Liturgy – Aesthethica

I’ll start by saying this, black metal has always been the one genre in music that moved me the most emotionally. It gives me a sense of struggle, coldness and provides atmospheres that no other genres can build. When I want insanely distorted guitar riffs, haunting growls and blast beats that make my chest vibrate, I put on a black metal record. To most of the outside world, black metal is nothing more than a joke genre that takes itself way to serious with it’s corpse paint and fake satanic attitudes. So what happens when you have group of four guys that want to change everything there is to do with black metal and it’s roots? You get Liturgy, a New York four piece that plays “Transcendental Black Metal”. (Make sure you check the link, it’ll explain my rambling.)

Now, while I’m a fan of anything that includes noise, feedback, huge amounts of distortion and anything that will make my ears bleed in joy, “Aesthethica”, is not even close to that. “Aesthethica”, the the sophomore release from Liturgy, is a record that stuck me with great hope from the beginning. “Aesthethica” is a twelve track, one hour and five minute journey through hell, and trust me, you’ll want out as soon as possible. The first track “High Gold” has promise and it fed me all the things I needed in a black metal track. Atmosphere that made me think of cold as hell winters and soaring riffs that made me almost cream inside my basketball shorts. Five minutes later, we’re on our way to the second track “True Will”, you better buckle yourself in and get a puke bucket because you’ll need both, my friends. “Aesthethica” gives you more then you need on a black metal record.

When I say that, I mean it gives you loops of worthless bullshit that I can hear from some folk/acoustic record that was created by two guys sitting around a fire. I never understand the fascination with people trying make things their own but at the same time I can respect it, Liturgy just went a little too far with this record. Feeding me absolute vomit on the track “Generation”, where they literally play the same drum pattern and riffs over and over and over and over until they decide to shove some breakdowns in my face. Yes, black metal with breakdowns, are you sure you want to listen to a track that goes on for seven fucking minutes only to realize you could of cut your own neck and enjoyed that much more?

As the record progresses and you get more of a massive headache from these worthless pieces of shit “musicians”, you start to think to yourself, “Is this the worst thing I’ve ever heard?”. The answer to that question is yes, yes it is. With the electronic sections on the track “Helix Skull”, all the way to the sludge/doom riffs that are played in “Veins of God”, you can’t help think that these guys make such shitty black metal. Honestly, the riffs that are used on “Veins of God” are not bad at all, at least I enjoyed them to the point that it was my favorite track on the record. Nearly finishing the record, you get excited that you are finally towards the end of this wretched, scumbag of a record. It’s sort of like those video games you played as a kid, as much as you hated some of them you still had to have the sense of accomplishment for beating the shit out of the final boss. “Glass Earth”, the second to last track on the record, is that final boss we were just talking about. The whole track you just hear the same looped hums from the vocalist. It’s a solid fucking three minutes of him just humming like a he was a small child that didn’t take his medicine that morning.

I’m not bashing the guys because they wanna “experiment” or whatnot but when a band labels themselves in the genre of black metal, I want fucking destruction and so much evil that Satan himself will visit me just to shake my hand. I do not want yodeling and electronic loops that some fourteen year old would worship like it’s the best thing ever recorded. I hate the word “hipsters” but if this is what kids are trying to do with black metal, stay the fuck out and please just go back to your V-neck shirts and sunglasses that seem to want to wear inside to look “cool”.

So, what have we gathered from this review? I’ve learned that I can sort of rant in a review but still get my point across. You’ve learned that if you trust my reviews, this record is beyond garbage and I wouldn’t wipe my ass with it. Lastly, I would go as far to say that I would rather listen to the new Morbid Angel record than this again. I’m not bullshitting with you either when I say that.

Official Facebook. Official Myspace. Official Last.fm. Buy the shitty record here.