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  • #9 album of 2012 – In Somniphobia by Sigh

    #9 album of 2012 – In Somniphobia by Sigh

    Artist: Sigh

    Album: In Somniphobia

    It may be me showing my age, but I choose never to hang my reviews on your assumed knowledge of today’s fragmented genres. For one thing, the huge, goofy grins I get playing Sigh‘s In Somniphobia  have nothing to do with, e.g., All Music Guide’s claim that Sigh began in 1993 as a founder of Japanese black metal with thrash leanings, then evolved towards extreme sigh_japanese_metalmetal with avant-garde leanings. But even if that description did feel true, I’d want to start you somewhere more familiar, part of shared culture.

    For Sigh, to me, that’s easy. Thirty years ago, anyone who cared to could keep up with heavy-metal, and millions did: it sounded triumphant, like Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Van Halen (wagging their dicks to Eddie’s glorious pseudo-classical riffs), and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (uh, work with me on this one, k?). Sigh play faster, have a better/ fiercer drummer (Junichi Harashima), and replace the singers with grunting trolls. But they also take those old tropes, and infuse them with endless cascades of melody. Despite the vocals, In Somniphobia is the most tuneful heavy metal album I’ve heard — and quite possibly, despite lyrics about enslavement and eternal torment and “nocturnal visions invad[ing] my sanity”, the most joyous. If Ludwig van Beethoven had composed his symphonies for modern metal bands, Sigh would get the parts marked “vivace” and “allegro con brio”.

    The most traditional circa-1980 riffs and solos here are on Purgatorium, the Transfiguration Fear, and Fall to the Thrall. The textures behind the loud guitar-/bass/drums are varied, though. Purgatorium has violin, elegant enough to play for customers at fancy restaurants; sprinklings of piano; and organ fanfare. Transfiguration Fear features hand-drums, hand-claps, spooky theremin whistling, female Viking backup singers, and a poppy saxophone solo by full-time band member Dr. Mikannibal. Fall to the Thrall also has thrashy Metallica Master of Puppets-style sections, but balances them with passages of romantic lead piano for the guitars to play shiny tunes alongside.

    Stuff like that would already avoid metal’s most frequent failing for me, the part where a band’s songs blend together (an issue even Sigh faced on my prior exposure to them, the darker, heavier, and otherwise quite impressive Scenes from Hell (’10)). But those songs understate how many tricks Sigh have mastered. Somniphobia‘s riffs are meaner, more angular, elevated by singing orcs and hints of saxophone squall, before breaking into a slow-dance for Mexican robots and airport P.A. announcers. L’Excommunication a Minuit has a pulse-racing propulsion that reminds me the “Mission Impossible” theme, peppy sax, and cackling birds. Far Beneath the In-Between, in 3/4 time, is truly dark and howling for much of its length, but can’t resist a glorious melodic refrain that feels like a bar mitzvah band after the part where all the adults have had time to get drunk. (Assuming the adults are old-time Jewish dwarf miner/ warriors, sure.) Amnesia, also in 3/4 time with lots of sax and piano, would be sexy-time music in a movie, at least the kind of movie where the sex scene is intercut with the gathering outside the building of the specialist-team hunting for (or planting) explosives. Amongst the Phantoms of Abandoned Tumbrils — dusky and dramatic, soaring with bells and synth-birdcalls when a lift is needed, with too a decent synthesizer replacement for harmonica — would be perfect for improving for the 55% of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy that’s long, long, long shots of characters walking. Equale doesn’t sound to me like Deep Purple, Sting, Dire Straits, and Slayer jamming together with a harpsichordist on variations from baroque sheet music, but only because — as I don’t think that collaboration would — it flows smoothly, like the most obvious thing in the world.

    I review Sigh as a heavy-metal fan (although less of one than my 2012 countdown must imply; 2012 was, for me, an *amazing* year for the genre). Heavy metal fandom is certainly useful for appreciating it: the riffs, the gleaming solos, the blastbeat drums. It’s useful for accepting the shredded vocal croaking as amusingly beside-the-point, for hearing the giddiness in routine lyrics like “Bring out your dead withered skin/ Bring out your dead languid limbs”. Maybe it’s even helpful for appreciating the basic stupid joy of, on separate songs, “I live! You die!”, “You will die tonight!”, “Your fate is on fire, the trap behind you!”, and — for variety — “Kill me now!”.

    But I’m not kidding about Beethoven. In Somniphobia is a huge burst of melody-driven expressionism. It’s a burst that at least seems informed by the classics. Ludwig didn’t live to experience electricity, amplifiers, distortion pedals; he put his grooming into powdered wigs instead of flowing, chest-length natural hair dyed Manic Panic yellow. I think the poor guy missed out. And I think it’s at least 50/50 that he’d agree with me.

    – Brian Block

    To see the rest of our favorites, visit our Favorite Albums of 2012 page!

     

  • American Idol Season 12: Cutting Down To 4

    Paula Abdul

    Photo of Paula via her Twitter page

    Before I get to anything, I have to get to the biggest news first. Paula Abdul was back on American Idol y’all!

    Last night, Candice performed Paula’s Straight Up. Ryno asked Randy if he’d talked to Paula to get her thoughts and Randy said he couldn’t get a hold of her. And then, Paula walked up behind Ryno and Candice. Paula was her usual nervously spoken self, but it didn’t matter. Paula was back!

    Ryno even let her sit with the judges, which gave us a Nicki Minaj g-string sighting when she bowed to Paula.

    Who rocked the stage?

    I love that Thursdays have become alumni night. First, Clay Aiken came back to sing Bridge Over Troubled Water.

    And before Fantasia came on to sing Lose To Win, we got to catch up with Latoya London who is trying to get her singing career going.

    Of course, Fantasia rocked it. To me, she’s still the single best performer in the history of American Idol.

    I’m not quite sure why Fantasia’s performance isn’t on the American Idol YouTube channel, but here’s the video to the song she performed.

    Who were in the bottom two?

    Ryno had to do this quickly as they were low on time.

    He sent Candice, Angie, and Amber to freedom which left Janelle and Kree (Summer) in the bottom two.

    Interestingly, I mentioned that I thought Kree was on cruise control Wednesday night.

    I also hedged on my prediction here last week that Janelle might be in trouble by saying that I thought Amber would leave because the fans simply don’t dig her style. Well, they did this week.

    If they didn’t, Nicki would’ve told them, “Simmer down, sir.”

    Who went home?

    It was time for Janelle. It wasn’t time for Kree (Summer). The elephant in the room was if the judges would use the save on Janelle so that we could have final five diva showdown part two. I don’t believe they can use it past this week. But it wasn’t meant to be. They think this should be the final four.

    Janelle goes home sweet home. She was just a notch below the other four women.

    Next week’s themes are one-hit wonders (which is a fan pick) and contestant’s choice. I don’t think they’ll be able to top this week, but it still should be excellent.

  • When music is a comfort…

    When music is a comfort…

    Times of trouble are when music is a comfort…

    B Strong for Boston
    B Strong for Boston
    Yesterday, I read about how in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, the New York Yankees honored their opponents, the Boston Red Sox, by playing Neil Diamond’s classic hit, “Sweet Caroline”. I don’t follow baseball, but I read that “Sweet Caroline” is a song traditionally played at Red Sox games and sung along to by Red Sox fans. That the Yankees played it in their honor was very classy, but their gesture had an odd effect on me. I found myself tearing up as I read about how the Yankees, indeed how New York City, showed love and solidarity toward Boston following the tragedy that had visited their city on a day that should have been celebratory.


    A clip of “Sweet Caroline” at the Yankees vs. Red Sox game…

    Unfortunately, this is not the first time tragedy out of violence has visited the United States, especially during the month of April. For some reason, as spring arrives, so does a certain insanity, which brings with it people who commit terrible acts against others. And it seems to be getting worse instead of better. Over the past twenty years, the third week of April has brought Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, Columbine, the Virginia Tech Massacre, and now the Boston Marathon bombings.

    Now, every September 11th, we remember what happened on 9/11/01. My husband, Bill, who was then my boyfriend, was working in the Pentagon when it was struck by American Airlines Flight 77. I did not know if he was dead or alive that entire day. Later, he showed up on Yahoo! Messenger to let me know he’d escaped unscathed. About a month later, Bill escorted family members of one of the 9/11 victims at the Pentagon to a memorial service. He later described the service to me, telling me that the organizers had chosen a beautiful piece of music that he could not name. He said it was a very moving and comforting piece, like a balm for those who were so grief stricken following the shocking events of September 11th.

    I remember back in September 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, turning on James Taylor’s 1997 album, Hourglass, and being very soothed by it as I saw the terrible images of people who had lost everything in the massive storm. James Taylor released that album just after losing his father and a few years after having lost his older brother, Alex, to a heart attack. Alex Taylor died on James’s 45th birthday, in part due to his alcoholism. The songs on Hourglass are largely about the troubled times Taylor had endured in the 1980s and 90s. In 1996, he was freshly divorced from his second wife, Kathryn Walker. He seemed to be struggling to make sense of the world with that album, and yet I found it so very comforting as I watched the news and saw so many sad, anguished people.


    “Enough To Be On Your Way”, a tribute to James Taylor’s brother, Alex.


    “Jump Up Behind Me”, a song James Taylor wrote to honor his father, who rescued him when he was struggling with depression and drug addiction as a young man.

    Beth Nielsen Chapman has written several songs that are comforting. Her song “Sand and Water” has been used in several prime time television shows in scenes involving death. She wrote it after having lost her husband, Ernest Chapman, to cancer in 1994. The song has since provided comfort to people who are grieving, but the words are so deeply personal. In the song, she references her son, Ernest, who was a young teenager when he lost his father.


    Beth Nielsen Chapman performs “Sand and Water” with Kieran Goss at the Grand Opera House in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

    Another song that Beth Nielsen Chapman sings that I personally find very comforting is “Godspeed”, which she co-wrote with Annie Roboff. The song was included on the 2001 compilation, The Prince of Egypt: Nashville. The first time I heard this song in 2004, I fell in love with it. It never fails to bring a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes.


    Someone used “Godspeed” in a YouTube memorial for Princess Diana.

    When Bill and I lost our beloved “bagel” dog MacGregor, who died rather suddenly after we discovered a malignant tumor invading his spinal column, I found myself comforted by several bluegrass songs. I know MacGregor was just a dog, but he was a very special companion to Bill and me. Music helped us process the pain in losing him. When Alison Krauss was an up and coming star, she recorded a beautiful song called “On Heaven’s Bright Shore”, which always makes me feel better when I lose someone dear… after a good cry, of course.


    I’m not particularly religious, but this song always comforts me, as does Rhonda Vincent’s beautiful tribute “I Will See You Again”.


    About twenty minutes after we lost MacGregor, this song popped up on my iPod. Bill and I were driving home from NC State’s veterinary school with tears rolling down our cheeks. Even as I write this, I’m getting choked up from the memory.

    I wish we didn’t have such a need to grieve right now. Just months after the Sandy Hook shootings in Connecticut, we are once again plunged into the shock of unexpected violence perpetrated by someone who felt the need to make a statement with violence against innocent people. Just this morning, I read about a massive blast at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, that could have been the result of an accident or criminal activity. At this writing, it’s not clear what’s happened or why. As you process the senseless events of this week, I wish you peace and the right music to bring you comfort.