Hunt-Hendrix cares about everything – the state of black metal, the nature of the universe, the meaning of life… the whole shebang. You can hear the size of her thoughts and desires on this truly stunning record, this genuine opera.

Full Review

Best of 2020

Worst of 2020

Recent Reviews

Beats Per Minute

This is how Liturgy were always destined to end up – producing a work of such complete and utter, bewildering wonderment. But nobody expected it to be this good.

Liturgy's latest is a metaphysical big bang, turning Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's theological philosophy into a multifaceted experimental metal opera.

There is no better branding for Origin of the Alimonies than operatic. It’s a titanic work that runs just under 40 minutes and is frightening in its originality.

The black metal firebrands achieve a rapturous synthesis of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s philosophical pontifications and musical obsessions.

The quieter moments on Origin are far from delicate. This is a story of pain, transformation, redemption and love.

Full Review

Popular User Reviews

View All

Chode

Late into last year, Liturgy came through with a late contender for the decade’s best black metal record. That record saw Liturgy take us through this black metal odyssey that sounded like the soundtrack to the apocalypse. Incredibly hyper and loud riffs alongside some blood-curdling vocals landed all across that project. The whole thing felt like it was telling a story with its crushing guitars and glitch-infused elements. The reason why I’m talking so much about H.A.Q.Q. is ... read more

1y*

Micky T

I don't really know what to make of the new Liturgy album 'Origin of the Alimonies', on one hand I can respect what this album tries to achieve with its avant-garde nature, there are some pretty solid moments in its tracklist and all in all it sounds good, but a lot of this just seems like a forced aesthetic, by that I mean it's avant-garde for the sake of being avant-garde. Not much of what Liturgy does on here really sticks with me and it feels like monotony to the next degree, it mostly ... read more

dominic :)

Uh... hmmm. Yeah... hmmmmmmmmm.

Yeah, I'm not too sure how to feel about this one. I've heard a lot about Liturgy these past couple of years, with their insanely popular HAQQ coming out last year and taking the music community by storm. I still need to check that thing out, but after listening to this, I'm not sure I want to... while I did enjoy some of the ideas present here, man this was a hard listen, and I usually don't feel that way about stuff like this. Take Xiu Xiu's Girl With Basket ... read more

More popular reviews

Recent User Reviews

View All

JoopK

This is a good mix of opera and black metal, but it left me wanting more. I wish the vocals were a little more interesting and sometimes the songs do drag on a bit.

1mo

scoutcoker

a bit more string-y and spacious than HAQQ, rather than going back and forth between musical highs and lows, it really builds as it goes along. penultimate track felt a little too long for me but i adored the album's ending

particular favs: The Separation of HAQQ from HAEL, The Fall of SHIEYMN, SHIEYMN's Lament, The Armistice

10mo*

aussiethetenor

One of the most exhausting things I've ever listened to, and not in a complementary way. It gives nothing back for the energy it takes to merely listen to it. I never post on here but this irritated me that much.

11mo

More recent reviews

Purchasing Origin of the Alimonies from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?