When a disc opens with a track of organs and wind, I usually tend to be turned off. I like organs but not scary ones. The one at Yankee Stadium and the old Chicago Blackhawk arena weren’t scary. Jimmy McGriff and Jack McDuff play sick organ jazz that would put anyone in the mood to watch Shaft or go the roller skating rink. But I was confused as listened to the rest of the disc. I was quick to dismiss this as another bland black metal band, but I was soon overtaken by doom and thoughts about wintry forests. Isn’t that the purpose of these discs? To feel as though you were lost in a forest, in the winter, and quite nude. Maybe it was because I listened to this on an unseasonably cold, rainy day in August. Either way, this disc grew on me.

Although this is disc is labeled as doom metal, I was still under the impression that this was some sort of black metal offshoot. Doom, I thought, were bands that modeled themselves after Celtic Frost or those bands that sounded like Black Sabbath. Khanate, Grief, and Boris are considered doom bands. So it is possible that this label spans quite a larger subsection of underground metal. Eyes of Ligeia play an extremely depressing type of doom that borders on being black metal but it, at times, seems a little perkier than most doom bands. Acutally, some of the riffs are much like some of the ones on Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, with heavy riffs played in E-tuning. The band lies more along the lines of such bands as Funebrarum, Evoken, Disembowelment, and Ceremonium, with nasty, melancholy riffs that seem to go on for hours. At times, it makes me think of the slower, shredded riffs of Incantation’s Mortal Throne of the Nazarene. The riffs are like slow, funeral dirges but there are no parts where there is one note played and held for four minutes, followed by growling over an organ, and then another note. This makes me think of Skeptcism and Esoteric. But this is where the conundrum lies. It is not as though the band suffers from a lack of focus rather the listener is confused by the black metal and doom mixture. It is hard to label such a band. Unlike doom bands like Evoken and Disembowelment, Eyes of Ligeia break into faster, blackish sections that often seem a little out of place. They also lack that bass driven heaviness, thick guitars, and prodding nature that make bands like Evoken appealing to doom fanatics. Eyes of Ligeia play a much cleaner and nowhere near as heavy as those mentioned above but they have their own charm. Although I label it as funeral doom, I make the comparison because it has that depressive quality. The songs, however, do not have that extremely heavy aspect nor does the band make much use of an organ. In addition, the tempo, albeit minor, is faster than most of these bands. I have to mention the tempo or I will feel as though I am giving you a false review. Many of the songs have riffs that move at a bit of a pace but most of the disc is littered with slower, doom sections.

As I said before, the riffs go on for quite a bit and a six minute song may only be comprised of three riffs. But it is a sad disc and makes me think of the time I broke my Lowenbrau glass feelings of hate, sadness, dismay, anger, frustration, despair. This disc has the ability to bring out those feelings. The sound quality isn’t the best but one can easily get the gist of the songs. I would have though this was a rookie release but apparently the band has been around since 1999. According to some internet research, the older material leaned much more towards the doom side, while this makes much more use of black metal elements, especially in the speed. It is not a bad release but one has to enjoy this sort of music to really enjoy it. If any of the bands I mentioned before wet your whistle, this is worth a try.

Written By: Double Ds