Sigh: Imaginary Sonicscape Review

Imaginary Sonicscape (2001) by Sigh is a technicolor black metal masterpiece, the sound of a brilliant experimental band at the absolute pinnacle of their power and clearly having a ball with it. Sigh weave a rich tapestry of unrelated, maybe even opposed, influences, pulling it all together into one shimmering cohesive whole. Even compared to their own discography, I find Imaginary Sonicscape is a high water mark, the perfect intersection of ambition, absolute disrespect for genre convention, and a genuine avant-garde sensibility.

Imaginary Sonicscape sits at a turning point in Sigh's discography. Scorn Defeat (1993) through Ghastly Funeral Theatre (1997) were meditations on doom, folk, and some early flirtation with electronica, mostly in the form of spooky synthesizers and open soundscapes. Hail Horror Hail (1997) and Scenario IV: Dread Dreams (1999) bring in more uptempo rock and industrial influences. On the other side, much of what would come after after Imaginary Sonicscape pushes in a more orchestral, symphonic direction, somewhat less overtly chaotic than what's found here, before Sigh would finally settle into a more streamlined guitar-forward synths-and-shred sound. The midpoint between these is... extraordinary. Imaginary Sonicscape is the sound of a band that have realized just how far they can push the envelope, and just how flexible they are as composers and musicians. Importantly, this means all of the genuinely stunning musical changeups feel like the best tool for the job, not ways of jumpscaring the listener. There's an authenticity to even the most absurd moments on this album, a lack of winking at the camera that elevates the entire thing.

Atop soaring synthesizers, nested self-interruptions, and surreal, glitchy soundscapes, this album is... catchy. Like, catchy in the way Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" is catchy. The anthemic chorus of "Corpsecry - Angelfall" lands with even the most intractible of distortion haters in my life, and the completely inexplicable lounge music break in "A Sunset Song" brings an incredulous smile to my face every time. It's an album with perfect control of its own atmosphere and tone, surely aware of its own absurdity but delivered with a seriousness that never has you questioning why Sigh have a tighter grasp of the concept of groove than anyone not belonging to ABBA or named James Brown.

Special attention must be given to lead guitarist Shinichi Ishikawa's work on the album, which catapults this album into prog brilliance, while also delivering the most major key music you'll ever hear on a black metal album. There's no doubt Ishikawa is a monster shredder, but his choice to stay firmly in the blues dimension for virtually all of his soloing on this album lends a certain je ne sais quoi, a conventional grounding that helps contextualize the rest of the album's surreality. "Dreamsphere (Return to the Chaos)," for example, is awash in recessed whispers and coarse synthesizer swells, and when it comes to Ishikawa to close it out, he cuts through the chaos with a clean, uplifting blues solo before sending it home on a call back to the song's main motifs. The solo on "Corpsecry - Angelfall," likewise, is shepherded in by a handful of sparkling guitar arpeggios before moving towards a sequence of simple, embellished, bluesy bends.

Whatever the call, Ishikawa is more than upy to the task, unquestionably a major reason this album is as lush and vivid as it is. Over ten minutes, "Slaughtergarden Suite" ascends from industrial soundscapes to hopeful guitar calls, from vocoded screams and strings to off-the-rails game show music, and then to simple, tight, cutting riffs... over a distinctly g-funk synthesizer trill. At this point, the song still has four minutes to go. "Ecstatic Transformation," meanwhile, closes with a delightfully upbeat duel between Ishikawa's guitar and frontman Mirai Kawashima's organ, set atop a bed of claps.

The brilliance of this album comes in no small part from its sense of restraint. For a black metal album, Imaginary Sonicscape rarely tears out of more straightforward rock tempos, and drummer Satoshi Fujinami keeps things relatively laid back for the most part. There's not a single blast beat to be found on this album, and I think that's for the better. Not to say the drums don't put in work; they're recorded exceptionally well, and are complemented by a suite of claps, snaps, shakers, bells, and tambourines, all serving to add color rather than density.

The real tragedy of this album is you will only hear it for the first time once. Imaginary Sonicscape is blindingly brilliant, spectacularly fun, and intensely emotional at times. It is a truly singular experience that I cannot recommend enough.