Ligeia is the second studio album by Parisian punk rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock band The Dirty Widows. The band is comprised by Joachim Fischer on bass and vocals, Laurenz Hennig on guitars and vocals, and David Stecher on drums.
Slightly over 35 minutes of music, the album opens with the instrumental, spacey, and guitar-driven “Twilight of Ligeia” before kicking full steam with the single “Gravestone”, a punky song with cool guitar work and a 70’s-oriented sound, one of my preferred songs in the album. The sound of the vocals is unique, not accent-wise but in the tonality… like a mix of Perry Farrel, early Ozzy, and Damon Albarn… doomy, atoned and very nasal. “Misery” is a mellower song, like a psychedelic desert rock ballad, nothing important happens but there is a hypnotic soundscape on the back that really helps digesting the thick, dark, and sad melodies… don’t love it but I don’t hate it either.
“The Path of Crime (Part I)” brings back the heavy punky rock sounds, with a Sabbath-like early 70’s heavy metal riff accompanied by the awkward vocal harmonies that work perfectly for the metallic sounding music, a short song that I enjoy a lot. “Shining on Me” is the perfect example of the doomy psychedelic vibe the band seems to be pursuing on their sophomore studio work, stretched middle eastern sounding loops that seem to last forever, slow, heavy, and very atmospheric, like Hawkwind meets The Doors meets Jane’s Addiction, an experimental song that (at least for me) divides the album in a less-good half and a better half. “Trapped Inside” could perfectly fit any early punk album, it reminds me of “Lust for Life” by The Stooges or a live recording of The Ramones from the late 70’s, the overall production of the album is not that good, it could beneficiate of better production values… but this is also garage punk right?... “Daydream” is yet another spacey and middle eastern sounding song with a light grungy percussion, fortunate enough is barely 2 plus minutes so it rapidly flows before we get to one of the best songs in the album, part two for “The Path of Crime”, this time following on that same psychedelic vibe of the slow songs but somehow approaching that progressive rock element so present in bands such as Eloy and early Pink Floyd, the same type of blooming vibe that will be also present and further developed on my favorite song, “Kneel and Cry…”, a song that brings together various influences and has the more progressive elements so far. Another Iommy-inspired opening, so Sabbath-like that even the vocals really sound like Ozzy, then a brief but very cool step into that Eloy and Pink Floyd territory previously mentioned, before coming back to the haunting doom metal finishing. Last there’s the also instrumental closer “Dawn if Ligeia” where beautiful acoustic guitars and bass intricately navigate on top of the very well executed percussion, dark but folky, nice. This album finds a band developing their own sound with a more diverse album than the debut, more experimentation, and better songs.
Track Listing:
- Twilight of Ligeia (1:17)
- Gravestone (2:59)
- Misery (4:18)
- The Path of Crime (Part I) (2:22)
- Shining on Me (7:15)
- Trapped Inside (2:16)
- Daydream (2:45)
- The Path of Crime (Part II) (4:42)
- Kneel and Cry/Dul Go Hifreann/Hell’s Cold (5:49)
- Dawn of Ligeia (1:27)
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