Ligeia – Your Ghost Is A Gift

I was very surprised by this band. This CD was sent to me and I’d never before heard a single song by these guys. So expecting to hear some kind of generic “screamo” band, I listened to it expecting the worst. Then, to my delight, they turned out to be pretty good. The band ultimately sounds metalesque but they have melodic vocals. It seemed to me like mixing Poison The Well with Scarlet, so I enjoyed it. But at times, the melodic vocals seemed to get poppy and annoying (at this particular moment, the song Heart Attack is bugging me). But for the most part, I’ve enjoyed the vocals, I’m probably just not in the mood to listen to this type of music, and that will probably reflect on this review. But I digress. The main vocals are fairly harsh, but at times can remind me of Atreyu, and since I really hate Atreyu, this is a bad thing. But unlike Atreyu, the sound of the vocals is changed up. At points it will begin to remind me of Zao or even Shattered Realm. So they redeem themselves for most of the poppy songs. The guitarist is pretty good; he sure knows how to play. In one song he’ll be playing a wild riff to go along with the fast paced song, then in the next song it’s a heavy breakdown. Although I’m not a fan of “heavy” breakdowns, because they get chuggy, I’m sure someone out there will appreciate them. The bass was just inaudible to my untrained ear and me, so don’t judge me if you can hear it and I can’t. Then there’s the drummer, who has a double kick that gets going at astounding speeds. Along with numerous changes in the beat, he was impressive to listen to. Ligeia just came off as a very talented band. I only have a few things that bothered me on this album. One I already covered, and that was the melodic vocals could get irritating and remind me of shitty bands that the faux-emo kids listen to. The other thing was the lyrics; they’re just kind of generic. I realize that it’s hard to come up with something new to write about, but writing about angry lost love, it gets old. It’s a damn good thing this band makes up for it in musical talent.

I’d recommend this album to anyone who enjoys the metal influenced hardcore. Although I have the distinct feeling that it’s only a matter of time before this band cuts the screamers vocal input down and bends over to receive some good ol’ corporate record deal. But until then, most people who listen to metal influenced hardcore (as I already said) will probably like this, as well as anyone that enjoys “screamo.” Even though this wasn’t a generic “screamo” album, it wasn’t very far off from becoming one (not the generic part, just the screamo). So go and buy or listen to a song off of this if you fell into one of the categories I recommended or if you have irrational amounts of money that your parents give you to piss away on CD’s, food, methemphetamines, etc.