SIGH - Imaginary Sonicscape 2-LP (Black Vinyl)

Limited to 250 copies on black vinyl.

For me, some of the most important characteristic of good art is that it arouses strong emotions, moves us to a different reality, lets us distance ourselves to our lives and surroundings and creatively and smartly uses the available resources. As for music albums, there are many that have these characteristics, but only few of them use them so brilliantly, that the effect on the listener is strong, clear, but yet unobvious and varied. I think that the best of them is Imaginary Sonicscape by Sigh. The title suggests what you can expect from it, but probably not the greatness of it all.

This "sonicscape" is what sucks you in immediately as you start playing the album. Sigh don't care if you are prepared or not. They greet you with extremely catchy riffs right away. What can be felt since hearing the first riff is that the music sounds more like heavy metal, than, what somebody new to Sigh could expect more, black metal. There's a lot of catchiness and melody here and, as it might seem, very little darkness or mysticism. But once you go deeper into the record, hear the vocals, read the lyrics, analyze the melodies, you realize that this piece of art is really dark and filled with pain and bitterness. But all of it is disguised in a cover of sweetness, catchiness and happiness. This makes this record be out of any genre or mood labels and boundaries. It's a style of its own, a world of its own and a league of its own.

Not only the lack of pure characteristics of any metal genre makes this record stand out that way. Many of the songs have elements of other music genres and the use of instruments that are normally not used in any classic metal genre. In the combination that many musicians would fail at, the masters Sigh created a new, enormously intriguing and strange (in a good way) taste which bases on a conscious way of using kitsch, contrast and grotesque. It's hard to tell which exact emotions these songs arouse. The easiest way to describe the emotional charge of this music is that it portrays mood swings and hopelessness. And does this in a genius way.

But what makes it so brilliant is not only the ambitious way of arousing emotions. Actually, it seems like the band tries to musically tell that, even though many things might seem dead serious here, they're not and it's still just art and fiction. Not only the use of unexpected melodies and intruments makes you feel this way, but also the moments of the songs filled with pure fun. Because, besides all the lofty stuff, this music is also very well-digestible and fun to listen to. Part of it is the mastery of surprising the listener and causing him dopamine spikes by sudden mood and tempo changes. There are even some "breaks" when you can take a rest from banging your head and other engaging activities - Angelfall (the ending of the first track), Nietzschean Conspiracy, Impromptu (Allegro Maestoso) and some parts of the rest of the songs. But those are definitely not fillers. In contrast to many similar tracks on other black metal albums, Nietzschean Conspiracy could easily be listened to separately, as it's simply an intriguing song.

No words can describe this masterpiece well enough. Play it and let the sonicscape suck you in.