Here it is, the third album from the Brooklyn black metal band Liturgy—the band that’s launched a thousand or more fights among metal fans since their debut dropped in 2009. They’ve since become extremely polarizing, inspiring volumes of thinkpieces that collectively exceed in length any treatises frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix has written in his entire life. And on this third album, The Ark Work, the band has managed to distill every divisive element of their sound and persona, not to mention created a thrilling and beautifully confusing work.
As a preface: I started out as a fan of noise and experimental music, from Metal Machine Music to Tago Mago and Trout Mask Replica. I didn’t get into underground metal to hear a band play music that sounds just like another band from 20 years ago. I got into it to hear some weird crap that takes older sounds and mixes them up into something new. So take your black metal and play it on a dulcimer, or add banjos to it (see also: Panopticon). Bands should incorporate their immediate influences, because it’s disingenuous to try to sound like a bunch of angsty teenagers from Norway when that’s not what you are. So yes, I am a fan of experimentation, even when it’s just for experimentation’s sake (see: Trout Mask Replica) and that’s probably why I’m having so much fun listening to The Ark Work.
I will admit that it’s hard to get into the band when they’re cloaked in layers of philosophical gobbledygook courtesy of Hunt-Hendrix. One of the most common responses to the band is something like, “Maybe I would like the music if I didn’t hate the frontman so much.” First of all, if you choose to dislike a band because of someone in it, please choose a band that has actual racists or sexists in it, I hear there are tons of those. Don’t hate some guy because he was interested in black metal enough to write a paper about it.
Second, I would say that if Hunt-Hendrix’s philosophy bothers you so much, then just pay attention to the music. But that doesn’t exactly work, because even though I have no clue what he’s talking about most of the time, his ideas are central to The Ark Work and come as both a response to the vitriol lobbed at the band (see track 9) and as protection against it in the future. It seems as though he’s ramped up his philosophical ideas for this album, trying to ensconce himself behind words and justifications in preparation for the onslaught that is likely coming his way.
And so far I’ve spent so much time and so many words talking about the circumstances surrounding this album instead of what it actually sounds like. Which is a shame, because it’s one of the most mind-warping things I’ve heard in awhile. It’s one of those albums where surprises like bagpipes or rapping come out of nowhere and you yell at no one in particular to ask what’s going on. When so many bands sound exactly the same, coming across one that finally doesn’t is a treasure.
The Ark Work sounds like a programmed orchestra inside a glitchy video game. The stop-start of “Kel Valhaal” is one of the most exhilarating passages on the album, coming directly after the blast beats accented by bells on “Follow.” But “Kel Valhaal” refuses to follow the pattern of its predecessor. Instead, it’s an exercise in holding back as long as possible, building up layers of sound, with Hunt-Hendrix’s chanting and Greg Fox’s drumming mirroring and challenging the stuttering beat created by electronic manipulation. The contrast between Fox’s energetic, frenetic, expressive drumming and the MIDI programming reveals the heart of the album. The sound of a skipping CD on “Kel Valhaal” seems to be a winking acknowledgement of the falseness of the whole towering monument of noise, but there the entire time is Fox, crafting beats so far away from the drum machine that replaced him on tour in between the release of Aesthetica and The Ark Work.
Speaking of reveling in ambiguity, of course something built out of so many elements atypical to metal can’t be considered metal. Then again, The Ark Work draws from and plays so much with black metal’s legacy that it has to be compared to the rest of the genre. All we can hope for is to give up caring about that kind of thing. The Ark Work is a mess of active contradictions, aesthetics stolen from hip-hop sitting next to tremolo guitars, huge and bombastic orchestral pieces juxtaposed against black metal’s stark and grim legacy.
These contrasts and other bare elements on the album prove that The Ark Work is just singularly weird. When I saw Liturgy play live before the release date for The Ark Work was even announced, I thought Hunt-Hendrix had injured his vocal cords somehow and wasn’t able to scream. I remember feeling as though the band were working together as one strong, muscled arm to punch me in the face repeatedly with musical themes. Five minutes into the eighth track, “Reign Array,” the bottom drops out of the song and banjos come in to lift everything up. One track later, on “Vitriol,” Hunt-Hendrix is practically rapping about his haters. Everything Liturgy does is completely unexpected.
And while the album is bewildering, it’s also transcendent in its best moments. “Reign Array” is the star of the album, with its extremely satisfying chord resolution pushed up against traditionally-influenced, tightened tremolo guitar in other sections of the song. The track builds and builds, moving forward completely without fear or hesitation. There’s a section with only high-pitched guitar and bells that sounds like the bridge of a pop song before the song returns to its typical tricks. It’s all about what sounds can do and how they can work for or against each other. The buildup to the huge back half of “Reign Array” with its many elements working together is all worth it.
As Hunt-Hendrix himself said of The Ark Work, “It does not backpedal…the aim with this one was to take that musical vibe [of the first two Liturgy records] and execute it all the way.” For Liturgy, executing all the way meant embracing different aspects of the band’s sound and influences. This all plays into Hunt-Hendrix’s grand vision of art, as music introduces new ideas to the world, people accept them and defend them by making more art, and the cycle continues. The Ark Work is totally uncompromising in doing that, and I hope everyone at least gives it a chance.
– Joy
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