Liturgy‘s new LP The Ark Work is getting set for release on March 24th via Thrill Jockey, so let’s take a listen to “Reign Array“, the band’s most recent offering from the upcoming record. While Hunter Hunt-Hendrix‘s manifesto Transcendental Black Metal: A Vision of Apocalyptic Humanism, delivered at the Hideous Gnosis Black Metal Theory symposium in 2009, and considered a companion piece to the band’s album from that year, Renihilation, did, indeed, cause quite a backlash for the group, the songwriter’s polemics have ultimately been a galvanizing force for the quartet. For those who’d like to know more, Pitchfork currently as a very interesting interview with the band regarding the issue, and how it’s come to shape the group in the intervening years.
Liturgy’s desire to push black metal in new directions has resulted in something that is not really black metal anymore, and that’s great–genre purists be damned. On “Reign Array” you can hear the band’s interest in something like Medieval sacred music or Romantic classical, as well as their desire to include traditionally “un-metal” instruments like bagpipes creeping in to create a sonic analogue to black metal that is, ultimately, informed by a more “light” driven orientation–even while borrowing it’s more bombastic techniques. The result is that, rather than a downward descent into the gnostic depths, Liturgy employs the genre’s techniques to create a totalizing intensity that seems to be an unmistakeably rising force, instead!
Liturgy kicks off a massive US and European tour this coming April. Here, are those dates…
April 2 – Washington, DC – DC9 http://bit.ly/1DdIN8n
April 3 – Philadelphia, PA – The Boot & Saddle http://ticketf.ly/1JQIsuf
April 4 – Raleigh, NC – Kings http://bit.ly/1Bv1jJt
April 5 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade http://bit.ly/1BvekTo
April 7 – Austin, TX – http://bit.ly/1zr2mMQ
April 8 – Dallas, TX – Club Dada http://bit.ly/1z6WWU2
April 9 – Kansas City, MO – Record Bar http://ticketf.ly/1yLPsqr
April 10 – Chicago, IL – Subterranean http://tktwb.tw/1yrScoh
April 11 – Oberlin, OH – Dionysus Disco
April 15 – Brooklyn, NY – Saint Vitus http://ticketf.ly/1EoWpBi
April 27 – Vancouver, BC – Electric Owl http://tktwb.tw/1A6ZCVo
April 28 – Seattle, WA – Neumos http://bit.ly/1IcBGUj
April 29 – Portland, OR – Dante’s http://tinyurl.com/lta48bj
April 30 – Sacramento, CA – Press Club
May 1 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel http://bit.ly/1yQLR7b
May 2 – Oakland, CA – Leo’s Music Club http://bit.ly/1KyolkZ
May 3 – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex http://ticketf.ly/1v5sJ3T
May 4 – Santa Ana, CA – Constellation Room http://tinyurl.com/m2z363w
May 5 – San Diego, CA – Casbah http://tinyurl.com/lf285jg
May 25 – Berlin, Germany – Kantine am Berghain
May 26 – Malmo, Sweden – Inkonst
May 27 – Oslo, Norway – Bla
May 28 – Stockholm, Sweden – Kagelbanan
May 29 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Jazzhouse
May 30 – Hamburg, Germany – Kampnagel
May 31 – Leipzig, Germany – UT Connewittz
June 1 – Vienna, Austria – Arena
June 2 – Munich, Germany – Feierwerk
June 3 – Cologne, Germany – Studio 672
June 4 – Zurich, Switzerland – Bogen F
June 5 – Schorndorf, Germany – Manufaktur
June 8 – Brussels, Belgium – AB
June 9 – Paris, France – Espace B
June 10 – Brighton, UK – Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
June 11 – London, UK – Electrowerkz
June 13 – Birmingham, UK – Supersonic Festival
June 14 – Diksmuide, Belgium – 4AD
June 15 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – OCCII
June 19 – Toronto, ON – Opera House (NXNE)
June 20 – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz PDB http://bit.ly/1CsOVes
June 21 – Allston, MA – Great Scott http://bit.ly/1CIXqT7
July 17/18 – Eau Claire, WI – Eaux Claires
