Angry Metal Guy

Nachtmystium // Black Meddle II: Addicts
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Sick, dirty and most definitely black
Label: Candlelight | Century Media
Websites: myspace.com/nachtmystium
Release Dates: Out Now!

If you ask any black metal purist what real “black metal” should sound like, you will probably get a slew of bands that, seem to blur into each other somewhat in a slew of blast beats, tremelo-picked riffs and shrieked vocals – and woe betide he who dares to experiment with this time honoured recipe. Black metal is a cutthroat genre among its fans, and bands that defy the trends of the genre yet still dub their metal “black” are quick to draw the ire of the once faithful. Blake Judd’s Nachtmystium took a major gamble when they decided to pursure a more avant-garde approach to black metal with Instinct: Decay and have both won and lost fans, but so far, (In this angry metal guy’s opinion, at least) their less orthodox releases have been consistent and relevant to the modern black metal landscape. Continue reading

Pain of Salvation // Road Salt pt. 1 – Ivory
Rating: 5.0/5.0 — A stellar re-invention that should bring you to tears
Label: InsideOut
Websites: painofsalvation.com | myspace.com/painofsalvation
Release Dates: SE: 14.05.2010 | EU: 17.05.2010 | US: 06.08.2010

One would assume that an Angry Metal Guy wouldn’t be handing out high scores willy nilly, something I seriously try to avoid doing. But apparently 2010 is a year filled with really fantastic albums by bands doing the things that, as a reviewer, and more specifically, as a music-lover, I have trouble not totally falling for. Pain of Salvation has never been a band that I personally fell for. Scarsick, the band’s 2007 release, was a record that I had issues with and I’ve had some personal gripes about Daniel Gildenlöw’s vocals on the older material (specifically his wannabe Mike Patton rappy/talky vocals). But, that said, Pain of Salvation has long been the darling of the progressive rock and metal scene, with legions of fans who love their technical prowess and pop sensibility.

Road Salt, then, stands to be a great disappointment for a large number of fans who are looking for neo-progressive sensibilities. This is simply not the same band that put out The Perfect  Element (Part I). There is nothing on this record that should outright appeal to metal heads and fans of tech music. But there’s something else, and something that in my opinion places this album on a different plane than 99% of albums released this year, an emotional depth, beauty, fragility and, lastly, dirtiness that makes this album a fantastic journey and easily my favorite Pain of Salvation to date.

Road Salt is still a prog record, however, it’s just way more a 70s rock influenced album that places the band into the same arena as bands like Porcupine Tree, Anathema, Guilt Machine and their ilk. And when I say “70s rock influenced”, let me be totally clear: this is an album that is built to sound like it was recorded on analogue equipment in a room with brown shag carpeting, made by bearded men in bell bottoms who’d smoked a little bit too much hash. The guitar tone screams Hendrix, the vocal harmonies mimic the soul harmonies of folk musicians like Kris Kristofferson and the moog organ is something that you’ve heard a million times while digging through your dad’s record collection. Hell, even the build at the end of the first track “No Way”, sounds like it came off a Trettioåriga Kriget record. And there’s nary a technical wank solo to be found on this album. No, instead the album is based a lot around blues rock—a thing that this Angry Metal Guy hates with a total passion.

But from the opening notes of this album, I was moved emotionally in a way that I think no record has done almost ever. Gildenlöw’s vocal performance is perfect—it is emotionally evocative, huge and sweeping and amazing. His emotional performance reshapes good (or excellent) music into something that is epic and transformative. By bringing his prog and non-blues rock influenced sensibilities to the entire genre and then placing his vocal perfection over songs like “She Likes to Hide”, “Sisters”, “Linoleum” and probably the most evocative of  all the tracks on the album “Road Salt”, Gildenlöw and Pain of Salvation create a sound all their own in what is easily the most overdone genre in the history of mankind. Turning the sounds of 60s and 70s rock and blues into something unique in 2010 is a magical feat, honestly. I have trouble wrapping my mind around how it was done.

In the end, this is an album that should make your heart ache. There is a sadness that really permeates the album. And in an era when hard rock and metal is so incredibly impersonal, when every other record is faux hate and anger or clichéd nonsense, it is beyond refreshing to have band produce material that is so emotionally poignant and beautiful. On top of that, of course, is the fantastic production of this album, mixed with the superb quality of musicians involved in the whole production and you have the formula for what is easily one of the best albums of the year—and one of the best albums I have heard in a really, really long time.

Cynic // Re-traced
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Well, it can’t possibly be AS good as Traced in Air
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: myspace.com/cyniconline | cyniconline.com
Release Dates: EU: 17/21.05.2010 | US: 05.18.2010

I make no bones about it, I have a total love affair with Cynic. Long have I been a sucker for good progressive metal and Cynic is about as good as progressive metal gets. While I was a bit young to really have appreciated Focus when it came out, I re-discovered it later and fell in love with it. When Traced in Air came out in 2008 I pretty much fell over myself with joy. That record has maintained a constant place on my playlists since it was released and ranks among my top 10 albums of the last decade. So when I heard that they were going to re-do some of the tracks in different styles as an EP I was justifiably excited—but skeptical at the same time. I grew up in the age of the Nine Inch Nails re-mix album: I know what happens when jackasses mess around with an already winning formula. Nothing good.

Fortunately, Trent Reznor had nothing to do with this. Instead, this is basically a re-imagining of songs you know and love and to amazing effect. While there are some glitchy IDM sounding beats going on in “Space” (a re-working of the track “The Space for This”), in general the tracks have a much more brittle feeling and what they lack in the sometimes frantic rhythmic nature of the drum and guitar combination on Traced in Air they make up for with beautiful harmonies and enticing chord structures. The sounds that were only really hinted at on Traced in Air, that is the up-close sound that is way more akin to Porcupine Tree or Guilt Machine, is something that that is used in great contrast to the hiding behind the vocodor that we’re all so used to.

While every song on here is excellent, including the new track “Wheels within Wheels” which closes off the record, the ultimate triumph is probably the track “Integral” which is a re-make of the totally amazing track “Integral Birth”, easily my favorite song from the Traced in Air album. The version on Re-Traced is a stripped down acoustic version that shows off just what an amazing song the track is at its root. I once had a friend who said that he wrote everything on an acoustic guitar, because if it sounded awesome on an acoustic then he was pretty sure that it would be even better with a whole band. “Integral” shows this off with a simple acoustic guitar, a little bit of keyboards some female vocals and a focus on the beautiful song structure and the lights out writing that make Cynic one of the best bands on the planet right now.

Fans of Traced in Air and Cynic in general should buy this. It’s not even a question of whether or not this is worth your time and money. The sheer talent of this band turns me into a blithering fanboy and this EP just gets me excited for more new Cynic in the upcoming couple of years. The only people who shouldn’t buy this album are people who for some reason haven’t gone back and checked out the previous Cynic records, ’cause it’s not exactly representative (with the exception of “Wheels within Wheels” which is much more similar to “standard” Cynic album sound). But once you’ve gone back and checked those CDs, you should rush out and buy this magnificent EP.

Les Discrets – Septembre et ses dernières Pensées
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – A solid, if inconsistent, debut.
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: lesdiscrets.com/ | myspace.com/lesdiscrets
Release Date: EU: 29.03.2010 | US: 05.04.2010

It would appear that now defunct, scene-polarising French black metal troupe Amesoeurs have another project place under their name, this time in the form of bassist Fursey Treyssier’s Les Discrets; a post rock-meets-shoegaze project that still has that very noticeable smell of metal that Amesoeurs and it’s sibling project Alcest gave rise to.

As with Alcest, comparisons will immediately be drawn to Amesoeurs and opinions will rage about whether this solo effort is better or worse than its “parent band”. I use the term “parent band” loosely, since both Alcest and Les Discrets existed long before Amesoeurs, but the feeling I get from the latter is that it represents a grand culmination of ideas that released its children on to the world, both of whom have chosen to run in vastly different directions.

Septembre et ses dernières Pensées is the band’s debut release and I feel the first thing that must be said, that will raise a lot of Angry Metal Eyebrows, is that Les Discrets is not a metal band. There are no harsh vocals, cascades of furious blast beats or ultra-aggressive guitar-driven musical passages that stand out and scream “Metal!”. It is a much more subdued affair of walls-of-sound and a slow ramble through Fursey’s imagination. That being said, the band still manages to display a firm grounding in metal beneath their post rock driven songs. Les Discrets bridges the gap between the post-black metal stylings of Amesouers and the more atmospheric shoegaze of Alcest, blending both genres into a new, but coherent, and enjoyable sound.

Septembre et ses dernières Pensées begins innocently enough with an atmospheric introduction that draws the listener in and begins to shape Fursey’s world. The cover art and liner notes prove very evocative when combined with the music that creates the soundtrack to the stark, yet beautiful images in the booklet. After the brief introduction, we are immediately launched into “L’échappée”, easily the flagship track of the album. The track is catchy and creates a strong, dreamlike atmosphere with a heavily textured wall of sound beneath Fursey’s warm, chant-like vocals.

The next track, “Les Feuilles de l’Olivier” is probably the most metal-oriented track on the album. Heavily distorted guitars and thick drums are complimented by a peaceful, clean guitar that that keeps the shoegaze element alive. I should mention here that there is heavy use of clean guitars throughout the album that carries a signature sound from track to track, stopping atmospheric tracks from becoming soundscapes and keeping the faster passages away from becoming pure black metal.

We are then taken to “Song for Mountains”, a track that appeared in demo form on the split with Alcest. The clean guitar once again provides grounding, while tremelo picked guitars, reminiscent of Mono or Godspeed You! Black Emperor, build a wave of noise that completely envelops the listener. The presence of the opening theme of this track along with its structure and those of the previous songs is important to note at this point, because it is after the intimate and folkish, yet unremarkable “Sur les Quais” and the Alcest/Amesouers sounding “Effet de nuit” that the wheels start to come off.

At the end of “Effet de nuit” we are presented with a superfluous guitar piece that leads into the title track. It is at this point that the album as a cohesive unit loses its way. Until now the music has not deviated much from traditional rock song structure. The typical verse-chorus-verse-bridge-etc. arrangements have made the songs catchy and memorable, and now we are presented with a spoken word introduction into a title track that wanders about the dreamy atmosphere but never really goes anywhere. I am in no way adverse to post rock soundscapes or variety in an album, but it is at this point that the hypnotic spell woven of the previous tracks is broken – and I was left wondering why the dream ended so abruptly.

The remaining songs, including an outro of sorts seem to just meander about aimlessly, lacking the magic that the album started with. There is a vague nod to Alcest in some of the riffs and chords used, but they ultimately lead nowhere. The traditional song structure has been forsaken in favour of free-flowing tracks that roll in and out of shoegaze and metal without being held together by a dominant hook. Even the instrumental “Svipdagr & Freyja” just feels like two loosely pieced together ideas and the closing bars of the outro track, “Une matinée d’hiver” would not sound out of place on an album by post rock giants, Sigur Rós. They serve as a pleasant enough farewell, but still one that still leaves the me feeling somewhat let down.

It is unfortunate that Septembre et ses dernières Pensées ends on such a low note since, up until the title track, the album felt really solid in its exploration of the black metal and shoegaze genres. In my opinion, the title track should have closed off the album instead of breaking the spell prematurely and leaving the listener lost in a sea of sounds that are not nearly as deliberate and well crafted as the opening tracks. However, these are possibly just teething pains for Les Discrets and hopefully Fursey’s future output will build upon the foundations laid by this album (they are signed for a five record deal after all).

Alcest // Écailles De Lune
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — Should’ve been an EP
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: alcest-music.com | myspace.com/alcestmusic
Release Dates: EU: 29.03.2010 | CA/US: 05.04.2010

Alcest are a band hyped beyond comprehension, but not without merit or reason. In their debut, Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde, there is something beautifully otherworldly about the sound Alcest creates; A mysterious aura of pure ecstasy – a melancholic veil. I call it a veil because the beautiful melodies and personality of Alcest‘s music are just a disguise, hiding a narcissism and lack of ingenuity. The “oo’s” and “aa’s” which riddle Alcest‘s music may be very pleasant, but this angry metal guy finds himself screaming for Neige, the project’s motor and vocalist, to bloody sing something, rather than simply using his voice to portray nothing. It’s almost frustrating to me that I’m totally in love with this band.

Since the first Alcest record was released in 2007, Neige has gone into other projects, such as the ever-popular Amesoeurs. This has had the effect of helping to mature Neige’s songwriting and Écailles de Lune certainly showcases a certain maturity. It’s beautifully multi-layered, practically spewing thought-provoking and emotion-evoking power.

For the first three songs, anyway.

Luckily enough, as soon as you start this CD, you’re getting the best of it. “Écailles de Lune – Part I” is stunning. The guitars are hypnotically beautiful, the sound is diverse, the vocals are spellbinding, and nearly everything is perfect. I cannot describe how good this song is, it completely surpasses every other song on Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde. The sheer beauty of this song shakes my very spine, and it isn’t just the beauty that has improved. The writing itself is much more diverse, there’s a lot more going on. “Écailles de Lune” portrays a lot more emotions, and with the song constantly changing and projecting itself further into the realm of beauty, it was as if it couldn’t get any better. One thing that amazed me is that this song perfectly painted the picture on the cover of the album in my head, which is something an album has never done to me before.

While “Éscailles de Lune – Part II” is a step down from the superb beauty of the first track, Neige’s improved songwriting still makes itself apparent, and is still a step-up from Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde. The screaming vocals may come as a surprise to some, but since this song has a faster tempo and mood than Part 1, the screaming worked rather well. Luckily, Neige’s mysterious clean voice is in this song too, which accompanies the slower moments of this song. The song comes to a halt with a beautiful clean guitar melody, slowly bringing this song to an end. Very enjoyable, even if it wasn’t as good as Part 1.

The third track “Percées de Lumière” then comes running in, with an almost punk-like beat and mood. The melody is really good, and repeats itself throughout the song—but such repetition certainly isn’t unwelcome, as it never grows tiresome. This song may be the favorite of fans of Amesoeurs, as it has a feel very similar to that of songs on their debut. The screaming-shrieks chill you, the clean vocals spellbind you, and the guitars send you into a trance that binds you from pressing the pause button on your stereo. Though this song doesn’t spew with the emotion “Écailles de lune – part 1″ does, it’s very enjoyable and a certainly welcome addition to the CD.

Unfortunately, the winning streak ends rather abruptly. The next 3 songs do nothing but disappoint an Alcest-hungry metalhead like myself. “Abysses” is noise-filler. No point going in-depth on this one. “Solar Song” is just a projection of the the exact same problems and feelings of Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde had, but it just isn’t as captivating as any of the songs from Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde were. The instrumentation is relatively weak, the vocals get annoying and the song just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. “Sur l’ocean Couleur de Fer” just shows how comfortable Neige is with what works, the song is a fully acoustic symphony with fully clean vocals. But there just doesn’t seem to be anything here, a guitar and vocals. Whilst this may work with a lot of songs, all it does is draw back the veil that is Alcest – lack of innovation covered in beauty and oo’s and aa’s.

The contrast of quality in this album frustrates me beyond any album I’ve ever reviewed. We have songs that have (rightfully) earned their place in my list of favorite songs, and songs I just have to skip. This may have been fine if there wasn’t only 6 songs. I genuinely think Alcest should have just kept the first three songs, waited another year for other ideas to spur, and wrote a masterpiece. The first half of this album is wasted on the second half, and it almost breaks my heart to only give this a 2.5/5.0 knowing how good the first half is.

The Dillinger Escape Plan // Option Paralysis
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Gripping
Label: Seasons of Mist / Party Smasher
Websites: myspace.com/DillingerEscapePlan
Release Dates: EU: 22.03.2010 | US: 03.23.2010

The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s fourth record, Option Paralysis, has been one of the most anticipated records of this year so far. And for good reason, people are really taken by this band and their unique style. DEP has released some seriously wacky, sporadic records in the past that are both crazy and challenging and yet so very enticing and addictive—even teaming up with Mike Patton (and others) on an EP called Irony Is a Dead Scene. They’re a very hard band to stick into a genre, bordering on technical metal and hardcore as well as pulling in influences from industrial, jazz, acoustic rock and well, you name it, they can do it. That makes them feel very fresh—but can they maintain that freshness on Option Paralysis?

I could probably sum the review up in one word which answers the aforementioned question: yes. Option Paralysis, while not a terrible stretch from Ire Works, is still remarkably fun, layered and interesting to listen to. The band is able to keep themselves firmly straddling that border between experimental, progressive and sporadic and great poppy sensibility. While some have remarked that they want more blast and scream, from these guys, this Angry Metal Guy thinks it’s damn fresh to hear a band that is able to work clean parts, jazz piano solos and surf guitar tone onto an album without once coming off as feeling forced or even pretentious.

Instead, every track is a sonic adventure of beautifully structured and smartly written parts that blend with seemingly little effort. Vocalist Greg Puciato is definitely part of the reason for this, with a voice that can easily be described as “malleable.” There are very few vocalist I’ve heard like him who have the ability to take on a variety of vocal tones and ranges so that one could actually get the impression that there are different individuals singing different tracks throughout this album. Ranging between Patton and Claudio Sanchez (from Coheed & Cambria—which despite the band being lame, is not an insult), Puciato is remarkable. While being more of a death metal than hardcore kind of guy, I would prefer that he was a bit more guttural in his growls and less hardcore, one cannot deny that the sound works.

Of course, Puciato is far from the only member of this band and they all perform admirably. The music ranges between technical and ridiculous, to simplistic and heavy and even into the  more acoustic, as stated earlier, and everything is convincingly done and cohesive. This is one of those records that’s hard to choose standout tracks from, but “Gold Teeth on a Bum” is one of my favorites for its unique vocal performance and the big build at the end. “Widower”, filled with jazz piano and almost late NIN feel, is another fantastic track that I kept coming back to repeatedly. And, while every track on the second half of this album is great, “Chinese Whispers” stands out for its very cool rhythmic approach and a totally ridiculously intense vocal delivery.

The biggest issue with this record is that there are a few throwaway “aggressive” tracks that feel a little less cohesive with the whole, when the band has proven to be so effective at building tracks into perfectly executed chaos. There appears to be more energy for the big, epic and clean parts than there really is for the “mathcore” segments that the band has become so famous for. Both “Crystal Morning” and “Endless Endings” feel like filler and that’s a bit of a bummer, but as a smaller part of a very impressive whole, that is hardly an issue because DEP has once again managed to produce a gripping, brilliant album. Look for this record to be littering year-end top 10 lists. And check it out for yourself.

Borknagar // Universal
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Very good, feels unfocused at times and its definitely a grower..
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: myspace.com/borknagar
Release Dates: EU: 22.02.2010 | US. 03.02.2010

Borknagar is a class act and has been for a long time. Reaching all the way back to their first, self-titled release, this band has separated itself from the herd by being just plain more interesting and unique. Eventually they just separated themselves from the modern black metal scene altogether, heading towards more progressive pastures. Universal continues a trend away from the raw and simple towards the highly complex, dynamic and progressive—but the question is whether or not the band’s fans and general public will want to follow the band in this direction. Well, and whether or not where the band is leading is somewhere worth going.

Make no mistake about it Borknagar is a seriously talented and fantastic band. Even with the departure of longtime drummer Asgeir Mickelson, the band didn’t miss a beat (oh, hahahaha, I’m so funny) when they picked up American drummer David Kinkade who performs admirably while filling some of metal’s biggest drumming shoes. Vintersorg sounds fantastic as well, though he’s mixed quite far back on this record, more so than on previous albums. On a close listen, Universal is a record of incredible layers. All of the instruments are painting complex, elaborate, detailed and beautiful portraits which come together sometimes to create a grand tapestry of sound.

Unfortunately, all this epicness and detailed playing also leads to what I see as the biggest problem from which this record suffers: a lack of focus. While every song on the record has shining moments of beauty and clarity, Universal seems messy and hard to follow at times. Intros to tracks can feel like total non sequiturs when the verse actually starts, (see: “For A Thousand Years to Come”) or sometimes the instruments seemingly clash with each other instead of working together to create beautiful chords and harmonies. Particularly in my normal speakers, I found myself just wandering off mentally when this record started overload my ears with information that seemingly clashed. However, a deeper listen with earphones helped me see through this sort of foggy mix (metaphorically speaking) and helped me come to a better understanding of these tracks.

And let me say: there are some really strong tracks on this album. The opener, “Havoc” is sort of your standard Borknagar opener, but it has done its job and stuck in my head. “My Domain” which features a guest appearance from Simen Hestnæs is another track that stands out for its epic build, particularly to the end of the song and stands as a reminder of what a fantastic vocalist Simen really is (and what Dimmu Borgir lost). “Abrasian Tide” is probably the most reminiscent of Quintessence and Empiricism on the whole record, and it’s just a solid track from start to finish. But my personal favorite track on the album is probably “Fleshflower” which, while quite short by metal standards, features a fantastic neo-classical kind of melody and some really convincing vocal performances. All of these awesome tracks point me to the same conclusion, when the band stays focused, they are able to produce epic, fascinating and powerful tracks. The big problem is when they let their progressive urges get ahead of themselves and the tracks start to wander.

Of course, the above tracks are not the only ones on the album I like. Every song on here has stand out moments, but I still do feel like I just get lost at some points and really, this is the first album by Borknagar where I’m able to say that. I admittedly had some issues with Epic at times, but even that one I felt like had a lot more good than bad and I can honestly say that I never had to work at liking that record. Universal, on the other hand, is a record that I have put a ton of effort into dissecting and trying to enjoy because of the high regard I hold this band in. While in the end I still think that this is a pretty good record, it certainly didn’t manage to live up to my expectations and had I not been forced to write a cogent review of it, I don’t know whether or not I would have given it more than just a couple listens.

Petrychor // Dryad
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Solid post-black, intelligent and interesting
Label: Unsigned
Websites: petrychor.bandcamp.com | myspace.com/petrychor
Release Date: February, 9th, 2010

I frequently complain about black metal these days. Partially this is because I think that a lot of post-black metal is fucking boring and partially ’cause the not-post-black metal is also fucking boring. In general, black metal is in a place where nothing really that interesting is going on. Sure, there are bands out there that are putting out good material, but for the most part the signed stuff is  so-so and the classic bands are disappointing with new material and the state of the scene, in my opinion, is pretty sad. So I was pleasantly surprised to get turned onto this piece of art by the Californian do-it-yourselfer just called “T”. The project is called Petrychor and displays all of the things that I would hope to hear out of this budding scene sort of embodied in a single 3 song EP entitled Dryad.

There are two sides to this project melded into a single overarching concept, from what I can tell. The first, the piece that opens this record, is the epic and beautifully played steel string acoustic playing with a sound that deftly matches the old growth forest on the front cover of Dryad. A sound that is clean and fresh, but steeped in mystery and subtlety. The second side of Dryad is one of atmospheric, heavy but still crisply melodic black metal. Due to the production the music moves in waves, rather than any kind of technical precision that you see in other metal genres. The guitars, drums, bass and keyboards work together to build massive, epic walls of sound that flow smoothly while still being thick and forceful.

Of any band, I’d still say that Petrychor reminds me of early Ulver more than anything else that I really listen to. It has the same appreciation for beauty, the same intellectual acuity and the same dark core that drive me back to listen to Bergtatt, Kveldssanger, and Nattens Madrigal over and over. However, unlike other bands, most notably Agalloch, who have followed in the footsteps of the early Ulver work, this material is not derivative at all. “T” demonstrates a willingness to wander from the herd and to write a unique and, frankly, oddly catchy style of black metal that I’ve never really heard before. This individual is an excellent guitar player and writes solid melodic solos and the use of drum machine, particularly in the middle of the track “Gamma Leonis” indicates to me that T really doesn’t give a shit what the “trve” or “kvlt” types think.

I look forward to seeing what more Petrychor has to offer. It’s been a long time since any underground work has moved me to such exclamations and that’s the reason that I decided to write this review without any request for promo. This album is free for anyone to download at the project’s BandCamp profile (linked above) and I strongly suggest you go and download it and give a listen. And it’s definitely worth throwing 5 bucks at, I think. My only complaint is that there are no lyrics included anywhere for my perusal, but this is well worth the price of admission and your time.

Sigh // Scenes from Hell
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Best black metal I’ve heard in a long time
Label: The End Records
Websites: myspace.com/sighjapan | sighjapan.com
Release Dates: US: 01.19.2010 | EU: 29.01.2010

Let me start with the a territory that isn’t very comfortable for many in heavy metal: orchestrations. Heavy metal has seen many variations on the classical orchestration in many different subgenres. Neo-classical metal, like the wanky stuff with Yngwe or Symphony X, has long bragged about the influence of baroque and classical music. Bands like Rhapsody of Fire and Epica do things that sound like they should be straight out of a movie score and black metal even has a symphonic sub-genre, most notably filled by Dimmu Borgir, whose symphonics have gone over the top in the last few years with the addition of Mustis (though we’ll see what happens now that he’s gone). Never before in my tenure of heavy metal listening have I heard orchestrations used in a black metal record to such effect as they have been used on Sigh‘s new record Scenes from Hell.

There are not very many bands that have the kind of respect for progressiveness, yet extremity, that Japan’s very own Sigh has in the underground. Not only has Sigh managed to reinvent themselves pretty consistently, they still consistently produce records that are both extreme and yet somehow oddly catchy and palatable. There are not many bands that can say that they can do both of those things with any consistency. While Scenes from Hell doesn’t technically take on new territory, it does so with an approach that I think is highly novel and very interesting: not only do they use a real orchestra, but instead of using the orchestrations as a background to standard black metal they are instead used, often times, as the leading piece in the track. Where good riffs exist, there is very little orchestration or not at all. In these sections, the rawness and riffyness of this record stands out on its own. But, when the blazing riffs or death marches are added together with orchestrations that is where this record shines.

Scenes from Hell is a triumph of excellent orchestration, musicianship and performance. Simultaneously raw and beautiful, Sigh walks the line between beautiful classical music and raw black metal and never falters or falls too far into one or the other. I am reminded, actually, of Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s 2009 release Oracles by comparison, which is the only album that I feel comes close to the same kind superior approach to classical music—however, they did that completely without orchestrations, carrying the melodies on the guitars instead. However, it is the same qualities, the heavy melody and smart arrangements, and thereby unique approach to metal, that make these two albums similar in my book. If you’re looking to sample this record, something you shouldn’t do (seriously, just go buy it), you should check out the tracks “L’art de Mourir,” a perfect example of the contrasts this album offers between rawness and trumpet orchestrations, and “The Summer Funeral” a funeral dirge that will be stuck in your head for hours after you listen to it.

Honestly, the only complaint that I can even come up with at all is that the production could be better. However, I’m actually torn on this as well, as I think the production actually helps keep this raw. Some of the modern orchestrated black metal stuff, in my opinion, has lost a lot of its rawness and atmosphere. While the production on this record is totally claustrophobic, it gives the orchestra the room it needs and it keeps the metal nice and raw. In some ways, the production, which some have complained about, is probably the best way they could have produced this record. Not too clean, but not too muddy as to lose the good contrasts.

In any case, I think that this is the best follow-up to Hangman’s Hymn that’s even possible. I think a lot of people will claim, unfortunately, that these two records are far too similar to each other and that Hangman’s Hymn is superior. I think neither of these claims are true. The writing on Scenes from Hell is not thematic and because of the production, and where the orchestrations sit, it also draws itself away from the pack when it comes to symphonic black metal. Scenes from Hell will go down as a masterwork of black metal, in my book, and shows that black metal can still be creative and interesting. Buy it.

As posted on the official forum, here’s footage of Mr. V singing.  It’s short, but if you’re a fan, it sounds good.

Yup!! I’m stoked.