Hangman's Hymn - Musikalische Exequien

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.