Spearheaded by the otherworldly voice of Petronella Nettermalm – by turns angelic or demonic but always precise and stunning, the backbone of Paatos’ music is the complex and sophisticated rhythms coming out of Hux Nettermalm’s drum kit which effortlessly fuse advanced time signatures with jazz tinged drum & bass grooves as well as gothic toms and tympani – paired with the equally creative deep grounded and melodically fluid bass lines of Ulf Ivarsson. Add to that Peter Nylander’s beautifully wandering guitar arpeggios and begrimed glam rock chords as well as Mikael Nilzén’s arsenal of keyboards, which regardless of if it is a piano, organ, synthesizer or Mellotron sound like they emanated from some old castle dungeon. No wonder that the band were chosen to compose and perform a new original soundtrack to F.W. Murnau’s classic cinema adaptation of Nosferatu at the Umeå ‘Blood Red’ Festival of Horror Movies.
Ligament will be the band’s seventh studio album, consisting of ten new original compositions recorded in Stockholm in the years following the pandemic. The band produced most of the recording sessions themselves and then brought in Lati Kronlund as co-producer and mix engineer to finalize project. Kronlund, who is best know for his work in the fields of funk, R&B and house music (Al Green, Jody Watley, Alison Limerick, Brooklyn Funk Essentials) may sound like an unlikely choice of producer for Paatos.
“When the band played me the demos, I was blown away”, says Kronlund. “It sounded like early King Crimson and Björk stuck in an elevator. Those are some of my favorite artists, so I jumped at a chance to work on this record”.
“That may be so”, inflicts Ivarsson “But we really don’t like to be compared to other artists, simply because we work so hard at doing our own thing and not copying others. We are way past that stage in our lives”.The Ligament album opens up in full force with Chemical Escape – a lament to the superficial bliss of medical tranquilizers which is followed up by Beyond The Forest – a duet between Petronella and Mikael Åkerfeldt from progressive death metal band. Opeth about the ultimate departure. On the album’s third song, I Deny, we find ourselves in a musical soundscape reminiscent of Italian neo realist cinema with tremolo mandolins and dusty celli accompanying Petronella’s alluring elflike voice. Don’t get too comfortable though, as the progressive punk of Ligament will slap you right in the face. That ligament which is holding all living things together is being eroded and once it is gone, it will all collapse. “And you don’t even feel anymore – believe anymore…” The vinyl album’s B-side opens with I’m Letting Go – a heartbreaking hymn about choosing to opt out. Who Am I and The Last Ones Of Our Kind follow along the same theme total disillusion over life in a world that is falling apart right in front of our eyes. As Petronella sings on the the album closer Svart – “The end is coming near…”
In the past, the band has toured and shared stages with band’s like Van Der Graaf Generator, Porcupine Tree, Magma, The Gathering, Opeth, Lucifer, Riverside and Beardfish.
The summer of 2024 saw Paatos play their first live shows in many years in Sweden and Poland. Recently they played at the Midsummer Prog festival in The Netherlands where they blew the audience away with a captivating performance.