Liste der Bands Death Metal Ligeia (USA-2) The Conqueror Worm

Ligeia/Nepenthe were a band in the Kansas tradition, one of the more interesting traditions in the U.S. since zombies used to turn in the swamps of the south - but then again that was a completely different thing. The Order From Chaos influence for a band from Kansas City would be inevitable, of course, but these Nepenthe (pre-Ligeia) would also listen quite a bit to classic Swedish necromancy like Treblinka, Grotesque. This was still in the early 90's - sigh - and while I was cursing myself for having missed a local gig with Asphyx at Fryshuset, Nepenthe were preparing their first demo, "The Conqueror Worm". The tape came in '93 and had apart from the title track "Gleaming Eyes of Darkness" and "On the Cheer of an Eternity".
Keep your pens ready because here we have the first line-up change, when vocalist Joe was asked to leave and went ahead to form Serapis. In the talk with Chuck (below) you can read about the circles and schemes concerning Serapis- Ares Kingdom, which is quite and interesting story in itself. However, by now Nepenthe were one singer less but in the bassist Alex we are to find a most remarkable throat with time.
The band attracted label interest already in '94 in "a European label" which I suppose refers to Shivadarshana of Holland, in charge a couple Order From Chaos releases. The original 7"/mcd deal fell apart for whatever irrelevant reasons, but the material for the ep was already recorded and would, in the end, be released by Eternal Darkness in April '96. How any label on earth would find disagreements about releasing something like this is beyond me. I have to fight of Lovecraftian melodrama trying to find words for the corrosive Death Metal with Alex Blume's bestial vocals. Side A has the re-recorded demo song "The Conqueror Worm", and side B has a version of "In The Shrines of the Kingly Dead", one of the rare cover versions with essence that you would find in the decade. All in all a 7" to bless the year it was released.
Before that, in february '95, Nepenthe played their only gig which also was made available as the "Live at Howard's" tape. It is an item worth having and if you concentrate you might be able to hear enough to discern most of their own tracks, the previously mentioned Tiamat cover and also one of Sathanas. The sound is really a bit questionable but what the hell.
For the rest of the year the band was muchly dormant, and it was also around this time that Alex would depart and we would see the remaining two members continuing under the name Ligeia. Pat Brown tells about it in one of the few Ligeia interviews around, in Ilbasha mag #4:
-Yes, (Alex) was the reason why we changed the band name to Ligeia. He cried and cried and cried about changing it, and finally being the nice guy I am, I said "Gee wiz Alex! That sounds like a super duper idea!" My comment didn't seem to phase him as he still continued to cry, so I kept talking. "Don't cry friend we can all be merry and happy if we all live in peace and harmony. How about we all go and listen to some Lord Diabolus, that ought to cheer you up!" So, we ventured inte the dark Overton dungeon and put in the Lord Diabolus "Down There" demo. Well, Alex finally cheered up and we were all happy again. It's har not to feel super duper when listening to the happy upbeat dance tunes of Lord Diabolus!
Well then, Ligeia, now consisting of Pat and Chris, recorded two songs in December '95-January '96 with David Cotton on stand-in bass, which would remain their final session. In the following spring we see Chris spending more time on Vulpecula, playing not only the drums but also the pulsating atmospheric intros of that (now also deceased) band. And the final Ligeia session I spoke of - the songs are quite long but still retain the destructive sound of the 7", and the titles are "Oblivion" and "Cycles of Fire". The lyrics to the former are apparently by Poe, to the latter by Keller. This recording was to be released on cassette through Eternal Darkness in mid '97, as "In Death Overshadow Thee", which somehow ran out in the sand and the material was almost forgotten... I however have heard talk about it being released as a 7" late this year.
~DAVTHVS