H.A.Q.Q. is the fourth studio album by the American black metal band Liturgy. It was released on November 12, 2019 as a surprise digital release, and physically in February 2020 through main artist Haela Hunt-Hendrix's label YLYLCYN. It was primarily recorded and produced in August 2019.
Background and concept The album title is an acronym for "Haelegen above Quality and Quantity". Haelegen is a function within Hunt-Hendrix's belief system, which she previously explored through the record New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala (2016); this belief system is expressed as a diagram on the cover of the album.
The album is tied to an ongoing series of philosophical lectures by Hunt-Hendrix on YouTube, which details the system of concepts portrayed by the diagram on its cover.
Critical reception
Pitchfork gave the album a 7.6 out of 10, calling it "their most aggressive and radical album yet." H.A.Q.Q. was ranked #30 of 2019 by fans on Rate Your Music, and Kerrang! called it one of the ten best surprise-released rock albums of all time.
Track listing
All track titles are stylized in all uppercase.
Personnel Liturgy Haela Hunt-Hendrix – guitar, vocals, electronics, piano , bells , production Bernard Gann – guitar Tia Vincent-Clark – bass Leo Didkovsky – drums, glockenspiel Additional personnel Marilu Donovan – harp Lucie Vítková – hichiriki Eric Wubbels – piano Adam Robinson – ryuteki Tadlow Ensemble – strings Cory Bracken – vibraphone Charlotte Mundy – voice Matt Colton – mastering Seth Manchester – mixing
References