Hangman's Hymn - Musikalische Exequien

Well! So much for me not liking black metal. Like most people have already stated, this is the gateway album to the strange unearthly music of Sigh. I still can’t consider myself a die-hard fan, but this album should subsequently change that. This is one seriously fucked-up album, and I mean that in the best way possible. There are so many different elements at work here that it’s hard to believe they actually work together seamlessly and don’t end up making the music unlistenable. Choirs, chants, classical ebbs and flows, symphonic swells, thrash riffs, scorching solos; yep the works! Like every other classic album out there, this one does take its time to grow on you, so patience is the key.

Okay first things first, Sigh has been one of the most underrated metal bands for quite a while now. Even with the inaccessibility of their music (they are avant-garde after all), I find myself unable to explain how hardly anyone in the Western hemisphere have heard of them while rehashed horseshit like Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold still get so much exposure year after year. Poor, watered-down tastes in music FTW eh folks? But in all honesty I haven’t heard a concoction this unique, in spite of being a huge fan of symphonic death metal. Hollenthon, Mechina, Septic Flesh, Therion and Shade Empire are some of my favourites in the genre, but it’s sufficient to say that these crazy Japs take the symphonic death metal formula several steps further.

At this point I really need to stop and gush my heart out about one song in particular. ‘Dies Irae / The Master Malice’ (phew!) is simply one of the best songs I have ever heard. The opening chants, the searing riffs along with the snarling vocals that build up to that god-bustingly epic chorus, it all adds up to one sledgehammer of a track. So unique, so epic, with huge dollops of thrash, black and death thrown into the symphonic classical mix. Same goes for the entire album in fact, which is why I would use the word ‘colourful’ to describe Hangman’s Hymn as a whole. It paints such a vividly scenic yet horrifyingly fascinating picture in your mind that you can’t help but stare and be enthralled for hours. Other highlights include ‘Me-Devil’ (listen to that chorus!!), ‘Introitus / Kyrie’ and ‘Overture / Rex Tremendae / I Saw The World’s End’, but then again, the entire album is amazing.

Don’t let the last para fool you though; each song stands up on its own PLUS the album is best experienced when listened to as a whole as several of the songs have repeating motifs and sections and the album is divided into 3 Acts. Quite a handful. Then again that’s what concept albums are for. I found that out only later on actually. Apparently the concept of the album is the thoughts going through a dying man’s head. Quite appropriate as the theme of unsettling horror is present throughout the album with the bombastic classical pieces welded seamlessly into the thrashing metal riffage along with Mirai’s screams. Truly a trippy unique masterpiece.

Love 'em or hate 'em, one thing cannot be denied and that Sigh is one of the most inventive metal bands out there and every one of their albums are creative masterpieces. Even with their more straightforward black metal releases ("Scorn Defeat", "Infidel Art") they had their own touch, their own flare that made these black metal albums unique and different. It wasn't until the release of the EP "Ghastly Funeral Theatre" that they moved away from the traditions of the genre and create something entirely different that would seal their name into popularity with the release of "Imaginary Sonicscape".
But I'm here to talk about an album that is in my opinion is much, much more deserving of praise, "Hangman's Hymn"

This is the band's seventh full length released in 2007, two years after 2005's "Gallows Gallery" an album that has been the target of alot of bashing by Sigh fans due to the album's complete abandonment of alot of what made the band so unique instead going for this black metal influenced power metal. Not that the album was bad on its own, I found it a bit enjoyable myself, but in retrospect, when comparing it to the band's total discography, it didn't have much to offer and fell short in alot of aspects. Two years later we have "Hangman's Hymn" an album that not only goes back the old style but went back in a big, big way, creating a much more symphonic and more violent, yet very catchy, sound.

A very creative and powerful atmosphere echos through the epic sound of melodic riffs and blast beat drumming, and a much heavier use of choir, like on the track "Dies Irae - The Master Malice" which makes the overall sound that much more exciting.
The vocals have also been imrpoved alot. Getting rid of the pretty simple clean vocals from "Gallows Gallery" (although cleans will pop up from time to time) and goes back to the "Imaginary Soniscape" black metal style, but sounding much more rough, more aggressive, more passionate and just soudning much better than the vocals preformed on "I.S".

Despite the album's violent and chaotic nature, the songs don't sound like noise, instead they are very memorable and catchy. In fact this is obvious when the album starts out with "Introitus/Kyrie" which just immediatlly starts kicking your ass yet is also leaves an instant impression with the "Born again! Born again!" chorus.
And pretty much every track has something to like about it. Yes some are better than others, but there isn't a song on here that I can say "skip it".

Going back to the symphonics a bit, it sounds fantastic and is not at all overpowering. The horns, the piano, the violin, the choir, all is mixed into the sound in a very healthy amount, so its not overdone and doesn't sound like a black metal version of nightwish. It all leaves enough room for the rest of the music to shine through.

It also might be worth mentioning that this album is a bit more accessible than their other albums compared to the more experimental releases, like lets say "Scenario IV: Dread Dreams" or "Hail Horror Hail" but its still very progressive and still avant garde enough to where it will appeal to people looking for people looking for an experimental "not your average" type album.

Overall very good release. In my opinion, one of their best albums.

Sigh is one of many unique avantgarde metal acts from Asia. The four Japanese and their eleven guest musicians play a very challenging form of symphonic extreme metal that I would compare to the works of Taiwanese act Chthonic, some songs of the Chinese metal bands Screaming Savior as well as Terminal Lost and at some points also to Western acts such as Akphaezya, Le Grand Guignol or UneXpect. The record company also suggests this kind of music to fans of Cradle of Filth, King Diamond, Mayhem and Slayer but I wouldn't have mentioned the last two ones. The record "Hangman's Hymn - Musikalische Exequien" is a concept record devivided into three acts and features many religious influences such as majestic choirs, symphonic arrangements and a few organ passages as well as Latin or German song titles even though the lyrics are entirely in English.

At first try, this band is quite hard to digest. The opening "Introitus/Kyrie" starts with a big bang and takes no prisoners. It presents us fast paced but later on quite progressive and thought out black metal with emotionally driven vocals. It's only towards the end that the song gets more orchestral and includes some atmospheric and quite cinematic breaks. It feels as if the song had been inversed. The ending is a calm introduction while the beginning moments are quite agressive and uneasy. The band uses many ideas like these and nevertheless manages to create a sane balance between atmospheric and introspective breaks on one side and true extreme metal fireworks on the other side.

What really surprised me is the fact that the band is also able to write very catchy choruses and gripping hooks despite it's overwhelming approach. Many songs need a few spins to impress you and give you the time to fully understand or digest them but once this step has been taken, the songs only get better and remain unforgettable after three to five spins. The sacral "Dies Irae/The Master Malice" reminds me of a mixture of Cradle of Filth and King Diamond and has an unforgettable high pitched chorus as well as a catchy orchestral overture. The reoccuring choirs and vivid orchestral elements in "Salvation In Flame/Confutatis" add a schizophrenic note to the almost circus music inspired spectacle. One might identify these passages as addicting leitfäden or as rather annoying and repetitive elements but they definitely do make this song unforgettable.

Unforgettable, that's what resumes this record very well in fact. Vivid extreme metal meets a lot of atmospheric and progressive avantgarde passages including epic synthesizers, overwhelming circus music and majestic choirs. A first contact with this band might be disturbing but will soon become fascinating as all songs and also the album concept itself have a more than solid growth potential. A true filler can't be found on here even if some tracks impress me less than others. Many songs have catchy choruses, hooks, riffs or even orchestral interludes and apart of the opener, the transitions are done in a very smooth and healthy way. That's why I prefer this record to others of the band such as the overloaded "In Somniphobia" that created more headaches than pleasures at first try. From what I've listened to until now, this album is absolutely recommandable and could be cited as a highlight in the band's long and large career and discography. If you care for courageous and groundbreaking bands in the metal scene, Sigh is an institution you should definitely have on the top of your list.

Too often in modern times do metal bands mix outside influences without properly integrating them into a coherent compound. It's like mixing the final versions of different types of cuisines without paying attention to what made those cuisines delicious in the first place. Many, many black metal legends love to do this as they "mature" and "evolve," and Sigh is one of those bands. A classic like 'Scorn Defeat,' for example, while being eclectic (classical influence, for instance, was already present, but without eclipsing everything else), maintains consistency, as the different cuisines have been broken down to their ingredients and have been re-assembled and cooked with the band's unique spice according to the band's aim, which would be the creation of a unique piece of art. On something like 'Hangman's Hymn,' on the other hand, the aim seems to be simply the mixing of different styles, regardless of the result. Of course, what band wouldn't want to sound "good"? Yet, 'Hangman's Hymn' is so glaringly disjointed that such a thing as quality seems to be entirely out of the equation. The elements making up such an "Avant-garde metal" album is generally presented at the forefront in an obvious manner, and this time they are thrashy riffs, melodic solos, the requiem mass, and bombastic orchestration.

The orchestration seems to have been given actual attention at least, though in no way does it even come close to that of real masters of symphonic metal like Obtained Enslavement. Besides the usual strings, there are brass instruments, adding to the bombastic quality, and the melodies are generally dark and classically inspired, although the main melody of 'Inked in Blood' sounds like it was lifted from Enslaved's 'Heimdallr.' The orchestra is present for the majority but the entirety of time, sometimes playing the lead role and at others just playing background chords. The requiem mass is incorporated into the album; many songs feature purely orchestral and choral interludes with no metal part (the 'Dies Irae' part is almost a Mozart rip-off), and these are the most tolerable moments, though there is no point in listening to this album just for these parts when there are the extremely superior works by Mozart and Verdi, just to name the two most famous examples. On the surface, it is fine, but compositionally it fails. There is very little counterpoint or thematic development – granted, occasionally there is a short contrapuntal passage, like the one in 'Inked in Blood' or the subtle piano usage in 'The Memories of a Sinner,' and there is a theme that recurs throughout the album, but these are really just exceptions. The greatest problem of all, however, is that the orchestral part simply doesn't fit in with the rest of the music.

The vocal delivery and the drumming are really fast compared to the orchestra section. The vocals pretty much spout out lyrics all the time, hardly shutting up, and often there are many layers of vocals (some of which are clean choral vocals). The drumming is ridiculously simple, with almost no variation at all (though at least it slows down in the "rex tremendae" break). They make the grandeur of the orchestra sound absurd, especially when the orchestral part is slow, as is the case in 'Death With Dishonor.' It could be surprising that I haven't said something along the lines of "the riffs and the orchestra sound totally disjointed." Well, obviously they do, but unlike the vocals and the drums, which are clearly (too clearly) audible when the orchestral section is playing, the riffs are totally drowned out by the orchestra. So, the disjunction between the riffs and the orchestra do not occur vertically, but horizontal disjunction is obviously present. The riffs do resemble thrash riffs, minus the heaviness and aggression. Mirai might have cited "German thrash" as an influence, but it’s hard to find much German thrash here. There are a few riffs somewhat resembling the ones on Exodus' debut (though again, minus the heaviness and aggression), and several that seems Sabbat-influenced (the Japanese one). It might not sound that bad; after all, Exodus and Sabbat (the Japanese one especially, and that's the band that matters here) are excellent bands. However, too often are the riffs upbeat, and especially the riffs of 'In Devil's Arms' are very sugary, sounding more like melodeath than thrash (and unfortunately, this song is heavily riff-based, with the orchestral part confined to minimum usage). Of course, the greatest problem is the one everybody should be expecting: the riffs are usually irrelevant to the orchestral part. Even if these were real Exodus riffs, combining them with an orchestral section would have been ridiculous anyway. The guitar solos present a bigger problem yet. They sound like very melodic, upbeat and saccharine version of rock or traditional metal solos, and completely nullify the somewhat oppressive atmosphere that the orchestral melodies may have created to some extent.

Song structures are extremely simple: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge and solo, verse, chorus – yes, it's the dreaded pop structure at display on this "requiem-based, movement-oriented" album. This completely goes against the symphonic grandeur the band seems to have aimed for. Almost every song follows this pattern, and while there are a few exceptions, such as the fact that 'The Memories As a Sinner' has the solo placed at the beginning and that the eighth track turns into a different section after the second chorus, overall it is stupid and repetitive. Each song moves in and out of guitar-based sections, orchestra-based sections, and the guitar solo section, and while at least the transitions aren't totally arbitrary and disjointed, the juxtaposed sections are entirely irrelevant to each other. Album-wise, it's a bit more interesting. There is a recurring theme, which is first introduced in 'The Master Malice,' appears again in the intro of the eighth track (the 'Overture' part), and is finally used as the main motif in the last song. That last song also has the themes from previous songs appearing together (but not simultaneously) as its bridge, and while it is an interesting idea, Mirai is not Mozart, 'Hangman's Hymn' is not the fourth movement of the Jupiter Symphony, this section is not contrapuntal (let alone having a quintuple counterpoint), and it sounds chaotic and random. Another device is that the 'Dies Irae' part, which is first introduced in 'Dies Irae' (obviously), reappears near the end of 'In Devil's Arms.' These are not entirely bad ideas (admittedly they have potential to be actually good), but they don't magically make the album an integrated piece with a high degree of inter-movement relevance. The reality is that each song hardly has relevance within itself.

'Hangman's Hymn' exemplifies the negative stereotypes of "Avant-garde metal": it feels random and chaotic, like a bunch of easily identifiable elements thrown in together without being dissected to the core and re-organized. In addition to that, it shows an ironical contrast between a very under-ambitious attitude toward song structure and an over-ambitious attitude toward album structure, resulting in confusion and absurdity.

This album sounds like it was intended as a brutal ass kickin’ counterpart to its melancholic predecessor, "Gallows Gallery." "Gallows Gallery" might be my favorite Sigh scenario; I think it’s a totally unique fusion of Italian horror soundtrack atmosphere, early Iron Maiden/Def Leppard, and the unhinged sensibility of underground black/death metal. So much about "Gallows Gallery" recalls Fabio Frizzi’s scores for movies like "Gates of Hell" and "The Beyond": peculiar ‘hollow-sounding’ treatments of the human voice, disturbingly artificial oscillations between extreme high and low frequencies in the mix, varied traditional/synthetic instrumentation, ugly discordance intertwined with passages of Romantic heartache like necrotic tissue in a still-throbbing wound… Meanwhile, the wobbly downtuned guitars and kickin’ double bass drums remind us that we’re situated in the same chaotic sub-cultural realm as Bolt Thrower, while the Schenker-like lead guitar and harmonized riffage tastefully recall the sweetest fruits of NWOBHM heritage. I’d almost prefer to believe the now-retracted statements about the use of sonic weaponry in the production of that album. Maybe the truth is actually a lie… All of which is just to say that I’m as excited as the next maniac at the prospect of Sigh doing a record of symphonic black thrash.

"Hangman’s Hymn" is a louder, clearer, and much faster incarnation of Sigh. It represents, ‘the ugliness of German thrash meets the ugliness of German classical,’ according to Mirai, Sigh’s vocalist, bandleader and sole original member. He’s primarily a keyboardist, so the material on this album may be all gravy from his perspective, but it sounds as if the guitarists are struggling to bring their share of speed and aggression. The riffs just aren’t great, the rhythm guitar tracks limited to providing texture and overall loudness. Few things offend so profoundly as guitars, especially with distortion tones as fried and unpleasant to behold as the tones adorning these particular guitars, used as window dressing in music that’s supposed to be fucking thrash metal, a form that lives and dies by the riff. This stuff qualifies superficially as thrash; The vocals sound crazy and furious, the drums pound maniacally down-the-line in true Germanic fashion, the bass rumbles nice and wide in that sub-audible way ideal for a crisp thrash mix; but it’s the keyboards and vocals that provide the real sense of movement, delineate the peaks and valleys, and generally mark the passage of time in this album. For rhythm guitar, all we get is a gnarled buzzing sound panned hard left and right, mostly doing stuff one could just as easily hum. Whether it’s due to a shift in personnel, or simply the fact that a slower, more rock-oriented tempo suits the band better, a disheartening amount of riffic meat is absent from this otherwise quite delicious meal of torment and insanity.

The other thing is the vocals. They are more aggressive than ever before. And like "Gallows Gallery," "Hangman’s Hymn" is quite vocal-driven, with intricate patterns and repeated hooks constantly pushing to the fore. Though they are intense, they really aren’t very good vocals. And there are a lot of them, these kind of nasal, garbled, frantic utterances, the product of too much force exerted on the back of the throat and not enough gathered from within the torso. The growls were never Sigh’s strength, and now that they’re so important to the band’s hellish pace-keeping, their failings are hard to ignore. People used to make fun of Abbath from Immortal for sounding like Popeye or Donald Duck or something…to me Mirai sounds a little bit like that cat that says ‘thufferin’ thucotash!” No lisp, but a similar angry and frustrated doltishness. It’s interesting to note that while this album is supposed to delve into such ‘classic’ extreme metal themes as individual strength and contempt for the feeble mass of humanity, a lot the words seem to be about self-loathing and the fear of pain.

So I don’t like it much, but "Hangman’s Hymn" has a certain excellence to it, and stands proud as one of the most coherent pieces of metalwork unveiled in recent years. Barring some unforeseen disaster, every Sigh album is going to contain some matter of extremely high caliber. Their music will always be thoughtfully composed to a striking degree, with a diverse sonic palette and arresting moments of surreal, feverish intelligence, as well as a deep concern for what real metal is all about. Every Sigh album will also have a ton of awesome guitar solos. The ones on "Hangman’s Hymn" are inspired as ever, rife with soulful classic rock licks and semi-technical phrasing, not really shredding but sporting a Teutonic sense of melody that makes the playing unequivocally metal. And as usual, Mirai’s ability to synchronize keyboards, samples and sound effects results in some stunningly ‘visual’ passages. If you’ve grown to love any of Sigh’s music, and/or have a vested interest in forward-thinking yet non-poser-ish metal, "Hangman’s Hymn" is certainly worth a few listens. Though if you’re like me, it may require you to fill in a few blanks.

Japanese metal giant SIGH is back to deliver yet another helping of… well I’m not sure. Listening to this album, I realized I haven’t ever listened to anything quite like it before.

Being a new SIGH fan, I realized just how much this band is different than any other. Well, whatever they’re serving, it’s pretty damn awesome. This is the gist of the album: Black Metal shrieking, Thrash Metal drum-work, Symphonic background, and Power Metal guitar solos. While this mix may not necessarily sound appealing to some, SIGH makes it work and creates an amazing sound.

“Hangman’s Hymn” is split into three “Acts”—the first contains the band’s more Black/Thrash styling, with fast drumming, extreme vocals, and catchy choruses. “Introitus/Kyrie” starts stuff out at a fast tempo right off the bat, with Mirai Kawashima’s characteristic vocals really beefing up the “epic” feeling this song has before its culmination three quarters of the way through the end of the song, when it abruptly is replaced by bells chiming, the sound of rain falling, as well as a melodic church hymn complete with an organ and Latin-singing choir. These instrumentations accompany most of the songs in the rest of the album while still retaining the awesome Metal badass-ery.

Continuing on, Act II incorporates much more Symphonic instrumentation, while Act III illustrates the band at its deepest level. It combines a Latin-singing choir, a Symphonic background, the Black/Thrash combo, as well as chilling sound effects that really help create SIGH’s evil ambience.

Besides the choir and Symphonic instruments, one of the coolest aspects of the album is the 80s-thrash-power-metal-inspired guitar solos. Seemingly out of place, the solos hit the listener like a brick in the face, and surprisingly still mesh well into the band’s sound.

SIGH’s originality, catchy choruses, and synthesis of choir vocals, symphonic instrumentation, and Thrash and Black Metal not only make them the top Metal artist in Japan, but definitely one of the top in the world. Hopefully they’ll continue on this path and continue to make more kick-ass albums.

Recommended songs: “Introitus/Kyrie”, “Me-Devil”, “Hangman’s Hymn/In Pardisum/Das Ende”.

Japan’s most internationally known extreme metal band Sigh have returned more brutal than ever. They seem to just keep throwing curveballs at their fans. They hit their avant-garde/post-black metal peak with 2001’s “Imaginary Sonicscape”, which listeners and critics met with raving reviews. Then they released the follow-up “Gallows Gallery” that lacked almost any trace of their black metal roots; the songs were shorter and generally easier to digest. The only thing particularly black metal about it was its extremely poor production (something Sigh isn’t at all known for). It was almost as if they were intentionally trying to weed out fans. And now, they’ve come back with “Hangman’s Hymn”. The avant-garde qualities have been toned down even more on this release. Instead of expanding on the ideas that made “Imaginary Sonicscape” so great, they set out to mesh German Thrash Metal with German Classical music, which conceptually sounds absolutely brilliant to me right off the bat – to mix together two completely chronologically separated aspects of a culture’s music into one beautiful abomination. So the idea is intriguing, but does the execution really work out?

Now I can’t say that my knowledge of German classical music is all that expansive, knowing only the music of Richard Wagner pretty much. All I can say is that they seemed to succeed well-enough in the bombastic department, but at times the orchestral parts sound almost circus-like (coupled well with disturbing clown-like laughter) and some of the choral vocal arrangements just sound absolutely bizarre. Also, their guitar solos are decidedly Sigh-ish and have no resemblance whatsoever to German thrash metal (but that’s actually fine by me because Sigh's solos tend to be more interesting and far more creative than the solos in most thrash). So I think perhaps that the “meshing of the two German genres” was an oversimplified take on the music. That aside, the symphonic accompaniments were perfectly placed and accented the blackened thrash metal fantastically (and vice versa!). Oh yes, in lieu of placing the orchestral arrangements in the background like so many black metal bands do, Sigh puts them right up front with the metal making the album unique and so much more distinguishable than your generic symphonic black metal band that just submits to Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth worship. In fact, there's is nothing on here that can remotely be considered anything worship; the riffs may be inspired by German thrash but you're surely not going to mistake this for Kreator.

The band also experiments with re-using certain melodies throughout the album, presented in a different way every time. It helps this album sound far more coherent and connected than the rest of the albums in their discography, which makes sense because “Hangman’s Hymn” is more lyrically conceptual than their other releases as the lyrics are all based around hatred, misanthropy, and the glorification of the self.

The brutality rarely lets up (there’s a calm minute here and there), so be prepared for an exhausting listen, even though the runtime is only about 45 minutes. But despite the mental exhaustion this album causes, it will have you engaged every time you listen to it. It doesn’t bore and is relentlessly exciting and invigorating. Listen to “Hangman’s Hymn” and you will feel powerful… or positively creeped out if approached in the right mindset.

Sigh have always been an enigmatic figure in the metal world. Their penchant for off-the-wall antics and seemingly random genre fusions have often confused many fans for years, but has also been what made them endearing. Sigh exemplifies the willingness to try new things and forge one's own path. While previous Sigh albums had their ups and downs, "Hangman's Hymn" does absolutely everything right. After the vocal change on the previous epic "Gallow's Gallery," Sigh return to their roots (or as close as one can label a return to roots for Sigh) a bit with the return of blackened vocals and much, much more aggression. There is no filler on this album, no completely out of place moments, and no eccentricity for the sake of eccentricity. Songs are short, to the point, and uniformly amazing.

Starting right off the bat by kicking you in the face, as any good black/thrash album should, Sigh show right away that they're not fucking around anymore. Mirai's harsh rasps are back in full force, and are perhaps at their most vicious since "Scorn Defeat." The riffs and solos are absolutely killer and all over the place. The guitars meld classic thrash and modern black metal seamlessly, with some good old fashioned heavy metal solos being the icing on the cake. Mirai's description of this album as "German thrash with symphonies" is spot on. The classical elements are vital parts of every song, not mere interludes or intros. Each and every song on this album is amazing in every way, whether it be the pummeling delivered by the first trio of tracks or the doomier plod of the final trilogy. The choral vocals used to break up the 3 distinct acts are are nice touch as well.

The lyrics to this album are brilliant, and worth visiting over and over again. The appearance Mirai's demented laughter throughout the album only enhances the impact of the lyrics; I wish more concept albums could be this well-written and intense. It's also nice to be able to distinguish between the multiple voices that are speaking to one another within the songs....witness "Introitus/Kyrie" for an early and obvious example of this.

Production is quite good, which is a definite improvement over the strangely poor mixing of "Gallow's Gallery." Occasionally the guitars could be brought to the forefront a little more, but this is a minor gripe. Drums are loud and clear, vocals are filled with venom, and the symphonic elements are never too overblown. You won't find production better than this on many other black/thrash albums, that's for damn sure.

If you've never heard Sigh, this is the best introduction one could get. It has everything that makes Sigh great: great guitar work, amazing lyrics, and an originality that is sorely lacking in many bands of today. Sigh are easily one of the best black metal bands today. Buy, buy, buy.

Over the course of 17 years and 8 releases, Sigh has established themselves as one of the weirdest and most exciting extreme metal bands around. While debuting with the mostly straight forward black metal of Scorn Defeat on Euronymos’s Deathlike Silence Productions, Sigh has dabbled increasingly with the weird, the Avante garde and the genuinely fucked up. 2001s Imaginary Sonicscapes dabbled in everything from jazz to reggae to disco while still being extreme metal and is one of my all time favourite albums. The follow up Gallows Gallery was a stripped down and considerably more extreme release that saw the band stick to a black thrash path that was pretty tame in comparison to the grandiosity of Imaginary Sonicscapes.

It’s 2007 and the band has changed labels yet again and released their latest album titled Hangman’s Hymn. The premise of the album is simple enough. Take your raw 80s German thrash, think early Destruction and Sodom’s In The Sign Of Evil ep and mix it with European classical music from the romantic period. Now that’s pretty frightening and as a concept should have fallen down in a tangled heap of unlistenable songs. Somehow though, Sigh has made the disparate influences work and released what is for me one of the better albums of the year.

Right from the opening few seconds of the album, Sigh come at you with all guns blazing. The classical elements are seamlessly molded into the song structure and work superbly enhancing the aggressive black thrash approach of opener Introitus/Kyrie and giving the song a frenetic almost out of control feel before going into a classical symphonic piece almost effortlessly with only Mirai’s creepy laugh reminding you that it’s still the same band. In fact, that creepy King Diamond laugh is repeated through the album and works in enhancing the atmosphere of this album. Inked In Blood has a classic heavy metal feel to it while still exploring the symphonic classical music styling and is another terrific song. Me-Devil has a kickass thrash riff that starts things off before the songs melds the classical and metal to end superbly. Dies Irae/ The Master Malice starts with some Latin chants and keyboards before settling down into a mid paced death metal rumble that brings to mind Celtic Frost’s To Megatherion. Also the choir used in the song gives it a real epic feel before that same creepy laugh ends proceedings.

The band doesn’t put a foot wrong on Hangman’s Hymn. Everything that they try out from the clean sung fist in the air parts of In Devil’s Arms to the chaotic lead guitar playing on every song that seems like a tribute to German thrash, the frequent vocal nods to King Diamond and the use of classical music all work. The songs are all reasonably short with the longest song clocking in at just over 6 minutes and yet there’s a lot happening on every one of these songs. Repeat listening is a must to fully appreciate Hangman’s Hymn and the complexity of sound that the band has managed to achieve.

Sigh has outdone themselves here. There isn’t a single ordinary song on this album and the way in which the band has used classical music to enhance the impact of these songs is unbelievable. The symphonic classical arrangements are in fact used not merely as embellishment but to serve as a counterpoint to the heavy metal. Together, the black thrash attack and the symphonic music create songs that should be at cross purposes but instead sound perfect. Each element enhancing the effect of the other till it all sounds quite epic and absolutely beautiful. It also sounds like the band has been paying close attention to King Diamond’s classic Them, in terms of creating the creepy atmosphere that pervades the album.

Hangman’s Hymn is without a doubt Sigh’s finest hour. The band experiment fearlessly and sound quite unlike anything that’s come before. The album takes a few listens to fully appreciate and while symphonic black thrash may not sound too appealing, Sigh has delivered an album for the ages here. Absolutely essential and a definite contender for album of the year.

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"Almost everyone I met who knows what metal is has always been raving about this incredible band from Japan known as Sigh. Finally, after tons of nagging and my ears bleeding, I decided to pick up their latest effort known as “Hangman’s Hymn”. I liked the title, and I was told that this band went through a black metal to avant-garde metal phase, so I was pretty interested in hearing what this band was all about.

A lot of bands like to try and incorporate some kind of atmosphere into their music, whether it be pleasant, evil, emotional, or just downright creepy. It really appears to me that this band spent large amounts of time working on atmosphere, because it really seems that they have taken every single atmosphere known to man, put it in a blender and had at it, creating some disgusting hybrid that only Sigh can call their own. There’s also tons of sound effects, orchestra arrangements and choir-like chanting, and they all work incredibly well for this “avant-garde” metal band. They picked “Introitus/Kyrie” to open up with, and man, I was blown away after this song, wondering what they could throw at me next.

There’s lots of groovy and meaty riffs combined with almost paralyzing sound effects, which makes my ears constantly hunger for more. The only problem I can really see is that there isn’t a big focus on the guitars except for the occasional solo here and there, but it almost seems like the trumpets and other instruments just drown out the guitars. However, the other instruments can really help the guitars by creating this extra explosion of intensity and suspense. There’s also the occasional haunting lullaby that makes you question what you’re even doing with your life, and if Mirai Kawashima’s creepy laugh is the last thing you’ll hear right before you die.

The lyrics also really grabbed my attention, as they seem to deal with a lot of personal struggle with religion. These aren’t the normal denouncing of Christianity lyrics, no no; these lyrics seem to convey a different kind of message, which seems to question their rightful place in peoples lives, even if they aren’t invited into their souls. Here’s a nice example from my favorite track on the album, the verse of “Introitus/Kyrie”:

“Born again, born again!
What do you mean?
Born again, born again!
Please tell me!
Born again, born again!
Take what you will!
Born again, born again! You know what you have to lose!
I know what you have to lose!”

No matter what anybody says, it’s a really awesome verse when both the back-up and lead vocals spar together for dominance, and I think those lyrics are certainly something different from what us metalheads are normally bombarded with regarding religion.

My final thoughts on Sigh’s magnum opus known as “Hangman’s Hymn” is it’s a definite buy for any metalhead that loves an insane amount of sounds going on at once and for those who like to listen to something different than what we’re normally offered. Really, the entire album is almost mind-blowing and is a landmark step in Sigh’s history as a band."

I have never heard anything so unique. I can't say I've ever heard anything like this before. Trust me, it's rare that I give something more than a 90%. Sigh has not been this brutal since Scorn Defeat. It's rare that I find an album where it doesn't lose my attention for one second. Mirai said that this would combine German Thrash with symphonies, but I'll be damned if this isn't so much more. The production is great, and they still have the really weird sounding guitar tone similar to Coroner's Death Cult Demo except with more low end, hard to describe, but if you know Sigh you won't be surprised by it. If you're thinking symphonic like Dimmu Borgir or something though you'd be completely wrong. It enhances the music and brings a new atmosphere to it rather than being pretentious and engulfing all the other instruments.

I'll describe these song all in Acts rather than individually.

The first three songs making up "Act I" are all insanely fast and even include blast beats, again it's like how Torture Squad or a band like that uses them. It only enhances the music. Mirai's vocals are the most vicious I have ever heard them. These three songs blast along in full force, annihilating everything in their path with thrash riffs, creative drumming, the awesome symphony work, a black metal delivery, and Mirai's venomous vocal. The dynamics are amazing, like the intro to the opener, or the chorus of "Me-Devil". There's so much going on here, but it all comes together very triumphantly. I must note the lead guitar is nice a somewhat melodic such as the leads were on "Hail Horror Hail".

Tracks 4 through 7 make up "Act II". We start out with some nice atmospheric symphony arrangements into some Black Metal, as if it was pulled right from Scorn Defeat. These solos remind of like classic rock solos, very well done. The first two tracks of this Act are in this manner. Really cool parts with slow guitar riffs, but fast drumming. The song "Death With Dishonor" has more in common to the three song in "Act I". Fast thrashy riffs, and a triumphant chorus. "Am I insane!?" I think so. "In Devil's Arms" sounds like something from the previous album, more in a slight power metal style, except with Mirai's brutal vocals. Classic melodic guitar work all over this.

The last three tracks of course make up "Act III". These last three songs are longer than all the previous songs. This starts out doomy, with some really gloomy choir work before going head first into some Black Metal, and back to the gloomy choir work. While the next song is faster, but is otherwise quite similar. The last song is more Speed/Thrash again. Nice delievery and a great way to end the album, the rest kind of fades with some of the symphony playing and that's about it.


This will keep your attention, it is very interesting, and I've never heard anything like it. This band is a breath of fresh air. Still finding ways to push boundaries after all these years. If you like Thrash, Black, and some Avant Garde you will like this. Especially if you have an open mind. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.