Liturgy
“Quetzalcoatl”
The Ark Work (out 3/24 on Thrill Jockey)
No strangers to describing their music in embarrassing fashion, the Brooklyn kinda sorta black metallers detail their new album as a combination of “cross-fertilizing hardstyle beats, occult-oriented rap, and the glitched re-sampling of IDM.” Luckily, their third album’s lead single sounds nothing like any of those cringeworthy, imagined genres and really nothing like anything else coming out today. Hypnotic and swirling, “Quetzalcoatl” opens with vocalist/leader Hunter Hunt-Hendrix abandoning his wild shrieks for a monotonic drone, which is draped over tremolo picked guitar, Salem-esque drum pads, and MIDI strings. The tune really picks up at the 1:45 mark, when the drum machine is replaced by the razor technicality of expert skinsman Greg Fox. The song builds to an overwhelming crescendo that will either leave you reaching for the playback button or never listening to it again. They’ve always been a Marmite band, but it feels like The Ark Work is set to be their most divisive record yet.
