Now this is more like it. On Sigh’s last album, the Japanese lunatics took a deviation from their signature extreme take on avant garde metal with a decidedly clean vocal tribute to traditional metal and prog rock keyboard experimentation. While the album was as solid as anything you’d expect from Sigh, it was by no means their strongest output. Hangman’s Hymn is more of a return to form, acting as a template that sews together all the elements of Sigh’s last several releases into a lumbering beast of insanity, melody, and bizarre personality.

Hangman’s Hymn brings back Mirai’s blackened vocal styles and the bizarre orchestration and song structures of past Sigh releases (i.e. Imaginary Sonicscape, Hail Horror Hail) while at the same time maintaining the same style of solo and guest work found on Gallows Gallery (The Red Chord’s Gunface returns to apply additional solos, aided by members of Giant Squid, Enforsaken, and others). The end result of this melding resembles what can best be described as the metal equivalent of a musical circus comprised totally of schizophrenics, murderers, madmen, demons, and amputee fetishists. I have no idea how the amputee fetishists work themselves in there, but it wouldn’t convey the same sense of goofy insanity if they weren’t present, so we’ll assume they’re there. The music possesses an orchestral metal feel, complete with backing melodic chorus, but will immediately break into the retro-soloing found on the previous album. Mirai screams, yelps, and laughs like an asylum inmate throughout the record, painting a mental picture similar to the promo photographs of the lead vocalist of Silencer. You know, the guy lying in the corner, bandaged and bloodied, with no sense of identity and just screaming away like he saw some Lovecraftian best arise out of the shadows to eat him. The musicianship is tight, but nothing overly technical; it fits the grandiose feel of the orchestral motif throughout the record and is quick enough to change direction on the fly when Sigh wants to disorient the listener with its purely crazy style.

All in all, it’s everything you expect from a Sigh album. It’s pure pandemonium. If you were at all disappointed by the direction Gallows Gallery took, this album will more than wash away the bad taste. And if you haven’t been exposed to Sigh yet, jump right on in; Hangman’s Hymn is too good to pass up.

Written By: Necro-tron