Sailing the Seas of Fate

This is the seconding offering from Canadian one man band SIG:AR:TYR and the first release to be a full album. This album expands the band's horizons past the classical guitar and ambient keyboards that made up their debut demo. This one features electric guitars playing mean metal riffs and catchy melodic leads. It even features a bit of black metal vocals.

This album is mostly instrumental. Only two songs include Daemonskald's tortured black metal rasps and the only other vocals on the album are half whispers and narration, which are used in only a small number of songs. The instrumental aspect of this album is killer. From the catchy riff and medieval sounding interlude of the first song to the palm muted chugging and subtle classical guitar of the last song, the instrumental parts always display a high level of musicianship. Everything from the Malmsteen influenced guitar solos to the steady drums are well played. Keep in mind that it is all one guy playing every single instrument on the album. It is no small task for one man to take on the duties of an entire band. Most of the album is catchy or at least pleasant sounding, with the exception of the discordant atmosphere of Urd.

Just like their demo, this album evokes viking imagery in my head. The calm acoustic guitar passages makes me think of them sailing at sea. The faster black metal songs produces images of glorious battles in my mind. The epic feel to the riffs on songs such as "Under a Dragon Star," only adds to the triumphant battle vibe. And of course, the viking themed narration also keeps the viking vibe going.

Despite this being a great album I do have some complaints. First of all this album is in desperate need of more vocals. The majority of the album is instrumental and vocals are featured quite rarely. Having a few more songs with black metal vocals would be a very nice addition to this album. While the classical guitars are very beautiful they are repetitive and sound almost exactly as the ones that made up most of The Stranger demo. Despite these few minor shortcomings, this is still a good albums, especially considering that this is the first one.

Listening to this masterpiece of nature-inspired music, I almost can feel those weird scents brought from the sea by the wind, which might have been felt in those entirely pure ancient times. It is strange enough these stormy days...

SIG:AR:TYR is an one-man project, hailing from Canada, and this is the second full-lenght, coming up with nine brilliant songs. In spite of Daemonskald was working alone, everything is put into harmony on the recording. The riffs are very accurate, there is nothing to be considered as unnecessary, all is absolutely in its place from the aspect of the song-structures. The acoustic parts are really tasteful and varied, well-balanced with the distorted riffs.

I am usually a bit averse to the music which is – mainly or partly – labeled as 'ambient'. But when I have first heard SIG:AR:TYR, I thought, if somewhere 'ambient' is a necessary definition, here it must be just perfect. Mostly these background noises give that solemn feeling which characterizes this music.

When it comes to the lyrics, I couldn't find anything to protest against while reading them. They perfectly depict those heroic days of the northern forefathers – nowadays I often wonder, how many band made their minds up to sing about the ancient traditions. This deserves a complete appreciation! (I personally always thought it's better to follow the moral values of the past than to be an obsessed of a new, worthless world...) But let's go back to the recording!
This lyrical direction is thoroughly being outlined in the song 'Frost On Dead Leaves' – the rune poem which was used as a lyrics for the song is simply captivating. The mainly spoken singing-stlye is also mesmerising, it only adds to the album's atmosphere.

By the way, the quality of the release is flawless; I have rarely heard one-man band releases sounding that well! The artwork is equal to the album's quality, tasteful package to such an entirely perfect recording.
And on the top of everything, I must say 'Snowborne' is an outstanding song, worthy of the memory of Quorthon (R.I.P.).

As some closing words, I would say, this album is a precious piece of art, which cannot be simply passed by those metal-fans, whose hearts are pounding for quality nature-inspired and well-written music. Forget everydays, and let SIG:AR:TYR take you back in time!