LIGAMENT

"Ligament" is the sixth full-length studio album by Swedish alternative/progressive rock act Paatos. The album was released through Timeloss Records in April 2025. It´s the successor to "V" from 2012, so it´s been 13 long years since we´ve last heard to Paatos and personally I thought they had called it quits. Especially considering that "V" was half new original tracks and half re-arranged versions of older material. It spelled the end for Paatos, but I´m glad to be proven wrong.

Rising from the ashes of progressive rock act Landberk (and also featuring members of Agg) in 2000, who released a couple of solid Swedish progressive rock albums in the early- to mid-1990s, Paatos have released quite a few interesting releases through the years featuring influences from musical genres like progressive rock, jazz/fusion, trip-hop, and alternative rock/hard rock. They are not a high profile act (at least in terms of mainstream success), but they have consistently released good quality material throughout their career.

Stylistically "Ligament" is pretty much the melting pot of all the genres mentioned above and it´s like Paatos never went away. They still produce a melancholic atmosphere with organich (and sometimes busy) drum and bass work, beautiful dark guitar melodies, atmosphere enhancing keyboards/orchestration, and Petronella Nettermalm´s strong voice in front. One of the great strengths of Paatos music is that they never become too nice and polished. This is melodic vers/chorus structured music and you can sing along to the choruses, but Paatos always add a sense of unease and a layer of unpredictability to the songs, which keep the listener on his/her toes and make the songs interesting to return to.

To springle a bit of stardust on your album isn´t a bad idea either and Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth guests on the darkly atmospheric/almost cinematic and slightly progressive/neo-folky "Beyond The Forest" singing a duet with Nettermalm. It´s great to hear Paatos exploring a sound like that, and with great success I might add. Paatos can go from performing subtle mellow songs to performing busy, almost aggessive, and hard hitting tracks like they do between tracks number three and four on the tracklist "I Deny" and "Ligament". It´s a pretty big contrast, but it´s great for the variation of the album, and Paatos pull off playing both styles with the same natural ease. I´d say there are more mellow atmospheric songs featured on the album than the busy ones, so it´s not a 50/50 dynamic. Among the highlights of the album are tracks like "Chemical Escape", "Beyond The Forest", "Last Ones Of Our Kind", and "Who Am I", but "Ligament" is a consistent release in terms of the quality of the songwriting.

The sound production has to be mentioned as "Ligament" features an organic, dynamic, and detailed sound production, which provides all instruments and vocals with room to breathe and to be heard. The many layers of the music are heard clearly in the mix, and "Ligament" overall features a high level production job. Upon conclusion "Ligament" is a good quality comeback for Paatos, and fans of the band´s earlier work can safely push the purchase button. To my ears Paatos are slightly more experimental (and maybe a bit darker too) on this album than they´ve been for a while, and that´s a strength. Not catering to a mainstream audience often brings out the best in a band, and at this point it´s obvious that Paatos aren´t expecting one of their songs to suddenly become a hit, and they therefore write exactly what they feel like writing. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

A band I will always find the time to listen to (more for the hope of hearing the magically-nuanced performances of my favorite drummer of the Naughties). After 13 years (probably focused on raising children), the band returns with a highly-creative effort that would seem to deny that any time has passed at all.

1. "Chemical Escape" (5:53) Huxflux is back! He and Ulf Ivarsson present with an impressively complex high-speed weave from the opening note to the end while Petronella's calming voice characteristically (and magically) counters from the top. Keyboards are also almost always present within the mix as well, sometimes (especially at the end) providing Petronella's only support. (8.875/10)

2. "Beyond The Forest" (5:52) an eery folkish song that feels as if the music is built around the vocals: Petronella and guest Mikael Akerfelt alternating in a duet during the verses and then the faerie-like female choir vocals in the first part of the choruses (full band choir for the second part of the chorus). Drum, bass, synth, and guitar helps drive the song (especially in the fourth minute's drum-and-bass-less instrumental passage) but, again, it feels as if the song could exist as an all vocal a cappella pagan folk song. Interesting but not as engaging as one would have hoped. (8.75/10)

3. "I Deny" (5:02) opening with a beautiful Harold Budd-like arpeggio which is gradually joined by bass, harp, synth strings, and light percussion play. Petronella doesn't enter until the 90-second mark, here singing with an unusually airy-whispery upper-register voice. Gorgeous chords and melodies! Petronella's voice gets a little more forceful for the brief "chorus" recitation of the song title. (9.125/10)

4. "Ligament" (2:09) weird little busy thing that defies categorization--except forthe fact that just about every track, instrument, voice sounds heavily-treated/processed. (4.375/5)

5. "Post War Limina" (2:23) interesting machine/robotic drone-like keyboard and bowed bass piece. (4.375/5)

6. "I'm Letting Go" (5:12) nice rolling tom play with snare hits on "The One" with Peter's droning electric guitar chords and notes and Ulf's active bass play beneath Petronella's strong (invested) vocal. The ambient guitar and/or synth sounds injected between and within the vocal lines are quite cool--as is the multi-voiced chorus near the very end. Cool, effective, and different sounding song. (9/10)

7. "Who Am I" (4:37) jazzy drums open this sounding a lot like some kind of Buddy Rich show from the 1960s or 70s while bass, guitar, and piano inject their long-sustaining minimalistic offerings here and there, providing some kind of chordal cushion for Petronella to sing over. Once again her vocal feels invested, she uses delicacy and power to equal effect--even holding some impressively-long notes with the exposition of the song title. Another song that just flies by and then evaporates as if into thin air! Masterful! (9.25/10)

8. "November" (4:26) guitar, bass, cymbals, all playing with Mark Hollis-like extreme delicacy and sparse dispersal of their offerings--which happens to be just enough for Petronella to deliver one of her signature delicate, vulnerable-yet- elegant vocals. Such impressive skill! (8.875/10)

9. "Last Ones Of Our Kind" (6:10) another solid, masterful song whose weak point, in my estimation, comes in its lyric (which is, unfortunately, lost to me). The music is unusual in its choppy flow but the consistency of this delivery makes it possible to get used to it. Not my favorite song but I cannot deny it's creative strength. (8.75/10)

10. "Svart" (3:59) an unusual song for being build over heavy (almost stark) music that is bass dominated--fully fulling out the low en--while Petronella sings in her light, airy voice over the top. It could have been better had the melodies-- both vocal and instrumental--offered more engaging "hooks" for the listener to sink its teeth into. (I've always had this feeling--especially from the music of this band--that there is something quite foreign, something quite obtuse and inaccessible in the Swedish soul that we Americans cannot ever truly fathom or understand. Paatos is definitely one of the principle bands to leave me with this feeling time after time. I'm not judging [either Swedes or Americans]: just pointing out the consistent trend of my inability to comprehend, much less "like," some of these songs--this despite my understanding and appreciation for their creativity and maturity. They remain . . . "foreign" to me!) (8.75/10)

Total time: 45:43

Wow! After 13 years this is quite an impressive "renaissance" (comeback?) The band's propensity to deliver creative, highly-nuanced and unusual music with lots of unique sound and structural experimentation is as pronounced as ever! It's as if each and every one of the band members has been working super hard each and every day since their last album/tour to improve their skills, to nurture their creativity, to develop and let mature their ideas. I love that Ricard "Huxflux" Nettermalm returns with as impressive (and jazzy) drum work as ever--and that his wife seems as inspired and fully-committed to her performances--to the music--as ever. Yes, Ms. Nettermalm's talents are all on full display: her exquisite skills as honed as ever.

B/four stars; an excellent addition of unusual, often-experimental prog from a highly-skilled ensemble working at the absolute peak of their creative powers.