Recalcitrant Aesthetics

Liturgy have received much flack from the metal world - most specifically from black metal elitists. From a flat, surface-level perspective Liturgy are a disgrace to black metal; they don't adhere to the 25+ year old genre's sound or intent.  Or do they...

Things change. Black metal set out to be the antithesis of religion, culture, art, and what people considered good music. It was a rebellion that peaked in some very intense moments.  These types of movements are generally short-lived; they either fade out of the picture or are so successful in their method of defiance that they become part of the accepted greater picture of valid artistic expression. A parallel can be seen with the early punk scene, which today has a similar fan-base divide as black metal. Many look at punk as having become a mockery of itself: a mainstream, mass-culture genre that is exactly what it originally set out to defy. Black metal is the extreme and grim younger brother of punk. Black metal was a very powerful movement in music that has become a common-day commodity. It has become an accepted genre of music which pretty much negates its original point. Though some will claim it died, black metal is still around - but it doesn't mean the same thing.  It had risen from the ashes of burnt churches and bloody murders to find its home as the dark heart of the music world across the globe. Its raw, harsh, and abrasive sound has turned into label-name, big budget, professionally produced legitimacy. 

Liturgy embrace this truth, making black metal as spiritual art - defying the genre with which they are associated in a way that transcends many of its fundamental ideologies, yet embraces its rebellious nature. They're creating their own new wave of black metal; their sound is coarse, unconventional, and unforgiving...even and especially to the ears of the black metal elitist. In this sense they have revived the aspects of black metal that had fallen to time and success, but also have let go of its preconceptions and paradigmatic negative close-mindedness.  Liturgy have transcended its hatred and grim nature by affirmation.

The Thrill Jockey double-sleeved, double clear vinyl pressing.

Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's demos laid a foundation that Renihilation then built upon and refined. 2011's Aesthethica sees Liturgy approaching a mastery of their sound, writing and performing as a single breathing entity. Amidst the scraping trem-picked high-register minor and major chord structures - a swirling flurry of remorseless guitar power - thunders a rolling "burst beat" rhythm section. Utilizing Deutsch-like auditory illusions, Shepard Scale effect, and shifting polyrhythms that circle back onto themselves, Aesthethica is progressive and also psychedelic.  The patterns and rhythms elevate you; ever-augmenting droning phrases cycle and climb - eliciting a growing tension of energy until they break, pouring out in a tidal wave of majestic riffing played with sacred intent.  It's intense...and when the intensity of a song subsides there is an enriching silence - a stillness of being.

The screechy, animal screams are a perfect match for the music Liturgy creates.  These are not guttural death vocals - they are shrill and unsettling.  They are not supposed to sound good...this is black metal...black metal in 2011 at that. It ought sound grating even to fans of extreme music. Potentially as bothersome to metal fans are the various moments of Aesthethica when meditative and repetitive layered chanting enter the mix- a fitting contrast to the power and vehemence of Hunt-Hendrix's wails.

What makes Liturgy black metal is not something as simple as image, production quality, or musical key.  They defy all of these things by remaining in alignment with their art and still, even more rightly so, deserve their self-devised genre of Transcendental Black Metal.  Liturgy revive many of the original elements of black metal, but in a new fresh breath. They have brought black metal full circle, now not only defying the original movement and current interpretation, but also those who refuse to move forward...and in an accidental way. They aren't concerned with being "tr00" or "kvlt" - they are expressing a very unique vision with their music. Liturgy have spirit and are uncompromisingly defiant by being so dedicated to serving their creation.

Aesthethica is a profound record and I hope you will check them out if you have not already; it's one of the best metal records of 2011.

Grave Words: The Sound Of Perseverance

I've been wanting to start a retrospective category of posts.  Each would briefly comment on an album which would have to be at least 10 years old - a paragraph or two of the significance of the record.  I've decided to start this series today with a post in honor of Chuck Schuldiner, frontman of Death, who died ten years ago today.

The year is 1998; Death, the pioneers of death metal, released their last studio album.  The Sound Of Perseverance is one of the most impressive metal albums I have ever heard.  From the over-the-top drum intro of opener Scavenger Of Human Sorrow to the intense death screams in the finale - a cover of Judas Priest's Painkiller, each track is teeming with disgusting riffs, majestic leads, mind-bending changes, and percussive black magic.  The Sound Of Perseverance should be held as the epitome for progressive death metal, meeting the perfect integration of technical skill and songwriting.  At just the right moments things shift from elaborate and intricately composed layers into beautifully heavy, melodic refrains and breaks.  Each song is a journey complete in and of itself - the album an omnibus of musical adventure.

I remember hearing it for the first time - my jaw just dropped.  I was indeed familiar with Death's previous work, but something contained in this record went just that far beyond what they had done before, which was quite remarkable.  Some feel that it was too polished and showboating - lacking the rawness and harshness of what death metal should be, but I feel that this was the album Schuldiner was meant to make.  Though he continued creating music with Control Denied, The Sound Of Perseverance is his swan song and solidifies his legendary status in the metal world.  I honestly don't know how this record could be any better, or could better represent what Chuck was all about.  If you're into metal and have not heard this record, I highly recommend remedying that immediately.

Here's to an extremely talented and unique songwriter and musician.  You'll never be forgotten, Chuck.

.Bossk

England's Bossk were only around for a few years, but in that time they crafted some damn fine music and earned a cult following (much like their namesake, a bounty hunter from Star Wars). Their two EP's, .1 and .2, are each comprised of two epic tracks of atmospheric post-metal. Bossk's music built on simple structures and patterns, each leading into the next very organically.  Each section was like bringing a pot of water to a boil: clear, calm, and cool tones heat up and begin to ripple and bubble, eventually boiling over in blissful bluesy sludge riff goodness.  These boiling points are primordial and fierce...they speak to you on base level and can awaken great movement.  Hear for yourself...

I've recently hunted down the hard-to-find 2008 double vinyl pressing of .1 and .2.  The 180g heavyweight discs are of very high quality with only one track per side.  The vinyl mastering is tight and tidy - perhaps even slightly on the sterile side, though still far superior to a digital copy in both sonic breadth and granularity.  I am very happy with my purchase, especially for only 9 euros.

Bossk's only other releases were a live/documentary DVD (2008), and a split with Rinoa (2009).  If you're a fan of bands like Isis or Cult Of Luna, your time would be well spent investigating Bossk.  Even with a short-lived career their name still crops up often; dare I say this too soon...they've contributed what will be considered two of the classic must-haves of the greater post-metal genre.  Need more convincing?  How about one of the best album covers of all time...

Lost In The Glare

Lost In The Glare is Barn Owl's latest release and their most cohesive record to date.  Engaging the listener even more so than previous offerings, it narrates a story from beginning to end in which our subconscious is free to assign the setting and symbols.  This will of course differ from person to person, but so too will it differ on each spin for the same listener, never quite setting you down where you would expect based on previous listens.  Each observation of the album is unique in some way - the mark of a truly great record.

Your particular journey may start in the sands of a sun-drenched desert gazing into a blue sky...or perhaps you find yourself waking in the forest as the first rays of morning sun cast through the spaces between bark, limb, and leaf.  It may take you to the top of a dune, gazing into the chill starry night, or down a wooded dirt path you've never traversed to a lost meadow, illuminated by moonlight.  Regardless, the celestial - sun, sky, stars, or moon - and terrestrial -sand, dirt, rock, or brush - are key.  Lost In the Glare provides an experience comprised of this duality of energy and its embodiment as our conscious physical form.

This album transcends the mysterious familiarity of its predecessor and provides its own paradox.  Lost In The Glare is more earthly and human than the ethereal, spacey, and mystic Shadowland - its closer to our natural experience.  As it spins it waivers back and forth between two worlds: the physical empirical micro world, and the metaphysical cosmic macro world.  Age old is the contemplation of the spirit, mind, or consciousness and just how it is connected to our corporeal flesh, blood, and bones: the Mind-body Dichotomy.  We can deliberately deny one or the other, but it never quite works...we feel that we denounce a part of ourselves or our experience.

We can assume a strictly physical world of cause and effect, actions and reactions...but what and when was the initial motion?  How did it happen?  What existed before it?  What is our consciousness?  Physics and science is our ever-changing theory to make sense of what we observe.  Very often a scientific breakthrough changes how we think of the world, leaving us in doubt of the "laws" we typically assume and take for granted.

We can also assume a strictly non-physical reality where everything we perceive is a creation of our mind alone...but then why do we experience life the way we do?  Why do all of our sensations and day-to-day passages of time feel so convincing and believable as an external physical world?  Are the other people we encounter in our lives real or just part of our mind's dream as well?  Why would our mind create a world in which we experience pain, disappointment, and so many unknowns?  If this experience originates in our mind why are we unaware that is case?

Lost In The Glare is a sonic expression that, perhaps subconsciously, reflects the human spiritual condition and the problematic duality of the very nature of our existence.  Its pieces wander between the warming, white energy of the celestial sky and the heavy, buzzing energy of the Earth.  The former enters through the scalp and crown, and runs down into the lungs, and pulls up to the heavens - a perfect love and presence represented by the synths, feedback, and airy electric guitars.  The latter vibrates and shimmies its way up through the feet and into the belly, and pulls down to the Earth's center - a massive hearth of rock bisecting two intense magnetic poles represented by the strummed and plucked acoustic strings, rhythmic percussion, and gritty electric tones.  We find ourselves in the middle - sometimes spiritual beings in a spiritual world, and other times physical beings in a physical world.  We try to understand our condition as a bridge connecting our two conceptual worlds, but cannot quite see how it all fits.

Without the personal spiritual revelation that reveals the oneness of these seemingly two different worlds we will forever search.  The problem really isn't a problem, but rather an illusion born of our perception of a duality...the problem is the very duality we think we are experiencing.  We are of the earth and of the cosmos - we are of substance and of space - we are of the same infinite fabric of all that is.  With this realization is also one of the holiness of flesh and the sacred observation of time.  Barn Owl's record reaches far and is an absolutely profound expression, and an astonishing work of art.  It's a set of signposts that point to this singularity, and even momentarily touch upon it by use of the gong and a very fuzzed-drenched guitar.  These two provide timbres that resonate with both earth and celestial energies thusly bringing our two worlds together...but it's just a glimpse.  Indeed, we may find ourselves at the end of our story searching in meditation while the answer lay without - lost in the glare.

The Darkest Night Since 1683 - The earth is lit only by the energy of stars.  A dark night is one in which the sun's light

nearly does not reflect at all from the surface of the Earth's moon, nor the light of other stars reach Earth through a thick veil 

of atmosphere, and perhaps some far off interference in space.  Sometimes we forget the grand scale of conditions that

provide the means for our life and ability to sense the world.