The Ark Work
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''The Ark Work'' is the third studio album by American rock band
Liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...
. It was released on March 24, 2015 through
Thrill Jockey Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...
record label. The first single off the album, "Quetzalcoatl" was released digitally on January 20, 2015.


Background

Following the release of the band's second album, '' Aesthethica'', Liturgy toured as a duo, only featuring the band leader
Haela Hunt-Hendrix Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix (formerly Hunter Hunt-Hendrix; born January 25, 1985), also known as HHH, is an American musician and composer best known for her work as a creator, lead singer, and guitarist of experimental black metal band Liturgy. ...
and guitarist Bernard Gann. During this period, Hunt-Hendrix planned the album by herself for a couple of years and expressed a desire to move away from its standard “transcendental black metal” style, to incorporate more “
electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...
elements.” In 2014, the former band members, bassist Tyler Dusenbury and drummer Greg Fox, rejoined the band to record the upcoming third studio album. ''The Ark Work'' was announced on January 20, 2015 and the press release of the album describes it as featuring "cross-fertilizing
hardstyle Hardstyle is an electronic dance music, electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), har ...
beats, occult-oriented rap, and the glitched re-sampling of IDM."


Reception

The album received polarised receptions from critics and fans alike. ''
Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. History ''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...
'' gave the album a B− and said it was "triumphant and interesting enough to keep fans satisfied", though also noted the album will raise "the question the band has prompted before: Is this even black metal?" ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'', which awarded the album a B+, called the album "more progressive and polarizing than ever" and "a singular musical achievement". ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' suggested that the album found the band truly developing its own sound and, while not free of criticisms, observed, "The band knows its virtues and works them hard". ''
NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
'' stated that with this album, Hunt-Hendrix " ascome closer than ever to realizing" her goal of creating transcendental black metal. ''
PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...
'' shared this opinion; while they criticised the album's lyrics, they effusively praised other aspects of the album, saying, "it manages to capture Hunt-Hendrix’s aesthetic vision without feeling like it’s reaching to tack on a philosophy to its adventurous music. The record truly feels like Transcendental Black Metal". ''
Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...
'' gave it a mixed review, rating the album at 6.4 out of 10 and praising Greg Fox' performance and the first five songs but criticising Hunt-Hendrix' vocals as monotonous and the album as overlong. ''
Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...
'' shared this reaction, opening their 3/10 review with "Guys, Liturgy is fully
trolling In slang, a troll is a person who posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a internet forum, forum, a chat room, an Multiplayer video game, online video game) or who performs similar be ...
us." The album currently has a score of 63 on
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


Track listing


Personnel


Liturgy

*
Haela Hunt-Hendrix Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix (formerly Hunter Hunt-Hendrix; born January 25, 1985), also known as HHH, is an American musician and composer best known for her work as a creator, lead singer, and guitarist of experimental black metal band Liturgy. ...
– vocals, guitar, electronics * Bernard Gann – guitar * Tyler Dusenbury – bass guitar * Greg Fox – drums, percussion


Other musicians

* Daniel Blacksberg –
trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
* Josh Millrod –
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
* Caley Monahon-Ward –
violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
* Andrew Forbes –
bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, N ...


Other personnel

* Frank Musarra – producer,
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
* Jonathan Schenke – engineer, mixing * Jason Ward – mastering * Jacqueline Castel – photography * Navi – photography * Zev Deans – image development * Kayla Guthrie – text


References


External links


''The Ark Work'' on Thrill Jockey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ark Work, The 2015 albums Liturgy (band) albums Thrill Jockey albums