Ligeia

Bad News

Written by: TL on 02/09/2008 00:25:23

While Ligeia and their sophomore album "Bad News" seem closely affiliated with the screamo and metalcore genres, I can assure you that scenesters prowling around on the lookout for their next identikit fix will choke on this one. Compared to the measly breakdowns and melodic scales trendy amongst their preferred brand of bands, Ligeia's expression is somewhat thicker and more muscular. That being said, if you're a fan of Secret Lives Of The Free Masons' first record or alternatively either He Is Legend or 36 Crazyfists, this might just fit your diet perfectly anyway.

As for a more close-up look at the band's sound, the term metalcore is strictly musically - not fashionably speaking - not totally inadequate. The guitars constantly chug away, focused on grooving and battering rather than melodies when not being torn at in the service of the obligatory breakdowns here and there. As for vocals, singer Keith Holuk mostly inhabit the space between scratched singing and full on yelling, furthering an impression of a pretty raw and straightforward sound and serving as the main reason for my comparison to older Secret Lives Of The Free Masons songs. On a song like "I've Been Drinking", which is coincidentally also probably the best on the album, there's the odd scratchy reference to nu-metal, but things like that are too far in between to really leave their mark on their album.

So for the large part, the raw instrumentation and consistent but unvaried vocal style leave the songs to fend for themselves, which could be alright, but only is on a slightly irregular basis. A song like the aforementioned "I've Been Drinking" has the chorus to tickle your interest, as does the ironic use of profanity in "Teenage Wasteland", but apart from that, the album's strongest selling point is how it differentiates itself from its contemporaries by keeping it real and sticking to a mature sound with more bitter and personal content.

Positive as that may be, that isn't an entirely convincing bargain, even if the album is kept at a concentrated 29 minutes, and while "Bad News" is by no means a bad album, I'm simply going to have to ask for a bit more 'bang for the buck' before I dish out the high grades.

7

Download: I've Been Drinking, Teenage Wasteland, Hoodrat
For The Fans Of: early Secret Lives Of The Free Masons, He Is Legend, 36 Crazyfists, Norma Jean
Listen: myspace.com/ligeia

Release Date 05.08.2008
Ferret Records

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