Artist: Ligament
Country: USA
Label: Headsplit Records
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025
Yes, I can be a sour old guy for whom things are not easily good enough, but there are times when the young boy in me awakens. Just say “this demo features someone who once spent half a day in Hemdale” and I start wagging my tail. Ligament is such a band. A brand new outfit from Cleveland, Ohio, USA that features members with past and present activities in bands such as Abraded, Corpse Desecration and a lot of other. Oh, and Hemdale. There’s one from Hemdale as well.
It might surprise nobody that the name of the game for Ligament is also gory Death Metal. Goregrind-drenched Death Metal to be exact. Not exactly a rare formula, but most of the bands venturing in these directions are doing okay, but not much more than that. They forget that even in this particular musical niche some degree of song writing and dynamics are a mandatory ingredient to stand out from the pack. Shifting in pace, vocals, fast and furious riffs as well as swinging grooves, ghoulish and pitchshifted vocals and not the least: a thoroughly murky production. All is needed in equal measures to get something that is actually really worth your time.
Ligament is such a band. In less than ten minutes the trio crank out four tracks on the finest gory Death Metal. Not in the least original, all the obligatory elements are in place and the band just seem to mimic their favourite acts. Not sure about it, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find Dahmer, Mesrine, Necrony, General Surgery, Machetazo and, yes, Hemdale records in these guys’ record collections. Some riffs even feel reminiscent to late 90’s Cannibal Corpse, which pretty much points out the crossbreed between groove-laden Goregrind with the basic aesthetics of Death Metal’s most brutal cornerstones.
If you feel like you’re in the mood for some non-trendy Death/Grind, maybe slightly similar to the ongoing Undergang-worship fashion but definitely not completely aligned, then Ligament’s fine debut demo tape could be a great thing to pick up. I did mention there was a guy from Hemdale in here as well, right?
