Brooklyn-based transcendental black metal quartet Liturgy are back with their first new release since 2015’s The Ark Work. The eight-minute “God of Love,” which it is TMT’s honor to premiere here, is an absolutely searing return to form that sees the band dishing out some of their most hard-hitting and emotional music to date.
Front and center in “God of Love” are the wild howls and screeching guitars of bandleader Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, supported here by a reformed group that includes original guitarist Bernard Gann, new bassist Tia Vincent-Clark, and drummer Leo Didkovsky, who replaces Greg Fox, the drummer for Liturgy’s first three albums. Between its rhapsodic strings, cascading harp, and thunderous wall of drums, this new track sees the band finding yet another new paradigm in their legacy of avant-garde metal.
“God of Love” is available to purchase exclusively via Bandcamp , but you can also stream it here:
The new single comes alongside a tour announcement. After a string of informal warm-up shows, Liturgy’s first official show back takes place Friday, September 6 at New York’s Market Hotel, where they’ll be supported by Deli Girls, Child Abuse, Sadaf, and TBHQ. A short tour will follow in November, the dates of which surround the long-awaited West Coast premiere of Hunt-Hendrix’s opera Origin of the Alimonies on November 16 at REDCAT in Los Angeles. From the press release:
The opera, Origin of the Alimonies, collides metal, classical, and trap music, in a meditation on the origin of all things. It follows OIOION and SHEYMN, a pair of divine beings whose thwarted love tears a wound from which civilization is generated, producing the Four Alimonies of the intelligible universe and the task of collective emancipation. This performance is the prologue to a multi-part opera cycle titled OIOION featuring video, choreographed movement and a twenty-piece amplified chamber orchestra comprising Liturgy and the Sonic Boom ensemble.
It’s unclear whether Liturgy aims to release a new album, but the band promises new music on the tour. If “God of Love” is any indication, a new album from Liturgy may see the ethos of their 2011 masterpiece Aesthetica channeled into a gripping new form.
Liturgy dates + Origin of the Alimonies show:
09.06.19 - Brooklyn, NY - Market Hotel #
11.09.19 - San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
11.10.19 - Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon
11.16.19 - Los Angeles, CA - REDCAT $
11.17.19 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
11.19.19 - Portland, OR - Paris Theater
11.20.19 - Seattle, WA - Highline
# Deli Girls, Child Abuse, Sadaf, TBHQ
$ West Coast debut of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s opera, Origin of the Alimonies
More about: Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Liturgy
