy.

Liturgy. A name that strikes up feelings of discord and anger within the black metal community. There may never be a time when Liturgy isn't spoken in some spiteful and malicious intonation by some Burzum worshipping long-hair in spikes, drinking pig's blood as they sharpen their axe collection. And yet, here we are. They exist. and have existed for some time, and will probably continue to exist.

Firstly, we must address the elephant in every room that holds any discussion of Liturgy. That elephant being front-man Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and his transcendental black metal manifesto and the ensuing lectures. Now, an analysis and thorough dissection of the manifesto, it's ideas of hypertrophy and burst beats and relation to what we all know as regular black metal (described here as hyperborean black metal) are worthy of discussion elsewhere, and having read the manifesto while listening to this album, Liturgy's second full-length 'Aesthethica,' I do find there is something to be picked apart and examined here. ESPECIALLY in relation to each other. I am also aware, mind you reader, that Hunt-Hendrix is the kind of pretentious hipster stereotypical front-man that makes underground metalheads cringe in agony. He's from a world that's far from the grimy clubs and bars where extreme metal bands thrive and exist. Hunt-Hendrix is a Columbia University graduate, a student of philosophy, and certainly more art-minded than most heshers. He is of an unusual breed, and the interviews he has done and the highbrow language of the manifesto's writing are more than evident.

My personal opinions of the manifesto, if I were to write them all out, would be too much for an album review. It would result in a massive derailment of the review's direction and would obscure the original reasoning for writing this. So, a dive into the manifesto will have to wait. For now, let us instead dissect the affirming cacophony of 'Aesthethica.'

Ok, let's burn some bridges: Liturgy very much ARE black metal. Yes, despite everything that might be dictating your opinions on this band and their music, it's still black metal. It's just a very different form of black metal, a very strange approach to this typically dark breed of metal. It's a very jarring experience to listen to Liturgy for the first time. Yes, the blast beats are here (dubbed in the manifesto as burst beats) and they never let up. Greg Fox is a masterful drummer, who keeps things interesting enough without losing rhythm to such an extent that feels more progressive than anything else. The riff-work here, as repetitive as it may sound, is strong and triumphant. I can only really liken the sound to that of bright white light piercing your flesh and digging down into your inner self and detonating, creating a spiritual cacophony within the deepest recesses of the soul. The entirety of the record is brimming with this vibe. Every track here is polarized, using the extremity of black metal's core elements and marrying them with uplifitng melodies and blinding intensity.

Now, when someone talks about unblack metal or white metal, one usually can pictures the likes of Ancestor or Crimson Moonlight. In Liturgy's case, I'd argue it'd be a fitting moniker, if only a sonic level. Sure, there's some religious vibes here and there, not only in the packaging and song titles, but also in the music video for 'Returner,' but it's never an outright theme explored and expressed in their lyrics. In fact, as I went through the lyrics in preparation for this review, I honestly had a hard time making heads or tails of it. But there is a poetry, a substance, maybe not an explicit one or any semblances of simplicity here, but beneath the esoterica, I think there's something here. Something dark, but not complete in its negativity. There's a kind of screaming and yearning for the light here, not a light of a Christian god, but maybe one of enlightenment? Extreme desire for change? Who knows? I certainly can't say I do now, but I'm convinced that Hunt-Hendrix is aware of his message. Regardless of how ridiculous it may seem on the surface.

The instrumentation, on the other hand, is fucking prime. Every song is cohesive and furious in its composition and sound. Songs like the aforementioned 'Returner' and 'Generation' and 'True Will' are rippers that shine like explosions, while other tracks like 'High Gold,' 'Harmonia,' and 'Red Crown' are as deeply melodic as they are extreme and violent. The only particular downside I can think of are the harmonized chants of Hunt-Hendrix, but even then, personally think they add to Liturgy's already experimental stew pot of sounds. I feel the few experimental bits here can really rag on some listener's patience, but other than that, I think they're interesting and fantastically placed. With such a solid tracklist, it's hard for me to pick just one song here to single out as my high point for the album. But then again, there's the song 'Tragic Laurel.' I don't know what kind of philosophical pseudo-pagan ritual had to be carried out for such a song to be crafted, but goddamn it's my highlight of the album. It's a song that's bursts out of the gates with a strange evolving groove, only to be stopped and restarted with one of the most impassioned extreme metal riffs I've heard in ages. It's a song that I even have a hard time describing here. The ferocity of 'Tragic Laurel' would've been enough to make me a fan. The fact that it's on this album, among these other incredible songs, is but icing on the cake. And what a fucking cake it is.

Liturgy cannot, and probably will never, exist without controversy. Nowhere near as popular as Deafheaven, nor as begrudgingly accepted by the traditionalist black metal community, Liturgy exist in a difficult place. Their latest as of this writing, 'The Ark Work,' has been seeing polarized reviews from critics and audiences, with users here on the Encyclopaedia Metallum bashing it straight-up. While I can't comment on that album as of this time, I do think that regardless of how I feel about that particular album, I'll always have a soft spot for 'Aesthethica.' Such a wild and daring work of metal music is worthy of some note. Liturgy feels like a band that'll soldier on no matter what. The manifesto exists, and some may find it a stupid and pretentious work of pseudo-intellectualism, but even without it, this album stands strong on its own terms. It may be a product of Hunt-Hendrix's art school tendencies, I certainly think it is, but there's something here that's too impassioned and intense to deny. Even if we can't get a fucking grasp on whatever the guy's trying to convey, we should at least accept the fact that it means something to him. And really, isn't that the point?

I thought Aesthethica was better than The Ark Work but in the end they both are two mediocre albums that strive to prove their superiority without any success. Hunter has been trying to be a special part of the modern black metal scene but he only manages to be one of the most hated artists in the genre. Contrary to Deafheaven, Liturgy are stagnant and they miss the whole point of evolution. They will just sit there and play incoherent double leads accompanied by clumsy bass riffs and objectively good drumming.

In Aesthethica, Liturgy try to get out of the masses and stand alone as pioneers in their own style. The result is not hideous but I wouldn't say that I enjoy it after all. It seems that Liturgy will not surprise me pleasantly but that's life I guess. The guitars are pretty much generic. In 'Generation' they seem to be in a rare moment of creative peak. However most of the tracks in here will force you to raise an eyebrow and mock the band in the worst way possible.

The bass isn't doing anything special so I cannot say much apart from the fact that it is just keeping the rhythm like a melodic metronome. The drums on the other hand almost save the day. Greg Fox is skilled and technical and he really fits the style that the band tries to create.

The production is alright. Nothing is to compressed and all instruments are audible, so I'm satisfied. I wonder though, why didn't the producer slap Hunter when he listened to 'Helix Skull' for the first time? Seriously that track is atrocious...

And now the lyrics. They are nonsensical, laughable and quite out of place in many occassions. Their peak is 'Glass Earth', where multilayered vocals just hum 'Hey' for almost four minutes. Ironically, I like this track. Liturgy's lyrics never were their best feat to be honest.

Liturgy are proving again and again that they are a one-trick pony and that is vible in all of their works. I don't know why I'm giving this such a high (for its standards) rating but I hope I won't regret it. Once more, the band that managed to escape the hipster black metal label is Deafheaven, not Liturgy. So do yourselves a favor and listen to Deafheaven's New Bermuda instead.

Favorite tracks: 'Generation', 'Glory Bronze', 'Glass Earth'.

45/100.

I'm going to start this review a little differently than what everyone else has been doing. I'm sure anyone reading this knows about all the negative publicity surrounding Liturgy including the hilariously embarrassing interview and the "Transcendental Black Metal Manifesto", oh, these have already been broadcasted enough on the web. Instead, I'm going to start off by saying how much of a god damn mess this album is.

I'm not entirely sure how Liturgy managed to write something like this as the whole album is completely all over the place. Whilst being labeled as black metal, that term is grossly misapplied and Aesthethica would be much better regarded as a progressive metal album with math rock and trace black metal touches. It's not a black metal album, not really, and thus should not be reviewed as such. If I was going into this album with the mindset that this is indeed a black metal album, this would get the lowest possible score. The music is way too technical for its own good, the sound is far too polished and it lacks the negativity that black metal revels in. Even the band themselves stated that "we don't write negative music and we don't wear corpse music".

Whilst it is easy to dwell so much on the negatives of Aesthethica, there is a lot of positives to be had as well. As a progressive metal release, Aesthethica gets a lot of stuff right. The music is suitably technical, with the drumming being a particular highlight. The music takes influences from a wide array of sources, including, but not limited to, math rock, djent, post hardcore/screamo and black metal. It's a very diverse album and one that is highly unique. However, the bands diversity functions as a double edged sword. On one hand, I commend the bands diversity and their courage to try something different. On the other, this album lacks one crucial ingredient; consistency. There's the pure djent of Generation to the 8-bit-esque electronic frenzy of Helix Skull. The band certainly has a talent for blending many genres into one album, but, unlike bands who strive for similar goals such as maudlin of the Well, Liturgy's music is just far too confusing for its own good.

However, when the band is on, they really are on. The band is incredibly tight, as a fellow reviewer pointed out the band sounds as though they've been playing together for three or four decades. The band's flawless chemistry is the most important element of making Aesthethica what it is. Even when the music decides to lurch in strange and unpredictable patterns, the band is tight. The drumming is really what knits the band together. With the self described "burst beat" coming into action, the drumming is highly innovative for what it is, and whilst I'm not one to write about drumming, the performance on Aesthethica blew me away.

With such a fantastic drum performance there's a lot of pressure on the rest of the instrumentation to hold up to the standards to what the drums set. And, of course, the instrumentation is more than satisfactory. Songs constantly shift, ebbing and flowing like the tides in an ocean. One such comparison to make with the structure and form of the music would be post metal titans Isis, as the songs have a very organic and natural feel to them. Ironically, despite how forced the band seem to be, how overblown their ego is, the music itself never feels strained. I find it sad that a band who is more than capable of creating interesting and enjoyable progressive metal is bogged down by the childish claims of the frontman. I hate to break it to the band, but they are NOT reinventing black metal, they are merely creating a very good extreme progressive album that certainly doesn't deserve the crap flung at it.

Hunter's vocals are perhaps the most "black metal" element to this album. They're incredibly tortured and anguished yet triumphant and hopeful as well. The vocal performance, unlike the rest of the music, seems to lack structure and form. Coming off as an amorphous blob of incomprehensible wailing in comparison to the rest of the music, which as I mentioned before, is impeccably tight. But fuck me, the moaning sections the band adds now and again drive me completely insane. Glass Earth is perhaps the worst offender, a completely useless and meaningless track that brings the momentum to a stand still.

So overall, I rather enjoyed this album. I certainly felt it sucked at being a black metal album, but from a strictly musical point, I really enjoyed it. Sure, some of the tracks leaving me scratching my head and the moaning sessions are annoying, but apart from several rough edges here and there, it's a good album. Of course, I'm not going to recommend this to black metal elitists as the sound is just so different. But for open minded metal fans who are looking for something a bit different, then this might be worth a look.

This is most certainly black metal. It's just not black metal in any form I’ve ever encountered. This is where I’ll stand firmly on the side of those critics who, upon its initial release, that Aesthetica was already something groundbreaking, something new, and in a way, something important. Admittedly, the heralds of innovation are what drew me to this album, and the reception by those outside of metal was so varied in its application, that I found myself compelled to give it a chance, a chance to bask in its supposed glory.

This was the bed that Liturgy made, slept in, and caught fire.

The criticism that came from the community was incendiary, and much of it had little to do with the music initially. This collective sigh was composed of dismissive wanks to full on hatred, with critics taking shots at Hunter-Hunt Hendrix’s manifesto (some rightfully so), some questioning the integrity of the band, and the most vocal critics even heralded Liturgy’s mere existence (let alone the music) as the death of metal – or at least its inherent culture bubble. Most of these were gut reactions, but some were legitimate inquiries into what made this band so appealing to outsiders. No matter the nature, they nevertheless brought back the culture of an invading force in metal.

I could go on and on about the misguided criticism, of questioning legitimacy and authority, but ultimately, that’s not what drove me to love this album – in spite of my contrarian attributes. So, the question becomes, how is this unique, how is it powerful and important, and above all, how is it so good?

This album is innovative. I’ll say that with a completely straight face. It does not innovate in the way that many people thought it would, or in the way that many of those who are unfamiliar with metal claimed it did – but it does. Much like its predecessor Renihilation, Aesthetica toes nimbly between a traditional black metal sound, and a strange detachment from the genre itself. Yet, the detachment isn’t offensive or disrespectful. It’s as if one hired a jazz musician who never played in a metal band, but clearly spent all of his time practicing it.

There’s no question that this album is metal. If it’s not metal, what could it possibly be? It’s not post-rock, it’s not “hipster rock” (whatever that means), and it’s not progressive rock. It’s metal. It’s thoroughly riff driven. The vocals and major chords and “progressive” elements take a backseat to the pounding, joyous and just plain enjoyable riffs that are on this album. Each song is its own journey, slowly moving back and forth from meditative concepts and high minded delivery. But this isn’t done through lyricism, it’s done through the ebb and flow of the songs themselves – crafting beautiful soundscapes of oceanic proportions. Each one has distinctive riffs and completely forgoes the “verse-chorus-verse” paradigm in favor of a “part A to part Whatever” form (“Returner”, “High Gold”, and “Tragic Laurel” are stellar examples of how this album feels). It’s the most free-flowing, natural songwriting that I’ve heard in years – metal or otherwise. Each member seems destined to play the part that he is playing. It’s as if Steven Reich decided to make metal – every single riff seems placed for a reason – not merely because it sounds cool, or badass, but because it sounds right.

It’s this sound that makes it seem like Liturgy have been playing together for the last three or four decades. This is, of course, impossible, but the triumphant and cascading playing style makes Hunter and company effortlessly weave between an excited young group, and a group of veterans excited to play again. The tightness of the performance on this album cannot be denied – every single player has a wholly unique and transformative part to play on this album.

Hunter has excellent vocal delivery, sounding equal parts triumphant and harrowing. Hunter and Bernard’s serpentine and clanging guitars create melodic clouds and pockets of aggression amidst the transcendent repetition of each song (“Glory Bronze” is a fantastic example of this). Greg Fox and Tyler Dusenbery deliver an incredibly mesmerizing rhythm section. While Fox does tend to use fills like most other drummers use off-beats, he nevertheless commands the album – every composition sounds like it was built around the ringing and clanging percussion, subtly accented by singular basslines. Every song sounds native, organic, flowing, and captivating, each melody wraps gently around the blasting lurching chaos. It’s simply wondrous.

If you want to talk about the external influences on Liturgy, and the pros and cons that they deliver, it’s that final statement that can justify every single thing brought into metal to make it more interesting. Liturgy writes vastly intricate and evenly flowing songs that effortlessly go from melancholy to joyous to hurtful in ways that seems so easy to do. This is something that I see occasionally in metal, but have encountered in classical and pop a good amount of time – the juxtaposition of feelings, one could call it – and Liturgy has mastered this.

Take, for example, the second track of the album, “True Will”. It starts with a Philip Glassian choral chamber that moves into an assault of black metal, that moves back and forth from a 70s prog rock feel to a modernized version of early Emperor without blinking an eye. This is immediately followed by “Returner” which earnestly blends black metal sentiments with a sped up version of post-rock riffs and layering. Liturgy has mastered repeating riffs and ideas the same way that a drone or post-rock band would, but simply speed them up. The result is a cavernous and mossy organic sound; something so distant, yet so comforting and familiar, a towering melodic behemoth that never seems unfriendly.
Then, when everything seems like a standard US take of black metal, Liturgy unleashes “Generation” a towering beast that relies on one riff for the better half of seven minutes, slowly building upon one idea until its fruition – making it seem like the most logical and perfect progression possible. The accents are wonderfully placed, the subtleties in the bass work are rewarding and the drumming is loose enough to sound unrehearsed. This incredibly complicated and nuanced leviathan sounds as if it was done in one take, just friends jamming over a singular riff until they were done playing around.

In a small way, that’s genius. To effortlessly create something so well thought out and perfectly timed sound like it was created on a whim is, to say the least, difficult. Only the best bands can pull something like this off and Liturgy happens to do so.

Fucking incredible.

“Tragic Laurel” and “Sun of Light” take this to a new level – each being a unique and beautifully crafted song, but both retain their otherness in spite of the genre constraints. “Sun of Light” particularly destroys due to its focus on one riff, with drowned production, until it’s exhausted to its fullest extent. It then morphs instantly into a flowery, major chord base snake, monstrously towering over of what’s considered black metal. But, it does so in a way that is so intimidating and somehow an homage, that it creates an atmosphere very similar to the black metal artists of the early 90s, where one could create freely without the constraints of the genre, as it was yet to be established.

That’s what this album does – twenty odd years after the establishment of a certain “sound”. This album throws everything out the window except the genuine appreciation of the music itself. This all culminates in the triumphant finale of “Harmonia”. It utilizes major chords, tremolo picking, and incredibly delivered shrieks to create a definitive black metal classic. Then suddenly, it moves to poppy and melodious riffs, compounded upon each other multiple times, moving back and forth from riff to riff to create an organic, blissful and powerful sound. The finality of this album ends on an incredibly positive note, and yet manages to remain puzzling, distant, and harrowing.

Liturgy has crafted something truly spectacular with this album, and something that I believe can only be created by the sole love of metal. It’s different, not necessarily boundary pushing, but very different. Sure, it’s got a production that can drive some members of the community crazy. But, ultimately, it has heart. It’s is an album so well-crafted and well thought out, that hating it seems useless. This is an album bathed in tradition and baptized in history. It nary departs from its roots, and when it does, you can still see its influences on its sleeves. To reflect briefly on the cover, Aesthetica is both the norm and the inversion. We can recognize both as having its own history and meaning. Yet, when we examine both the norm and the inversion together, they shift and morph as we change our angle – ultimately blurring which may have come first. Perhaps a lot of us just look at this album at the wrong angle.

Black metal is not supposed to be taken seriously. At least that's how I've always felt about black metal. When I say that, I usually mean the aesthetic side of the genre; the corpse paint, the armor and gauntlets, the inverted crucifixes with big breasted nude models hanging from them, all of that I've come to almost completely disregard when judging black metal as I've found that it can skew one's opinion on the actual music unfairly, regardless of if the band is using it simply for show or if they genuinely believe that they are "kvlt". However, in the case of Liturgy and their most recent music output Aesthethica, it is practically impossible to separate the identity the band have created for themselves from the actual music. The overwhelming majority of people discovered Liturgy through their infamous Scion A/V interview near the end of 2011, where frontman and lyrical "wizard" Hunter-Hunt Hendrix (I can just hear WWE's Triple H shuffling the papers for a gimmick infringement suit as I type this) rambled incessantly and practically incoherently about "transcendental black metal" and chaos fluxing and spiritual ecstasy in a manner that only an over-serious Brooklyn hipster could, all while injecting "like" into his sentences every four words and unaware of his bandmates looking throughout the interview as though they wanted to jettison him out a fifth floor window. His "manifesto" on black metal fares worse, bloated with sesquipedalian language and rendering itself completely unreadable within the end of its prologue. This pretentious sense of inflated self-worth spills over into Aesthethica completely, bloating and dragging the record far beyond the length it needs to be, and annoying the listener with flashes of brilliance squandered within seconds.

Despite what Mr. Hendrix says, Liturgy's music is not necessarily black metal in the true sense of the word. The music found within the 65 minute runtime of Aesthethica is more of a post-metal/black metal hybrid (post-black metal, if you will), with a healthy amount of noise influence thrown in for good measure. This combination isn't the worst hybrid genre in the world, as bands such as Krallice, Alcest, and Wolves in the Throne Room have shown that these two styles can be mixed together to fascinating results. For Liturgy, however, this is not the case. In the Scion interview, Hendrix speaks many words on Romanticism and how it has influenced him in his own philosophical beliefs. This ideological standpoint is expressed as well through Aesthethica's music, which is trying to create an atmosphere of "beautiful chaos" through almost exclusively high string tremolo picking played over almost exclusively "burst beats", which is the band's own name for the blast beat so common among all extreme metal. It's like black metal that would be played in an inspirational family movie such as The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and it honestly kind of works at times.

However, much like how that movie is beneath the surface very cruel and mean-spirited, Liturgy inflate their music far beyond what is either necessary or enjoyable, although the latter is a bit more subjective since the music itself is mostly very generic. In many respects the music here is even worse than just being generic because many times throughout the album the band will create a truly excellent section of music completely evocative of the atmosphere they are trying to create, only to squander it moments later by shifting away to a much lesser segment of the song. Other times they inject, of all things, djent into the mix, such as the absolutely infuriating "Generation", a seven minute Meshuggah worship session that repeats the exact same four notes over and over and over and over and OVER for what feels like an eternity. Most of the other tracks fare no better than this, sounding as though you have had a song on for 10 minutes when it's really only been about 3. This is to say nothing of interlude tracks "Helix Skull" and "Glass Earth" both being completely unnecessary and grating to the ears in a manner rivaling other such sonic unpleasantries as nails on a chalkboard, screaming infants, and Alex Jones talking. Lyrically the record isn't anything too terrible, as the band focuses on "transcendentalism", whatever the hell that means. The sheer lost potential in the music is what kills the record, though. Such a shame, really.

The performances of the instrumentalists are alright but aren't anything special when compared to other, infinitely better bands in the vast library of extreme metal. Hendrix and Bernard Gann handle the guitars just fine, picking away at high speed and with enough precision as to not completely screw up. Bassist Tyler Dusenbury is buried in the mix, so real comments can be made. Greg Fox's drumming I've read in many reviews praised as being some kind of breakthrough in extreme drumming. New flash: it's not. He's just blasting really fast, and any drummer who spends enough time focusing mainly on that can get it down pat in a matter of weeks. Hendrix's vocals are, as well, nothing special. He takes very much from USBM stalwarts Xasthur and Leviathan in his tortured vocal shrieking. Honestly he'd be a good fit in a depressive black metal band, if only he wasn't "kind of, like, sickened by, like, sort of reveling in, like, negativity." And yes, that's an actual quote from the guy himself, "likes" and all.

Liturgy's 15 minutes of shame ended swiftly when those who had discovered them through their infamous interview listened to Aesthethica and realized that there was almost nothing musically interesting about the band, be it good or bad. The masses moved on and the band pretty much have faded back into obscurity, save for an appearance on the Metallica's first Orion Music + More festival (fitting when you consider that Lulu was an overlong earache of a record, too). In the end, though, Aesthethica will exist as an example of what happens when the hipster subculture co-ops a style of music that is completely the opposite of their own system of beliefs and tries to make it their own. The band let their own pretensions get in the way of making memorable or exciting music, leading to a bloated, overly long mess of an album. Had the band shaved 20 minutes or so off Aesthethica by focusing more on the good elements of their songs and removing non-necessities such as the two interlude tracks and "Generation", this record would be a much more listenable and entertaining record. Sadly, however, this is not the case, as Liturgy let their focus on being "transcendental" co-op their music and make them the laughingstock of the metal world for a while. One can only hope that they learn from their mistakes with their next record, whenever that may be, because if they still exude the same aura of self righteous douchebaggery and don't make their music better, then we may as well have found the new whipping boys of extreme metal as a whole.

Fuck Hunter Hunt-Hendrix. Actually, you know what? Fuck this whole band. Even though the music they make is intense, emotional and technical, and Hunter's screams are simply jaw-dropping and emotional itself, the music itself is absolutely amazing. But, that's not going to save me from shitting all over this band.

Hunter Hunt-Hendrix wrote a 'black metal manifesto' in which he claims that hyperborean black metal (aka anything by Darkthrone, Mayhem or anything from Norway) is the absolute peak of extreme metal, and that Liturgy has somehow surpassed metal as a whole. 'Transcended', if you will. The best part is he made a little drawing showing undeniable proof that this happened. The drawing shows Darkthrone on one side of a circle, the circle being 'The Haptic Void'. I have no idea what the fuck this means, but apparently it's just the presence of the feeling of metal music. This is, as Hunter states, where the rest metal as a whole ends up (ie, death and thrash). He later says that 'transcendental black metal' (aka Liturgy, because Liturgy is literally the only 'transcendental black metal' band) built its own bridge across this void to the other side and Liturgy is the best metal band of all time. Good for you, Hunter, because in reality you transcended jack shit you pretentious hipster. You just brought some interesting ideas to the table.

Now, on to the music itself.

Liturgy's 'Aesthetica' is in fact one of the most unique albums I have ever heard. It is black metal at heart but very melodic in a sense, too. It is truly one-of-a-kind. From the djenty track 'Generation' to the very odd but oddly catchy 'Sun of Light' to the absolutely atrocious moans that permeate the entire album (I'll talk about these later), you will get a strange feeling of positivity. Reading through Hunter's manifesto, the albums positive feelings are intentional. 'Aesthetica' is black metal musically, but not conceptually. Affirmation, as apposed to nihilism. Hypertrophy, instead of atrophy. Burst beats, instead of blast beats (burst beats are essentially (according to Hunter) a blast beat that accelerates, then decelerates before crossing into another musical pattern). The whole band seems to shift gears incredibly well throughout most of the tracks, sticking to one beat before abruptly changing into another. It makes the listener interested, you want to know what Liturgy is going to throw at you next. And then suddenly: 'Helix Skull'. Probably designed to throw the listener off, it only managed to annoy me.

As mentioned before, the band has decided that it'd be a good idea to add some odd little moaning sessions in a few tracks. Fuck me I wish they hadn't done that, it practically ruined the album. I'll be the first to admit that the intro to 'True Will' worked pretty well. I actually don't mind those moans! But then they had to add in 'Glass Earth'. I really, really wish they hadn't included this. Pointless, meaningless (and above all), annoying. I remember the first time I listened to this, I was really confused. Then I started laughing. Then I skipped the track and moved on to 'Harmonia' which actually fucking continues with the moans. Thankfully it was only for a few seconds. Other than that, 'Harmonia' is one of the best tracks on this album, along with 'True Will' and 'Sun of Light'.

All considered, this album is really cool. I like its style and I like its sound, but Liturgy has yet to reach their peak. For that to happen, Liturgy needs to get their heads out of their asses. Black metal elitists, stay far away from this.

Rarely has there been such a level of consensus among the purveyors of high culture about black metal as there was in 2011 about Liturgy's release Aesthethica. Nor have there been many records as polarizing when it comes to the inhabitants of the metal scene's inhabitants as that very same release. To discuss Aesthethica as something separate from Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's dissertation about black metal or from hipster co-option of black metal music into indie/punk aesthetic seems difficult for most, if not impossible. In either case, most with the experience to discuss this sort of music are close either to the world of "true" grungy, uneducated metal fans or of the faux-working class trust fund art school kids of Hoboken and Williamsburg. Impartial analysis, predictably, is difficult to find.

Separated from the scene politics, what is Aesthethica onto itself? Pitchfork described it as a "crossover black metal record." As a statement, it's just adequate, but accurate. It's certainly heavy enough to be black metal, and stylistically meets pretty much all the criteria for what is considered to be black metal in 2011. But there are artistic flairs in here that are reminiscent of acts that are distinctly not black metal. Throughout the disc, you can hear paeans to the likes of Shellac and Lightning Bolt. Aesthethica isn't atmospheric black metal crossed not with European folk, power electronics, military pop, or symphonic arrangements. Those have all been done before, and one might realistically argue, done to death. Black metal instead tag teams with math rock.

One big issue rears its ugly head almost immediately when conceptualizing the joining of Big Black-style chunky sounds and grooves with black metal's, well, lack of groove. After being a term to indicate nothing but how deeply a band's allegiances lied with everyone's chum Lucifer, black metal became defined as a genre of music onto itself. Raw speed and screamed vocals turned themselves into not just noiser rock, but atmospheric, epic music. Genres previously crossed with strains of black metal were done so not to add to the severity of something that had already been turned to 11, but to give more emotional depth to the songs beyond pure, raw aggression. So this was certainly the thought process as Liturgy went about making a post punk/black metal album. To be fair, its not entirely unimaginable. Among the genres of extreme metal, none better matches with nor borrows more from punk ethos than black metal. For those coming from a primarily punk or post-punk background, it would seem to make sense.

Whether or not it really works is less certain. As a black metal album judged on the basis of what black metal, Liturgy obviously falls flat. It works no better from the perspective of adding something appreciable by wearing its influences on its sleeve. The production is solid so far as the competency of the people behind the boards goes in getting things to not sound like total crap. The vocals are barked out competently enough. When it comes to the composition - the material itself - is certainly imperfect if not forgettable. Perhaps due to the leanings of the musicians to show off their chops, the material never breathes. There are no spine tingling moments. There's few great or memorable riffs leading to anthemic material. No grooves, as would befit the introduction of those wonderfully chunky bits. In fact, it isn't until we get to Glory Bronze, the 7th track on the album, that something approaching well conceived "atmospheric black metal" arrives on the scene. Even then, the guitars end up being choked out almost completely by outrageously loud drums and apparently need for the listener to hear every fill.

Just as the disc seems to be getting its legs under it, Aesthethica seems to divert into plainly not-black-metal territory. Its almost as if the artists feel the need every 3 songs to remind us that this is not purely black metal, but that they are offering something new and different. Whether its the first 3 unremarkable tracks being followed by what sounds to be a Hypermagic Mountain reject in "Generation", or "Glory Bronze" hitting a pinnacle for their black metal sound only to be immediately followed by what can best be described as third tier Karma To Burn, the lack of consistency or focus is an issue. Easily the worst song on the album is the goofy chant of "Glass Earth." As a 1 minute intro to a Nomeansno song, it might make sense. And Nomeansno would write something good to go with it. As a 3 and a half minute intro into a merely OK black metal song, it is less successful in setting the mood. By the time Liturgy comes back with the second memorable song on the album in "Harmonia," the record is basically over.

In end analysis, there is no zen. Neither is there anything to push along flailing-as-dancing in the vein of a Portland night club playing Peaches singles. Liturgy has indeed produced a "crossover black metal record". While one could argue that black metal worthy of interest from the tiny pants sector has always been there, no record better exemplifies an attempt at pleasing the bearded, Alf shirt wearing crowd than Liturgy's Aesthethica. By giving the listeners enough indie-friendly sounds and aesthetic touches betwixt the black metal fury Liturgy has made the best black metal record for an introduction point for complete virgins from a very, very particular scene. For everyone else, Aesthethica is likely still a tuneless trip to an unapproachable musical extreme. For those more fond of that particular universe, it may be seen as a middling, forgettable piece of music to be slotted next to the likes of Deinonychus, Bethlethem, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, and so many other black metal acts of years past who aspired for so much and came up so short.

People used to think mallcore was killing metal. Then came metalcore, and a while later deathcore, to complete the perfectly trifecta of hateable, try-hard shitcore. Well, metal has been wounded and has shed its share of blood in the past, but it has never, and will never, be even close to dying, or to become stuck or stale, no matter what Mr. Jonathan "My Daddy Raped Me U Guise" Davis has to say about his hilariously misguided concept of "future metal". But that's another story.

I'm here to be as brutally honest as I possibly can; it's the least I can do for a band that purposely tries o be as brutally facetious and deceiving as possible.

This band is basically unknown and would have gone completely unnoticed and passed off as yet another failed attempt at being edgy, if it wasn't first and foremost, a Pitchfork approved release. This enabled it to be noticed and instantly adored (without even properly listening to it) by this new generation of Pitchfork-obsessed, Jeff-Magnum-Dick-Suckers (that is to say the so-called "hipsters"). Since all I care about is music and not "urban tribes/subcultures", I won't even try to explain who these people are, and jump right into the dull, unoriginal, conceptually hollow piece of work people call Aesthethica.

I'll even start with the good bits! Some very rare and far-in-between elements in this album are actually sort of original from a certain point of view. The band mixes, for example, some almost-Meshuggah-but-not-nearly-as-complex pseudochaotic riffs and slightly polyrhythmic beats to go with them; and almost "djent" feel ("djent" being a word I personally dislike but is widely used). At other moments it seems to display a playful, "math rock" (just dock with tempo changes and "complex" riffs, like a Diet Deathcore, which is itself a Super Diet Tech Death, but I digress), which, combined with the RELATIVELY raw (but suspiciously, not enough so as to be accessible) production, gives it a certain juvenile charm. Sadly, as I mentioned earlier, these bits are few and far inbetween, and they absolutely do NOT make up for a full-length of crap. Perhaps, had they decided to stick only with the redeemable bits, throwing away all the semi-well hidden copycat elements, we could have a two, maybe three-track EP that could have actually been worthy of being called "good".

You might have noticed I have a fixation with originality. Yes, I bloody well do. One of the very first and most important things I look for in music is originality. One of the very first things a musician should have in mind when composing is being original, bringing something NEW to the world instead of lazily rehashing the style of his favourite bands. And it's in this department where this release falls more than short. Sure, you might think: "Hey, not all bands can be 100% original, and every band is the continuation of the sound of the bands that influenced them and so on blah blah" and hell, you'd be fucking right. Except there's a big difference between taking your influences in you and mixing them with your own capacities which are unique to every individual and end up with a fresh, new and often exciting result (for a very rough example: Bathory + Euronymous = Norwegian Black Metal, or black metal as most everyone knows it), and simply quote and rip-off those influences constantly and shamelessly in your own work, like a mediocre comedian telling a half-arsed airplane food joke, followed by awkward silence and the comedian breaking down in a nervous "GET IT?!?!?", explaining the shitty joke and only making him look even more pathetic.

Their influences (not to say victims because I'm actually trying to be nice) are glaringly obvious and range from the more experimental/avant-garde black metal bands of today, like BAN (especially present on the slower, industrial bits, which also have a distant Godflesh feel) and DSO (especially evident on the watered down "complex" riffs). There's also, inevitably, some Burzum in there, or at least the inevitable outcome of Burzum's sound: A rather "depressive" and slow paced brand of black-ish metal that some people have dubbed "dark metal" (or even "grey metal") over the last few years. Slow drums and drowned chugging, some dissonance here and there, not much else. Something any bedroom black metal one-man project can churn out in half an hour. Only with better production, obviously. It's amazing the lengths these new york youngsters went to make their sound raw enough to appeal to the lesser experienced black metallers who think Nattens Madrigal is "just too much, maaaan", and yet clear enough to appeal to the trendy indie rock/math rock/Pitchfork Rock crowd. It's probably the most genius aspect of this album. Excellent marketing skills, these kids have. All of this to contain the melodic works a 19 year old overweight kid in some basement can fabricate in two days' time (anime breaks and WoW raids included). In fact, I think I'll do exactly that. I will make the most pretentious, tasteless and shamefully unoriginal "black" metal album ever, only instead of going the usual road and making Transilvanian Hunger Pt.8725872, I'll just steal from other bands, so many fucking bands in fact that it'll look like I'm an inventive genius instead of a shameless hack.

Wait. Liturgy beat me to the point.

Finally, of course, there's the influence of this so called "post-black" (black metal with some post rock elements and jazzy ambiance; see Sólstafir, Lantlôs, etc), or even "post-metal" (just atmospheric sludge with post-rock elements, or even worse, metalcore with some ambient thrown in), as if such a thing were possible. Anyway. You can feel and hear the same means, the same tactics, production values, the same objective these bands have: To join black metal, one of the most versatile subgenres ever, and add some post-rock/art rock (not Roxy Music art rock, rather contemporary "look at me I use quirky instruments and a female singer I'm so unique" kind of "art" rock) to ride the thriving wave of trendy accessible black metal with no content whatsoever (because there IS accessible black metal with content and quality). It seems lately there's a race to see who can mix up the most disparate subgenres with black metal in a very clumsy and disproportionate way, just to appear unique. Some people actually ARE successful at this.

Some other people are Liturgy.

To finish this sorry review for a sorry album, it hurts and angers me that such a mediocre, non-ground-breaking (not even ground-shuffling), unoriginal and, honestly, dull and boring both in production, composition and delivery, gets sudden and massive praise only because of an outright silly "manifesto" (give us a break laddie, you're not the king of darkness and you're not a fucking influential philosopher, you're a New York kiddie meddling with a thesaurus) about "black metal to overcome Transilvanian Hunger". Take a minute to ponder on that. Take a second to soak your eyes in the most pretentious of all sentences. And that's only a preview of the whole laughable manifesto. All of this, of course, sponsored by gas-for-brains, ignorant and pretentious as all fuck "music reviews" site Pitchfork. Motherfuckers could give an actual, literal turd a 10 and we'd have thousands of teens all over the world eating actual shit, convinced that it's the best thing they've ever experienced. Hipster metal exists now, and it's called Aesthethica. I only hope they decide to travel to some Norwegian forest for their third album in order to record the album that will abolish Filosofem and Bergtatt or some equally self-important thing, and they get eaten by bears and are never to be seen again.

As a final, extremely personal note that you may dismiss if you see fit: People from the United States should never do black metal. They just-- they just shouldn't.

I was never planning on reviewing this album, I really wasn't. I was around when all the hubbub started about the stupidly named Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's asinine manifesto and subsequent hilariously sad interview where he embarrassed himself and the other members of his band. I had a good laugh, probably had a poke around the manifesto a bit, laughed a little bit more, possibly called him a few names on a forum or two and went on my life. Then the album showed up, everyone gave it a listen in the hopes of amusing levels of horribleness, somewhat disappointingly realised that it was not disgusting, but also not very good, and the album rightfully sank into obscurity. There it was, saga finished, Hunter managed to wanker his band into a brief moment of attention and discussion, and once their 15 minutes were up a mediocre album descended back into a dark corner of the internet and all was right in the world.

And so it stayed for about six months when the best-of lists starting popping up as they do so late in the year, and Liturgy started coming back on my radar. Now bands I don't like showing up on lists in magazines and big websites isn't anything new, I don't think I've rated a highly regarded in the mainstream album in my top few picks since Primordial's To the Nameless Dead, that's not the issue, this year alone bands like Tombs, Antediluvian, Krallice, 40 Watt Sun and countless others routinely found high places on these year end retrospectives while albums I find great don't. Sure I'll regard lists as crap for this, but this is just simple opinion stuff, no issue there. How Aesthetica managed to stand out from the crowd of other overrated albums was the recurring explanations for its position. Somewhere along the way, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's gibberish bullshit has caught on, it's hard to find a post about this album without some kind of apologetic "This album has angered the black metal community, so it must be doing something right" thing, and somehow people, even people who hate it, are expressing how groundbreaking a forward thinking this is, to the point of where it was mentioned outside the usual top 10 list at Pitchfork because it would somehow be demeaning to the album to be confined to list format, because it is that world changing. And that is what has got my attention going here, I'm fine with people praising shit I don't like, but holy fuck, this thing is being worshipped as the harbinger of the new world of music all of a sudden, and I really can't comprehend how.

There is nothing new about this album. There is nothing challenging about this album. This album does not change the rules in any way. With that said it really isn’t bad. It's admittedly not generic either, but what originality it does possess is neither overly important, doesn't affect black metal itself in anyway, and most importantly doesn't sound good.

The sound on Aesthetica can easily be summed up as very melodic tremolo fuelled black metal, with an unusual production and unusually high number of major chords. Most of the other elements that have been so lauded are flat out not involved in the black metal songs themselves, and pop up in interludes, non-black metal songs that don’t sound like the rest of the album at all, and intros for the main part. The math rock influence is pretty much confined to the post-metal through and through song, "Generation", and a few abrupt tempo changes. As for the songs themselves, I suppose some people could be considering passages where the band whams on one note over and over with snare hits punching with them as dissonance or math rock influence, but this is simply untrue, since these "riffs" don't have any sort of rhythmic pattern, and instead function as nothing more than an annoyance. This leaves the well publicised world changing positive mood as the big draw of the album.

For starters, I will admit that this album features a lot more positive sounding melodies than any other BM band I've heard, but at the same time it is not overwhelming. The general melodic riff is full of a major chords and is certainly used more than anywhere else, but many more mellow bands have had these types of riffs and moods before, even as large parts, just not as exclusively, or with as many blasts behind them. Groups such as later Drudkh, Moonsorrow and even Alcest at their most black metal have had stirring upbeat melodies, all this album does is add more focus to them and chuck in a shitload more messy blast beats. Oh I’m sorry, “burst beats”, which seem to be nothing more than a sloppy blast beat, lagging behind a tad, interrupted by as many featureless snare rolls as possible. Other than this you've got the more overt melodies, which if you claim is new to the genre you clearly don't know dick about black metal. Isvind, Blut Aus Nord, hell even early Anaal Goddamn Nathrakh and countless other dark and vicious black metal bands feature far more overt and successful sweeping and beautiful melodies. These ones are nice, “Harmonia” in particular standing out in this sense, but they are miles away from being something new to the genre, let alone something that changes the game. The final nail in the coffin of this claim is the fact that half the riffs aren't "ecstatic" or "joyous" anyway, songs like "True Will", "Tragic Laurel" and "Glory Bronze" are all songs using typical black metal dramatic and desperate riffs, not evil, no, but panicked and far from positive, with any sort of upbeat energy being driven by the odd production.

You may have noticed I've mentioned the production a few times here, because it is odd, annoying as shit, and at least partially responsible for the "this is so hopeful and new" reaction. Basically the bands has tried to be black metal by having an exceptionally thin guitar tone, but also tried to be modern by being clean as hell, the result is a super thin, super clear sound which sits somewhere between a 1960's phone ring and a telegraph machine. When you combine this with the one note jammed over and over riffs, it pretty much sounds like a kid playing with his bicycle's bell as quickly as possible (But with blasts, so it’s full on black metal kids), which I suppose is a pretty exuberant event for the child, so I can see how that could be considered a happy mood for some, but seeing as I am not an irritating seven year old riding around on his first bike I simply find it grating. Second point of notice is the drums, which use a snare drum clearly not set up for blasting, making it sound sluggish and lag behind the music for the main part. It, along with a cymbal that sounds like kicking a chain link fence dominates the drum sound, which isn't surprising drummer Greg Fox is the most snare roll heavy drummer I have heard since Mastodon's Brann Dailor.

History rewriting itself is pretty common in music, obscure but high quality death metal albums that get noticed in the new internet age get labelled as legendary, when in actual fact they were known as great by only a select few hundred or thousand people at the time, but this would have to be the fastest I have ever seen it happen. In just six months the reaction to the whole manifesto event has been changed from the correct "Laughter and mockery of an idiot" to being "an angry backlash against someone challenging conventions". Face it, if somebody answers a question, any question- Even if that question is "Would you please tell us about your manifesto?" -with "I have written a manifesto", you will be laughed at and mocked, because that is hilarous. Sure one or two might have gotten up in arms, but by and large the reaction was more in line with bullying the kid who thought sequined pants would be a cool look to bring to school, instead of the somehow now accepted “anger at the guy who comes in and changes the way people think”. The manifesto has gone from a sad pretentious joke to something people are actually calling important and intelligent. People speak of Liturgy as if all other black metal is from 1992 and it hasn't progressed since then. Suddenly them not wearing corpse paint is a huge deal, as if thousands of popular bands hadn't been eschewing it for decades, no black metal album had ever been well produced and no black metal band had ever not focussed on evil and Satan and being grim. It was like people actually believed the "gr1m frostbitten n3ckro" straw man stereotype had actually been a thing for 20 years, and was in fact the only kind of black metal black metal fans liked. And I have no idea why. None of these things are even remotely true, and the only reason I can think of is the manifesto. It appears that simply telling everybody that your music is profound, groundbreaking, intensely different and downright transcendental often enough will eventually make it catch on as fact, regardless of how much reality there is to the crap you spew.

So it sounds like I've been just pissing all over this band, album and fans for the last seven paragraphs, and indeed it is easy, I haven't even mocked the god awful choral vocals (Another thing nobody in black metal had ever done before) that pop up a couple of times at the starts of songs, or the horrible 8 bit like synth break "Helix Skull", but seriously, this album really isn't bad. There are many things I flat out like about it, firstly I like the way these guys structure songs. I've always liked my songs to be songs, and returning elements has always appealed to me more than endless torrents of unconnected riffs, Liturgy have this figured out nicely, the songs don't work in a verse-chorus fashion, but flow between many repeated sections to feel whole as songs, which keeps them condensed and to the point, giving them a step up on their meandering hipster buddies in Krallice and Wolves in the Throne Room. This is held up a bit by every song has an irritating as fuck bicycle bell riff, and Fox is the worst drummer in the world when it comes to transitioning between sections, as his messy sounding blasts stumble to a halt as he finds his way to the next bit of his kit to bash on. But hey, I like it in theory. Next up the black metal is really quite nice, basically all of the more negative riffs are catchy and have emotional hooks that are nicely exploited, tracks like "True Will" are quite addictive and easy to get into, once you force your way past the horrible intro of course. A whole bunch of the melodies are good too, not as good as many bands this is said to be completely overturning, but the escalating lead in "Sun of Light" is great, regardless of how sickeningly weak and flowery it is, same goes for "Harmonia" which pulls it off while not being embarrasingly neutered. In fact the only really outwardly positive melodies that are worthy of disdain are the annoying "Reverser" and "Red Crown". Finally, as much as it embarrasses me to give the guy a compliment, Hunty HuntleHunts has a good voice, with a pained wail sitting somewhere between Varg and Herr Morbid of Forgotten Tomb, it fits in pretty nicely with the blasty and escalating melodies for the main part, adding a little bit more grunt to often all to delicate music. Lastly I am a massive fan of "Generation", a totally not black metal in any way post metal monster working around one riff and throwing all sorts of little variations at it, and letting the drummer spaz out in a way which doesn't totally fuck up the rhythm of the song.

Really this album isn't bad. It isn't generic, it isn't a direct rip off, I'm just saying that it isn't game changing. It's that viewpoint that I'm most complaining about, even more than the hipsterness and pretentiousness, Vindsval of Blut aus Nord appears to be a thoroughly arrogant human being, his music is still good, the guys from Deathspell Omega have a totally laughable philosophy which they hold up in an authoritative and pompous matter, they've got some great stuff. Being an arrogant, pretentious knob doesn't stop your music from being good, annoying riffs, shitty production and irritating drumming do. If you're in the mood for something taking things in new directions this year, hit up Oranssi Pazuzu for their avant-garde and wide ranging scope of ideas, many of which are positive and catchy, or Negative Plane's Stained Glass Revalations which floats about in a weird, but thoroughly non evil manner, or even Njiqahdda's The Path... which while evil, and angry, has all sorts of subtle sweeping melody and technicality floating under the surface. All of them are just as in fact more worthy of praise for being different, and do it while not sucking. If you want some decent melodic black metal with a bunch irritating one note jarring riffs and a disgusting production, come here.

So far, my forays into so called “hipster black metal” have left me incredibly confused about two very important things:

1. Who the Hell is labeling these bands as black metal?
2. What the Hell about these bands are so irredeemably terrible as to generate such vitriol against them?

And so far, both off those seemingly important questions have remained unanswered. It is a predicament that has left me with only one real option: listen to a lot of “hipster black metal” and come up with my own damn opinion: an opinion that up until my time with Liturgy’s Aesthehtica has been a very positive one. After Liturgy’s Aesthethica, my cool has been damaged. Aesthethica helps me understand my second question a little bit more.

Lets get the positive out of the way right off the bat, because there is some positive to be found. There are some really, really cool individual riffs on this album. The dudes in this band clearly know how to play their instruments and clearly love dissonance as much as I do. Liturgy are not afraid to experiment and do not fear creativity, two qualities that is not common enough in today’s metal scene. A lot has been made about the bands views on Black Metal, and issue I am not going to bother discussing, but I will say this for Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and Co.: they are fearless, and Aesthethica is a monument to the bands fearlessness.

It is also a testament to the bands arrogance and pretentiousness. Aesthethica is wealthy with ideas and barren of anything to keep these ideas from being utterly useless. Imagine a leg with no tendons; a book without a binding. Aesthethica feels like a recorded jam session: impromptu, herking and jerking to and fro, occasionally thrilling but mostly filled with throw-away material not worth remembering outside the heat of the moment. It is not hard to draw parallels between Liturgy and The Dave Mathews Band, which might be the most “insane-like-a-fox” thing I have ever had the (dis)pleasure to type. But the more time I spent with the amorphous blob of something vaguely black metal that is Aesthethica, the more that comparison makes total sense. Also, both bands feature some of the most horrid vocals ever recorded, which just makes the whole situation that much sadder.

And as with every one of these albums I have reviewed so far, I have a hard time with classifying this album as black metal. Is shrieking vocals and tremolo picking all that is needed to slap the black metal label on a band now? Aesthethica does have it’s moments where is sounds kind of like black metal, but the often cheery arrangements evoke a very positive sound. “Returner” sounds more like a Converge on anti-depressants, while “Glory Bronze” starts with an upbeat intro that for some fucking reason reminded me of Green Day played at inhuman speed. That song later heads into one of the most black metal sounding arrangements on the album, but the intro of the song could be a Weezer hit if the band slowed it down from warp speed. Yeah, I did just write that.

Aesthethica represents the dark side of unbridled creativity: when self-absorbed and self-serving experimentation destroys self-editing and common sense, it often creates something that can’t stay grounded because it is too insubstantial. Aesthethica stands up to listening like a whisp of smoke stands up to a stiff breeze, and leaves about the same impression on the world around it. I give Liturgy points for their effort, but Aesthethica is the kind of wasted musical effort that comes about when the only people the band are trying to impress are themselves.

Rating: 5/10

originally posted at:http://curseofthegreatwhiteelephant.blogspot.com/

It is almost impossible disentangle Liturgy’s sophomore release, “Aesthetica” from vocalist/guitarist Hunter Hunt Hendrix’s “Transcendental Black Metal Manifesto.” In the manifesto, Hendrix suggests that Liturgy and their brand of “transcendental black metal” are the necessary teleological consequence of black metal. Since black metal is the teleological endpoint of all prior metal, it follows that Liturgy are some sort of dialectical culmination of everything in the history of metal up to today.

To be straight forward, the manifesto is fucking annoying. Hendrix throws around “it words” from continental philosophy and music theory, and then blends them with some goofy metaphors about the atrophied “hyperborean” realm (read: Norway) and the “transcendental apocalyptic” realm (read: America)—all of which is a longwinded way of Hendrix explaining that he thinks his band is awesome. Ultimately the manifesto comes off as a desperate attempt to place Liturgy as the “next great thing” in the history of black metal, as he presents their music as an "overcoming" of Darkthrone’s “Transylvanian Hunger”.

The sad part is that the music itself is actually quite praiseworthy—no manifesto was necessary. While the album sometimes becomes swamped in Liturgy’s uncontrolled pretentiousness, most of the album is imaginative fusion of new sounds and ideas into the black metal framework. At its core, “Aesthetica” is a black metal album; thin tremolo chords, pulsating percussion and standard high pitched screeches. However, Liturgy does a number of things differently. First, the riffs are fluttery and melodic, swirling around the listener like the string section of an orchestra. This is highly Romantic music; at its best, it recalls the powerful melodies of Brucker and Mahler symphonies.

The band also has a strong djent influence. There are long stretches of mechanistic gyrations, but Liturgy bring life to the machine, building up to intense climaxes and that spill over, like a sprinter crossing the finish line. Liturgy’s ability to shift between these romantic and mechanic passages with such effortlessness is one of the highlights of “Aesthetica.” The band plays with such phenomenal synchronicity that they are able to split off into differing tempos and melodies and come back together without ever missing a beat.

Liturgy is also not afraid to integrate brighter, more celebratory melodies into the black metal sound. Certainly, they are not the first to do it (though they probably think they are) but they are in the minority. The results are mixed. While the grandstanding opener “High Gold” is awe inspiring, “Sun of Light” sounds like an anime soundtrack. For the most part, Liturgy maintains their emotional integrity throughout—traversing the tragic “True Will”, the monumental “Veins of Gold” and the cathartic “Harmonia”.

The members of Liturgy have often been accused of not being true metal heads. I find that charge ironic; the metal on “Aesthetica” is mostly of a high quality, while all the non-metal parts are absolutely terrible. The a capella passages are literally the worst I have ever heard in my life. I kid not, these are the type of nasal vocals that incite mass violence. Hunter Hunt Hendrix strained moans like a castrated sheep being sodomized. The keyboard passages are also terrible. The synth piece “Helix Skull” sounds like shit. Seriously, kids fucking around on a piano do a better job than this. Unfortunately these crap keyboard and a capella passages are often interspersed at the beginnings of otherwise stellar tracks, which means it’s not so easy to just skip them. These passages highlight that Liturgy are not quite “there” yet. They’re still too caught up in doing “transcendental black metal” to transcend their own inabilities, like lack of singing ability.

In the end “Aesthetica” is an impressive though sometimes frustrating album. While there are plenty of standout moments, it also has its share of absolutely terrible moments. At its core, this band has an original and exciting sound. While they’ve taken the liberty of putting themselves in conversation with Darkthrone, I would say their sound is closer to the neo-classical sounds of Emperor's swansong "Prometheus". Liturgy’s great innovation is removing the synths and creating the symphonic sound through nothing but bass, drums and guitar. Still, if this band is ever going to reach their full potential, they need to get their nauseatingly large egos under check.

(Originally written for http://listenwell-nocturnal.blogspot.com/)

Hipsters have really been getting into black metal these days. I'm not quite sure what the draw is for them, but whatever it may be, they're finding their way into the more forward-thinking side of the genre, bringing far more major chords than we're used to with them.

Liturgy's band photo should not only trigger your hipster alarm, but also your gag reflex. But let's try to listen with our ears again, shall we? Their style has sometimes been called "transcendental" black metal, supposedly intended to draw you to a higher state of consciousness (or some similar bullshit) through repetition. There's plenty of dissonance to go along with the major chords, and all the vocals are screechy. The drums are pretty generic and boring, but I could get past that. The album opens with some glitch-like sounds, and goes into the excellent "High Gold". But after that point, everything goes downhill. Your first hint would be the ridiculous clean singing at the beginning of "True Will", but then the jubilant mood of "Returner" proves that everything's out of whack.

Metal has never been accused of being pretentious; usually, it's accused of being juvenile. This album is pretentious. "Generation" is 7 minutes of what's basically one riff repeated over and over, without vocals. But "Sun of Light" really drives the "we think we're capital-A Artists" point home, with its extended screw-off tangent and, to cap it off, 45 seconds of silence in the middle of the fucking album. By the time "Glory Bronze" comes on, I felt like I was watching some ridiculous piece of "performance art". And you have to hear the annoying a capella of "Glass Earth" to believe it.

Hipsters with a full-blown sense of irony and casual superiority can rot.

adapted from an article comparing and contrasting the album to Deafheaven's Roads to Judah (you can read the full post at http://fullmetalattorney.blogspot.com/2011/05/roads-to-judah-v-aesthetica.html

By this point, most concerned parties have likely seen the video of Liturgy's 'Triple H' Hunter Hunt-Hendrix making an arse out of himself through the pretentious hipster ramblings on the nature of his creations; or been incessantly inundated with hyperbole like 'pushing the boundaries of black metal'. Despite this unintentional humor, the shit has gone, like, viral, the latest meme to sate the swollen funny bones of a vast and unforgiving audience of vultures. In an attempt to more objectively critique the New Yorkers' sophomore full-length, to the extent that a piece of music can be 'objectively' experienced; and beneath the assumption that Mr. Hunt-Hendrix was not at all intending to come off as such a vapid twat, I'm going to ignore that interview ever happened.

So, its lack of corpse paint, foreboding and grimness aside, how does the music of Aesthetica hold up under the strain of such hype? How does it wrestle at the boundaries of its inhabited genre? The answer is that it doesn't. Really. There are already dozens of other bands performing the same hybrid of adventurous, atonal Sonic Youth strain and rabid accumulation of crass and melodic, streaming notation inherent in black metal. Sure, these New Yorkers perform their instruments with inarguable energy. Competent if humorless blast beats, jarring bursts of ineffable yet expressive chords, and the rasping tortured drawl of obsequious USBM cults such as Xasthur, Weakling and Leviathan. They best remind me of another New York city act flirting with this mutation: Krallice, and they also suffer from the same drawbacks, most notably the frustrating inconsistency through which they deliver a scintillating, immersible sequence of notes and then throw it to the dogs with the needless inconsistency of lamentable chaos.

Let's take one of the finer moments on Aesthetica: "Returner". This song opens with a wonderful floe of melodic disgrace, baby-black vocals occupying an elevated niche like some urban raptor gazing upon a big city causeway from its skyscraper nest. Then it proceeds to turn into dog shit, first through a dull, Rush-like punctuation and blast bursts adorned in far less interesting note patterns, as if the sheer speed were going to somehow provide enough variation and intensity to carry the listener's attentions. This is, more or less, the problem with every song on this album. Total inconsistency and incoherency of content. "Sun of Light", "Red Crown" and the amusing, slower crawl of "Veins of God" all contain admirable highlights, squandered on structural flaws that would have any civil engineer scratching the lice out of his/her head. What's more, the black metal tracks are interspersed with unusual forays elsewhere: the dour, goofy chanting of "Glass Earth" and "Harmonia", the prototypical synth-prog of "Helix Skull", or the intros to "High Gold" and "True Will".

It's interesting that the band wishes to diversify itself, but the pieces simply do not fit into the same puzzle. Time would have been better spent on fleshing out and improving the metal itself than asserting such eccentric, eclectic drivel, as if that would be somehow enough to elevate this beyond the saturated din of creative missteps that plague the lion's share of these modern and minimalism-driven USBM acts. Otherwise, the production of Aesthetica is dry and shimmering, appropriate enough to the atmosphere created. There are a few moments in which the harpy hiss of the vocals, poesy of the lyrics, and glossy guitar strands entwine into something stunning. But PAINFUL few. The majority of the album is misspent on mundane padding and dull spasms of salacious self-indulgence. I'll admit: Liturgy is not nearly the god awful obstruction we might have been led to believe through the front man's rambling. But the only boundaries being pushed here are those of my bowel walls.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com