Liturgy’s The Ark Work is a record built on contradiction. It wants to sound like a church service and a death metal band at once, and mostly manages both. The New York black metal outfit spent years refining a sound that mixes clean singing, classical instrumentation and harsh vocals into something that refuses to sit still. This is their second full-length, and it plays like a statement of intent dressed up as a concept album about a fictional kingdom called Valhaal. Whether that concept lands is debatable. What isn’t is the ambition behind it.
Opening With Fanfare
The album starts with “Fanfare,” a 2:21 instrumental that sets the tone without saying much. It’s a brief, ceremonial introduction, the kind of thing that works better as a live opener than as a first track on a record. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it also doesn’t grab you by the throat.
“Follow” picks the pace back up at 3:30. It’s the first real song, and it leans into the band’s signature blend of clean and harsh vocals over a driving rhythm. It’s competent, but it feels like setup for what comes next.
“Kel Valhaal” is where the record finally starts to earn its runtime. At 7:10, it’s the longest track before the middle stretch, and it builds from a slow, ominous crawl into something closer to a full-throated black metal assault. The clean singing here is more restrained, used as texture rather than melody, and the track carries real weight.
“Follow II” runs 7:29 and functions as a direct sequel to the earlier “Follow.” It’s the longest track on the first half of the record, and it earns that length through a patient build that pays off in a final push. It’s not the best song here, but it’s the clearest example of Liturgy doing what they do best: taking a simple riff and stretching it until it snaps.
“Quetzalcoatl” is shorter and sharper at 4:48. It’s one of the more immediate tracks on the record, with a riff that cuts through the haze of the band’s usual production. The clean singing is front and center, and the track feels less like a conceptual exercise and more like a pure statement of intent.
Father Vorizen Through Reign Array
“Father Vorizen” is the longest track on the album at 5:58, and it’s the centerpiece of the middle section. It’s slower, more atmospheric, and it trades the band’s usual aggression for a sense of dread. The clean singing here is the most prominent it’s ever been, and the track leans heavily on a sense of ritual that recalls the band’s earlier work.
“Haelegen” is the shortest track at 4:02, and it’s one of the more straightforward songs on the record. It’s a riff-driven piece that doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it serves as a palate cleanser after the denser tracks around it.
“Reign Array” is the longest track on the whole record at 10:27, and it’s the one that best captures the full scope of Liturgy’s ambitions. It starts slow, builds into a choral peak, and then crashes back down into a punishing finale. It’s the track where the band’s classical influences are most obvious, and it’s the highlight of the album.
Vitriol And Total War
“Vitriol” is a strong, mid-tempo track at 5:21. It’s not as ambitious as the longer pieces around it, but it’s one of the more immediately satisfying songs on the record. The clean singing is used sparingly here, and the track leans more on the band’s black metal roots.
“Total War” closes the album at 5:05. It’s a fitting end, a track that sums up everything the record was trying to do without overstaying its welcome. It’s not a grand finale in the way “Reign Array” is, but it provides a sense of closure that the preceding hour of music earned.
Ranking The Tracks
- “Reign Array”
- “Kel Valhaal”
- “Follow II”
- “Father Vorizen”
- “Total War”
- “Quetzalcoatl”
- “Vitriol”
- “Haelegen”
- “Follow”
- “Fanfare”
The Verdict
Liturgy is a dense, ambitious record that rewards patience and punishes skimmers. The longer tracks — “Kel Valhaal,” “Reign Array,” “Father Vorizen” — are where the band’s ideas come together most fully, and they’re some of the best metal being made today. The shorter tracks are solid but forgettable, and the concept that ties everything together sometimes gets in the way of the music itself.
The production is dense and layered, and it can be exhausting over a full listen. But the best moments — the peaks in “Reign Array,” the tension in “Father Vorizen” — justify the effort. This is a band working at the edge of what black metal can be, and even when it doesn’t land, it’s rarely boring.
- Fanfare2:21
- Follow3:30
- Kel Valhaal7:10
- Follow II7:29
- Quetzalcoatl4:48
- Father Vorizen5:58
- Haelegen4:02
- Reign Array10:27
- Vitriol5:21
- Total War5:05
