Describing a band, group, or musical project as transcendental is a dangerously brash decision Without getting into the actual philosophical background of what transcendental means, labeling oneself as such could come off as high self praise. Liturgy is a one man (driven by one Hunter Hunt-Hendrix) black metal project from New York in the States which describes itself as pure transcendental black metal. Given that the idea of a one man black metal project is something which is done by others in the black scene (see Xasthur), Liturgy seemingly forgoes a great deal of the black, bleak, and or dark imagery which pervades much (though not all) of the contemporary black metal scene. And yet, after jawing rhapsodic about things that are not the music, the question still remains: what does Liturgy actually sound like on Immortal Life?
The six recordings on Immortal Life range from what sound like riff reference demos (some guitarists will record a riff or lick that pops in their mind on a mini cassette or mini digital recorder a la Keith Richards and the story behind his writing the Rolling Stones song "Satisfaction") on tracks three and one to more arranged demos of songs that include electronic percussion with varying beats per minute to account for tempo changes, multiple guitar tracks, maybe keyboards, maybe vocals at times, and such found in different stages amongst the four other recordings here. The production on this EP is very lo-fi, almost reaching the kind of quality one could expect when recording a band practice on a boom box. There are moments on Immortal Life where listeners can get a sense of direction for the musical pieces here; while at other times, it is easy to get lost amongst the white noise and vicious vocals that dot the white noise drenching of the EP. Track four brings back the electronic beats with guitars like keyboards and screeching vocals only add feedback to the din of sound, and when the vocals drop out of the mix, there are some moments where Liturgy hits on a sound of sorts to do something with if it was fleshed out a bit more. Track five increases the beats per minute and sounds more together (or rather more distinct like when the dueling guitars are clearly audible) at times than anything else on the CD while at others it just sort of blasts out of speakers in a blizzard of sound. Track six has bits of rhythm guitar peaking out now and then amidst the squealing feedback white noise and electronic beats while Hunt-Hendrix lays out vocals that definitely come from the school of Black Metal.
Immortal Life is easily one of if not the most lo- fi recordings that I have heard on a CD which someone took the time to actually press (as opposed to a burned CD I mean), and the vocals certainly sound like those that other black metal bands utilize. What Liturgy does different on Immortal Life that may set it apart is create music that sounds unlike any form of black metal which I have come across to date. If Hunter Hunt-Hendrix would flesh out some of his ideas a bit more, this might be going somewhere; but as it stands on Immortal Life, Liturgy sounds like a batch of ideas in varying stages of the demo process (even the CD and package itself looks like it is a mock up of a potential layout minus any lyrics rather than a release that someone took time and effort to produce). Aficionados of black metal might be more in tune with this type of release; so it could be worth tracking down if only to hear the potential for taking black metal in different places.
