Sigh - In Somniphobia
It’s always been a puzzle to me how Japan’s Sigh have managed to escape the confines of anonymity throughout their career. Don’t get me wrong, I realize having your debut album on some dude named Euronymous’ label near the peak of the Second Wave’s misanthropic headline-making doesn’t hurt. It also helps if said debut leads off with a Black Metal anthem as timelessly bad-ass as “A Victory of Dakini.” But not long after this, my interest in Sigh dropped off the face of the Earth. I seem to remember a cool bootleg CD of Venom covers, but I’m still waiting on the urge to hear Venom songs result in me reaching for anything other than Venom albums. The music I’ve heard from Sigh over the last decade or so hasn’t even been music. It’s been some kind of shit sandwich on LSD that weaklings at weak mags drool over. In Somniphobia is at least coherent. By far the most Metal they’ve sounded since I was wrapping up the 9th grade. Still, it’s pure shit. I’d literally rather watch reruns of The Golden Girls than subject myself to this unmemorable riff collage. It’s not enough for me to be thankful that a Sigh album actually has riffs. I haven’t seen it yet, but I know in my heart that the aforementioned happy faggot publications will try to tell you that this is the most meaningful music penned since John Lennon’s “Imagine.” It’s not. It sounds like a lower-tier US Black Metal band from 1999 trying to be Cradle of Filth. I don’t care if there’s a hot girl in this band, playing the recorder or whatever she does, I’m NEVER going to fuck her. This LP is a boredom quilt. I’d rather change the battery on a Chevy Lumina naked in subzero temperatures than force myself to like this happy Black/Thrash jam session. Go ahead and close the book. Scorn Defeat is still the only one you need.
(12) Comment(s)
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admin said:
Poor “GhostOfJesus” can’t take a hint and just keeps coming back for more. Masochist.
Ychoril said:
I realize that I’m late to the party on this but since this was not in my review queue, I had to get hold of a copy of this and then listen to this a bunch of times before I felt that I could comment on this album. I can easily see why Jack doesn’t like this. This sounds like what would happen if Mr. Bungle and John Zorn decided to form a Power Metal band. In Somniphobia is straight-out bat shit crazy. The experimental weirdness dominates this far more than it did on Scenes From Hell. I don’t mind that. I long since accepted the fact that Sigh wasn’t doing Blackened Thrash Metal anymore. What irked me about this album was that while it was “out there”, it wasn’t dark or evil sounding. I compared this to Scenes From Hell and the tones and feelings that are on In Somniphobia are more upbeat and “sunny” than the dark and twisted morbidity that was Scenes From Hell. Scenes From Hell dragged you down into the underworld while In Somniphobia dances around under sunlit skies. I may not be as scathing as Jack in my dislike of this album, I agree that this isn’t Sigh’s greatest work. I wanted this album to go from sunny skies to a harrowing nightmare and it never happened. The thing about Sigh’s experimental stuff that I liked was that their albums sounded like soundtracks to a horror movie. This album didn’t have that quality and its absence was glaringly obvious. In a back-to-back comparison, Scenes From Hell eats this album alive (or tentacle-rapes this one to death, if you’re Japanese…). I give this one a 6.
@GhostOfOden and all of the others that hated on Jack’s review
I’ve seen a lot of words about how bad Jack’s review was but I’ve yet to see anyone provide an alternate review from their own perspective. I’ve put mine up. Let’s see someone else do the same.