Sigh — Imaginary Sonicscape

Mirai, the frontman of Sigh - the always surprising Japanese metal band, has said about Imaginary Sonicscape: "We consider our new album to be a 21st century metal album with 70's equipment, 80's metal spirit and 90's digital technique". I tend to agree with this description but I'd like to add that this album is simply awesome (I'm sure that Mirai was too humble to admit that)!

Many bands that consider themselves as making "serious", "experimental", "advanced", "for the open minded", "progressive" or simply "avant-garde" music often forget to include one thing: the "kickass!" factor (this should be the name of a new show on NBC). What this band does is that they start by writing a cool, totally straightforward rockish-metal song with occult/horror themed lyrics and then they pile up stuff on top! And what good stuff it is!

It might seem like a crude way of doing things (and maybe they don't really do it like that - it's just my guess), but it's so well done that it works! What makes this album so listenable is that it doesn't contain lots of weird experimental sounds for their own sake; everything is there to serve and spice up the songs, and let me tell you that they are rock-solid and catchy. So what you get is some thick rhythm guitars (often playing harmonies), some deceptively simple yet fitting and solid drumming and Mirai's rasped vocals all wrapped up in a pristine production and then suddenly a very cool vintage analog keyboard right out of a 70s prog band comes floating on top. As a point of reference for the more metal people, those keyboards sounds similar to what Dan Swanö used on his Moontower album, and to all you non-metal people, it sounds similar to so many 70s bands it's not eve funny (Yes, Kansas, etc) - well, actually it's quite good and funny.

So if you're the kind of person who's not afraid of hearing a metal song with a reggae breakdown, hand clapping or some children samples, Sigh might be exactly what you're looking for! And for all you Sigh fans and fanatics, I must recommend this album very strongly; it's even better than Sigh's older masterpiece "Hail Horror Hail"!

A Must buy and certainly one of the best albums of 2001.