Sigh - In Somniphobia

Were you someone disappointed by the last Opeth record? Could you not jive with Opeth's abandonment of metal? Do you like 70s influences, but can't forsake heaviness? Was it all just too happy for you?

Sigh's latest record, In Somniphoria, may be the Heritage you were actually looking for.

Make no mistake, the Japanese unit do not do metal by numbers. Right from the start, organs have such a huge presence on the record - Sigh are almost the black-thrash Deep Purple. The band leads off fast and tight with “Purgatorium,” a number that maintains its metal dominance even when violins take over briefly. “The Transfiguration Fear Lucid Nightmares” features righteous galloping riffs complemented by Jon Lord-inspired solos and sweeps. Dr. Mikannibal (the “Dr.” is real – she has a Ph.D. in physics), the band's saxophonist and backing vocalist, makes her first appearance on the record on “Transfiguration” with a small sax break that's a premonition for her more expansive solo during “Amnesia.”

The first two tracks are not conventional by any means, but are among the most metallic on the record. It's the interlude “Lucid Nightmare” that marks the “I didn't know you smoked that wet” feeling Sigh's known for really kicking in. From here on out, the album feels like a fever dream, a constant state of disorientation. Did “Somniphobia” twice descend into fun-house-mirror trip-hop? Is vocalist and mastermind Mirai Kawashima really growling over an accordion in “Amongst the Phantoms of Abandoned Tumbrils?” Hold on, did they get George Benson on “Equale” or is that guitar solo just so buttery? You might question those moments, and understandably so, but they did happen. This all may seem random, but given Kawashima's experience as a composer for TV and video games, he makes every quirk fit. And given how easily experimental stuff can turn into a stew of quarter-baked ideas, that's no easy feat.

A seemingly minor detail that becomes a key aspect to the trippy feeling are the tiny noises that Kawashima and company were sprinkle in throughout the record. There are bird chirps low in the mix in “Far Beneath the In-Between” that further serve to keep you on your toes, and “L'excommunication” has oddball quacking that, once you notice it, you can't block out. Sigh also make use of radio noises during the course of Somniphoria, making you question where you actually are during the record. “Phantoms” uses this effect in the most jarring way by abruptly switching between static, piano, and shattering glass.

The lyrics of Somniphobia also reflect a sense of uncontrollable madness, as Kawashima screams in one verse of “Somniphobia” that “Colours I have never seen/Shapes that should not have been/My limbs that I am losing/My mind this fear is confusing/My sight, but I see with no eyes/Mark my words, which now mean nothing but lies/The world within my imagination/(Going) through the transformation.” In “Transfiguration,” he laments that “All I could do was to pray/Though I know it won't pay/Once caught in this dream, you'll never escape it....” Dude's out of his head, if he was ever in it to begin with, but he captures the feeling well.

Like all of Sigh's records, Somniphoria can be a bit much to digest. This is a album that certainly takes a minimum of two listens for it to “click,” but when it does, it's a rewarding adventure.

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