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Liturgy: Renihilation
04/02/10 || Khlysty
Fuck me, but this thing went comfuckingpletely under my radar, which is a damn shame, ‘cause “Renihilation” coulda easily be a contender for my “Year’s Best” list. It coulda be for you, too, if you like your black metal completely freed from all the straitjacketing with which “tradition” and “tr00ness” and “kvltness” have shackled the genre for a long time now. See, Liturgy, a quartet from Brooklyn, NYfuckingC, is another of them quirky USBM bands that seem to crop up like poisonous champignons ever so often during the last years and offer quite interesting, even if a bit imbalanced, takes on a genre that, although not dead, had started to smell funny for quite some time.
So, here it is, “Renihilation”, the first full length from those demented Nooyawkas, and, boy, does it slays. The four members of the band tap the origins of black metal for the basis of their music, but, instead of making a record that follows the Rules, they, like, totally smash them to pieces and go for a barely controlled chaotic take on the genre, that seems to combine elements from no-wave bands of the past (ghosts of early Swans, Sonic Youth and even DNA flutter within the group’s music) with black metal’s basic ingredients (tremolo-picked guitars, almost no bottom-end, EXTREMELY chaotic blasting that sometimes verges on free-jazz mania, tortured inarticulate screaming as vocals) to create something that sounds pretty exciting and, well, fresh!
The record contains seven “proper” songs plus four untitled tracks of interesting tribal vocalizing, which, even though their presence within the record can be justified by the ambience the band’s trying to convey and their cutting down the record into four “suites” of songs, seem to me that they mar down the proceedings. See, when the band goes, it really goes for the kill. The two guitars slash and cut uncontrollably, whether working in tandem, or taking different but equally painful directions. At the same time, the whirlwind of the drums creates an atmosphere of almost manic abandonment of the music, turning the drumset into one more lead instrument. The melodies the band concocts are majestic and of incredible depth and expressiveness and, even through the chaotic form of the songs, they always find a way to shine through.
So, is everything wine and roses, here? No, it’s not. Even though the band displays great compositional and instrumental prowess, some of the songs lack the focus that would push them from good to transcendental, and seem to meander without going anywhere. Also, the production is a little bit “iffy” to these ears, a little too “murky” to allow the instrumental interplay to really shine through the maelstrom of noise. And, well, the vocals, that is the constant screaming can get a pain in the ass; I mean, hey, dude, you fucking wrote some lyrics. Is it so bad if we, the listeners, can discern even one fucking word of them? C’mon, now, huh? And, to end my gripes, how about a little tiny bit more of linear development of the song, eh? I mean, I like the way Liturgy explore the most intense take on black metal, but some of the jarring riff transitions within the songs seem, at least to me, awkward and irksome.
The bottom line of all this is that Liturgy is a band with great potential and “Renihilation” is a VERY good, if as un-trad as it gets, take on black metal. If the band learns a bit more constraint, finds more focus in its songwriting and tries a few more things that can be found, albeit in embryonic form, here, pretty soon we’ll have in our hands another great USBM band and a new contender for the USBM throne, along with Wolves In The Throne Room, Cobalt, Nachtmystium, Averse Sephira, Leviathan (if Wrest decides to continue working under this moniker), Krallice et al. For now, the signs are pretty good for them boys. So, let’s wait and see what happens, yes?
- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: 20 Buck Spin
- Website: Liturgy MySpace
- Band
- Hunter Hunt-Hendrix: guitar, vocals
- Bernard Gann: guitar
- Tyler Dusenbury: bass
- Greg Fox: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Untitled
- 02. Pagan Dawn
- 03. Mysterium
- 04. Untitled
- 05. Ecstatic Rite
- 06. Arctica
- 07. Untitled
- 08. Beyond The Magic Forest
- 09. Untitled
- 10. Behind The Void
- 11. Renihilation
