93696
Since the release of 2011’s *Aesthethica*, Brooklyn’s Liturgy have positioned themselves as a kind of black-metal band for listeners indifferent to the conventions of black metal—a stance no doubt aggravated by the self-consciously obscure philosophies of frontperson Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix, who has done as much to poke the genre as she has to expand it. At 82 minutes, *93696* probably isn’t the kind of album you’ll listen to in one sitting, but its weird juxtapositions of flute fragments (“Red Crown II”), choral arrangements (“Angel of Sovereignty”), and black-metal comfort food (“Djennaration”) are provocative in any measure. Ambitious, but immediate, too.
On a wildly ambitious 80-minute opus, Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix’s shapeshifting metal band reaches its most radiant incarnation yet.
Every artistic decision and mark of evolution that Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix has made under the umbrella of Liturgy has been in service of her qu...
Jack Terry reviews the new album from the ambitious rock collective Liturgy! Read the review of '93696' here on Distorted Sound!
A review of 93696 by Liturgy, available worldwide March 24th via Thrill Jockey Records
Already noted for their determination to challenge themselves and their listeners, Liturgy's 93696 shows them refusing to settle for less when more is possible.
The title of Liturgy’s sixth studio album is a translation of ‘heaven’ via Thelemic numerological interpretation. Thelema, founded by Aleister Crowley in the early 1900s, is a social, spiritual, and occult philosophy that’s underpinned by the concept of will/desire. Yet this is more than just a concept record, this is a way of life for
93696 comprises a cavalcade of everything the transcendental black metal of Liturgy has to offer, and then some.