heavy-metal-darkness: Ligation |After Gods |Personal Records

Friday, January 9, 2026

Ligation |After Gods |Personal Records

Release Date: 23 January 2026
Format: CD
Genre: Death Metal, Doom Metal, Experimental Noise
Country: Finland

Ligation comes from Finland and operates as a power trio rooted deep in the underground. The members are no newcomers, carrying experience from acts such as Profetus, Convocation, Sum Of R, and La Murga. Since their formation, Ligation has focused on a warped blend of death metal, doom, and harsh noise aesthetics. Two split releases with Hail Conjurer and Gravavgrav introduced their approach, one built on discomfort, physical pressure, and unorthodox sound sources. These early works framed the band as an entity working outside neat genre lines.

“After Gods” is the band’s debut full length and gathers that material into a larger, more complete form. The album presents death metal and doom filtered through abrasive noise ideas, often sliding into unsettling and oppressive territory. The music relies on abrupt shifts, coarse textures, and twisted phrasing that avoids predictable patterns. The overall sound stays hostile and invasive, more concerned with tension and disturbance than smooth progression.

Across the album, Ligation creates a grim atmosphere that borders on the surreal. The songwriting leans into instability, with sections that crawl, rupture, and reform in strange ways. The inclusion of bonus tracks from the earlier splits deepens the album’s character, adding more layers of chaos and reinforcing the band’s fixation on physical and psychological strain. The result is a work that feels claustrophobic and confrontational, rooted in extremity rather than accessibility.

“After Gods” fits best alongside the more deranged corners of old school experimental death metal and early avant minded extremes. Fans of Pungent Stench, Pan.Thy.Monium, Disharmonic Orchestra, Phlebotomized, Xysmα, and the noisier legacy of Amp Hetamine Reptile will recognize familiar attitudes, even as Ligation push their own unsettling language. The album is not an easy listen, but it offers a clear picture of a band committed to ugliness and abrasion.

Score: 7.0