H.A.Q.Q.

H.A.Q.Q. is the fourth studio album by the American 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 press release for H.A.Q.Q. describes the record as "a consolidation of the band's sound to date," as well as "Liturgy’s most vulnerable record for Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, addressing anger and struggles around mental health, sexuality, and religion." 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 (track 5, 7, 9), bells (track 5, 6), production
 * Bernard Gann – guitar
 * Tia Vincent-Clark – bass
 * Leo Didkovsky – drums, glockenspiel (track 4, 6)
 * Additional personnel
 * Marilu Donovan – harp (track 1, 3, 6, 8)
 * Lucie Vítková – hichiriki (track 1)
 * Eric Wubbels – piano (track 2)
 * Adam Robinson – ryuteki (track 1)
 * Tadlow Ensemble – strings (track 4, 6)
 * Cory Bracken – vibraphone (track 4, 6)
 * Charlotte Mundy – voice (track 1, 3)
 * Matt Colton – mastering
 * Seth Manchester – mixing