Sabbath Assembly returns with their third album, Quaternity.
What is missing from the Christian concept of “trinity”? Carl Jung suggests that the fourth element is what many reject – the evil in our nature; or by another view, the feminine, which throughout Church history has been equated with evil and duly suppressed. To restore this element to the trinity creates Quaternity, which in William Blake’s Proverbs of Hell represents “the fourfold nature of man and his relationship to the divine.”
Side A of Quaternity the album begins with a look at the four deities worshipped in the theology of the Process Church of the Final Judgment -- Christ, Jehovah, Lucifer, and Satan –each tune providing the deity with its own voice, unmediated by Christian prejudice. Lucifer is again the light bearer, Satan the source of primal strength, Jehovah the vengeful destroyer, and Christ the master of death.
Side B explores another four: the horsemen of the apocalypse of Revelations. This intricate, sidelong piece was conceived in anticipation of 12/21/12. For those who got the 7” last year, this is the full 20-minute version.
Quaternity is primarily acoustic in format, with an array of classical percussion and strings creating an entirely new sound for the band. Unlike its predecessors Restored to One and Ye Are Gods, Quaternity offers a majority of original material with inspiration from the Process found primarily in the lyrics. One exception is the completely unpublished “Lucifer,” shared with the band over the telephone via former Processian Anthony D’Andrea, who had contacted the band complaining that they were not “getting the hymns right.” Thanks to Mr. D’Andrea, whose rendition can be heard in part at the top of the track.
Quaternity once again features Jamie Myers on vocals and Dave “Xtian” Nuss on percussion. Special guests on the album include Daron Beck of Pinkish Black accompanying Jamie on vocals, Kevin Hufnagel of Gorguts on guitar, Mat McNerney and Marja Konttinen of Hexvessel reciting sacred texts, liturgical chanting by Jessika Kenney, bass from Colin Marston of Behold… The Arctopus, and organ from “Nameless Void” of Negative Plane.