Liturgy

Manifestos, especially in relation to music, have a tendency to be a little much. Who really cares about the political justification behind a rock and roll song if it doesn’t rock and/or roll? Fortunately, Liturgy, the Brooklyn-based transcendental metal band, both rocks and rolls, so the band’s “pseudo-academic rethinking” screed on its genre gets a free pass. Aesthetica, the band’s second record, blends black metal with experimental music, creating a fierce wall of screaming sound. It’s unrelenting, impressive, and likely to win over even the most novice metalhead. It runs the gamut of metal, too. Opener “High Gold” is flush with blast beats and wails while tracks like “Generation” creep by a little more methodically, nearly approaching stoner track status.

Updated 09/06/2011