Sigh - Gallows Gallery

By NickBlaze

My Rating

Music - 9.5/10
Vocals - 8.5/10
Length - 4/10 (are they seriously thinking 45:41 is long for this many tracks?!)
Songs - 9/10
Overall - 9/10

Overview

This is the newest album released by the black/death bands, Sigh. This album was made last year, in 2004, but their label refused to release it. Why? Well, because it has sonic weapons experimentation, of course! What this means, is beyond most of us, but it's noted that in World War II, this "weapon" was going to be used, which would result in making soldiers sick and unable to fight, thus winning the war really easily. One of their members, Mirai, became sick in creating this album and had to be hospitalized for a time.

HOWEVER, the sonic weapons were ONLY effective if used at extremely high or low frequencies, which most people do not have access to (recording rooms do). Regardlessly, the album wasn't released by their former record label. One year later, September 11th, they release this album under a different record label (Baphomet).

This album is completely unlike anything Sigh has ever done before. Unlike most Sigh songs, this isn't black or death metal, but instead heavy metal/power metal. Gone is their usual harsh vocalist (although I'd like it better if they used their old style of singing a few times in the album). Not only that, but it's HIGHLY melodic. It has an 80's feel to it, with jazz and classical influences. It also had TONS of guests involved in it. Below is a list of all the guest musicians and what they did in the album:

Gus G. (Firewind, ex-Dream Evil): Guitar Solo
Niklas Sundin (Dark Tranquility): Guitar Solo
Killjoy (Necrophagia): Voices, Narration
Gunface (The Red Chord): Guitar Solo
Bruce Lamont (Yakuza): Saxophones
Metatron (Meads of Asphodel): Narration
Paul Groundwell (Thine): Guitar Solo

As you can see, most aren't Japanese. Also note Bruce Lamont on saxophones, showing the jazz influence a bit.

Track Listing

1) Pale Monument - 9/10 - 3:53 minutes.
Starts slow for about 15 seconds, then it picks up. The non-harsh singing starts along with awesome keyboarding, which is what Sigh has been VERY good at and made VERY apparent in their album "Imaginary Sonicscape" and "Hail Horror Hail". Whether or not this song has a guest solo or not, it's very catchy.

2) In a Drowse -9.5/10 - 3:27 minutes
My friend claims this as his favorite song out of the album, and I don't deny that it's very good. Starts of fwith a sax solo and the singing starts with various choruses. Not to mention the saxophone playing in the background. In this song it's also apparent of the classical music, which I believe are cellos.

3) The Enlightenment Day - 8/10 - 3:33 minutes
In this song it's most apparent that Mirai's the harsh vocalist of the band, but he still sings as clearly as he can. I would say that there's a guest solo in this song, although by who I cannot be sure. Plus an interesting ending...

4) Confession To Be Buried -9/10 - 6:21 minutes
Starts with a guest narration you can actually hear, some strange sounding singing which, once the music starts, sounds great. The narration relaly adds to the music. It's the closest thing i nthe album to harsh singing, and it's nothing more than raspy whispering. Also highly classical and ends uniquely. I'm afraid to say the ending might be "sonic weapons experimentation". The chorus is inverted (sung backwards) at the end, a bell rings, and end song. Unique.

5) The Tranquilizer Song - 8.5/10 - 3:20 minutes
Starts off classical and then unison singing starts. All in all, this song is rather soft, with the pianos and classical influences. From what I believe, there's also a faint female operatic singer as well. Choruses galore... and it ends beautifully with one as well.

6) Midnight Sun - 9.5/10 - 3:45 minutes
This is possibly my favorite. Guitar and keyboard starts off with one of my favorite keyboard intros of all time. The keyboard plays throughout the entire song and goes well with the singing and dual-singing. About a minute in,t he saxophone starts playing. Amazing song.

7) Silver Universe - 8/10 - 3:51 minutes
Starts off heavy and hard on the clean vocals, if that makes sense. I really like the dual-singing in this one and the chorus, although in the beginning I thought they sounded redundant, later on I thought wrong. The saxophone is somewhat audible in this one, although it's not entirely audible for the most part. And you can't forget the keyboard. It ends off with a GREAT guitar solo, which I suppose is a guest solo, and it ends in a guest narration, too.

8) Gavotte Grim - 8/10 - 7:26 minutes
I'm not sure what's playing in the beginning, but it sounds like a wind instrument. Then a piano starts playing with omnious music and a guest narration you can't hear. Drums and guitar solo start. This song is somewhat slower, but still very good. It feels more metal than The Tranquilizer Song, because the guitar solos are more prevalent. High classical influence. Ends simply by fading out.

9) Messiah Plan - 9.5/10 - 3:47 minutes
This one is on their MySpace and is AMAZING. It starts off with an amazing solo and then speeds up really fast. No matter how many times I hear this song, I love it just as much. I wouldn't doubt there's a guest solo or two in here. Although in most of these songs you can't really hear what they're saying, I'm guessing it's all in English. Chorus and dual-singing is amazing and almost tear-jerking to me. Although there are a lot of metal songs like that to me... and it ends with a lovely solo.

10) - - 1/10? - 2:12 minutes
Sometimes I question what's put onto these albums. This so-caleld "song" doesn't have a name. Until half way through, tyou can't hear anything (sonic weapons experimentation... maybe?) and when the ... something starts playing, I'm afraid I don't know what it is. Whatever it is, it scares me that it might be the sonic weapons experimentation we were warned about, although I haven't felt anything strange after hearing it. A complete waste, really, although it's interesting trying to figure out why it's even in existance. This is also a "hidden" track.

11) The Tranquilizer Song (David Horrow Mix) -8.5/10 - 4:02 minutes
Not sure what's different about this and the original, aside from some warped singing. Still, good.

Where Can You Buy the CD?

YesAsia

CD Japan

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