Liturgy : " 93696"

"Aesthetica" would go down as one of my top 50 black metal albums, and I also enjoyed "Ark Work" . Hendrix has now taken experiment a step further, though still incorporating some of the screaming and gnashing of teeth acquired from the project's black metal past. The opening track is more of an intro to the glorious chaos that unfolds on "Djennaration" which is almost eight and a half minutes to summarize what this project is about sonically. If you have been a fan of this band, then you will enjoy this song, no matter the pretense that might surround this album as a whole. Song I will at least say is progressive black metal, with the intensity making up for the fact this is not really that dark. Darkness has never been this project's thing , as they are more about the gnostic shimmer. 

This is an ambitious undertaking at 15 songs some of which are over 14 minutes long. There is more metallic ear lashing than I hoped for going into this album, as "Caela" takes the catharsis of the previous song and focuses it's attack. After this is an ambient choral piece that is more of an interlude than a song. "Haelegen" has a more ominous undertone aside from sounding like it is colliding with Sigur Rios. The scathing howls are the more dominant vocal, though there are some sing song vocal chants that surface which are less  Bone Thugs N Harmony in their intentions on this album.  " Before I knew the Truth" feels more like what you expect from this band, even though this is not dialed in, it does thrash around what is conventional in terms of the angular glitched out sonics they deal in .  

The further you delve into the album the more time the ambient passages begin to take up. "Ananon" is the next foray into what they actually do as a band. It is a bright blur of blast beats and jerking riffs. The 14 minute title track kicks off with aggressive riffing that carries more of a crunch than what you think of with these guys. The screaming carries the same feral energy it has in the path, where you doubt actual lyrics are being uttered at all. When they decide to give things more of a punch it proves to be powerful thanks to former Kayo Dot drummer Leo Didkovsky. The song takes a shift in the final minutes that is an odd shift in dynamics , but it does bring the more jammy feel of the song together to form more of a purpose. 

Then it's back to more orchestral ambiance. Once again these feel like interludes until we get to "Antigone II". Odd time signatures abound in this sprawling 14 minute opus. Even more progressive in the angular acrobatics they embark upon, I hold to my belief that these guys are a band fans of progressive metal are sleeping on, even with the Brooklyn hipster trappings surrounding the actual music. Even with the atonal syncopations things get really heavy. Their trademark sound that chimes more than chugs is still intact and sets them apart; They closing piece sounds like something Danny Elfman might have done for a David Lynch movie. I will give this a 9, despite being bogged down by overly ambitious interludes there is an impressive progressive black metal album buried in it all, not their best, but a logical next step in the evolution of what they do.