pyroflare77
User

Soundoffs 34
Album Ratings 1683
Objectivity 61%

Last Active 02-17-22 1:12 am
Joined 02-03-09

Review Comments 161

 Lists
03.16.24 Trha Ranked ♦08.27.23 Blut aus Nord Ranked
05.25.23 Gorguts Ranked05.24.23 Death Ranked
05.01.23 Iron Maiden Ranked12.22.22 Opeth Ranked
08.27.22 Sigh Ranked ♦01.31.18 The Best of Melodic Death Metal ♦
11.20.16 Kamelot Ranked01.31.16 Megadeth Ranked
07.29.15 Symphony X Ranked06.23.15 Top 40 Progressive Death Metal Albums
06.22.15 Top 40 Technical Death Metal Albums10.08.14 Nevermore Ranked
01.12.14 Plugging Some Obscure Artists

Sigh Ranked

Sigh is one of the most consistently inconsistent bands I've heard. I dove into their discography recently with the announcement of Shiki, because I hadn't really listened to most of the albums these legends had made. I return with my findings.
13Sigh
Gallows Gallery

And I start things off by antagonizing some of the fanbase. This album is an outlier in Sigh's discography because it's the only album where they try out power metal, and it's the only album with no harsh vocals. Mirai's growls aren't the greatest, but at least they've always fit, and they would have worked here if he wasn't a coward and changed to mediocre clean vocals for whatever reason. The album's cheesy and starts out fine, but the songwriting isn't varied enough, so it all kind of blends together until one song near the end that actually feels like a Sigh album. I want to like this more than I do, and it's frustrating because with just a few tweaks I think I would like this a lot more.
12Sigh
Ghastly Funeral Theatre

This EP feels like Sigh did a split with themselves. Half of the songs are metal, half are prog rock, and all of them are simply okay. Maybe this could have found its footing if it wasn't an EP, but it ends before it can even begin.
11Sigh
Scenario IV: Dread Dreams

This album feels like the B-Sides to Hail Horror Hail. Everything I will say about that album applies here, but it's lower because it's more atmospheric and less riff-centric. It's more consistent than Hail Horror Hail, but there's definitely less peaks. It's alright.
10Sigh
Hangman's Hymn

Sigh makes bombastic symphonic black metal. There's a lot of energy here and it's cool, but the songwriting really isn't varied, so it becomes a tiring affair after a few songs in.
9Sigh
Graveward

Everyone seems to hate this album for some reason. I think I can see why; this is Sigh at their weirdest. At its core it's standard blackened prog metal, but then they put the previous six albums in a blender and smother the album in that concoction. The eclectic mixture certainly works for me.
8Sigh
Hail Horror Hail

This album's the turning point to where Sigh became Sigh in sound. Progressive symphonic black metal that throws everything at the wall to see what sticks. The first two and last two tracks are amazing, but unfortunately the middle chunk of this album is inconsistent experimentation, despite what the pretentious disclaimer on the back of the album claims.
7Sigh
Scorn Defeat

An impressive debut. Straightforward doomier black metal with symphonic flairs here and there. Sigh was doing symphonic black metal before Emperor made it cool.
6Sigh
Infidel Art

Scorn Defeat but doomier and more symphonic. This album feels like proto-Sigh compared to Scorn Defeat, so that extra dose of experimentation edges it out for me, but the two are really neck and neck.
5Sigh
Scenes from Hell

Sigh continues the bombastic symphonic black metal they started with Hangman's Hymn, but makes it thrashier and, more importantly, fixes my main problem with that album in having more varied songwriting. There's also a brass section in the orchestrations, which is really cool. Production's kind of muddy and ass, but I got used to it.
4Sigh
Heir to Despair

It's good to see they still got it after all of these years. Probably their most straightforward album in a long time, despite having some weird psych and electronic parts here and there. Nice progressive metal with some Jethro Tull feel as well.
3Sigh
Shiki

Heir to Despair but even more straightforward. Doomier with great drumming. I'm kind of blown away at how good this sounds so late in the band's career. If Mirai keeps it up, this final(?) sighcle could very well be the best.
2Sigh
In Somniphobia

You'd expect this to be more black metal considering the previous two albums, but nope, they go back into the psychedelic symphonic prog similar to Imaginary Sonicscape. And like Hail Horror Hail, you have the four bookending tracks being great, but they know how to make an album sandwich now: the Lucid Nightmares suite is good experimental stuff instead of the merely decent Hail Horror Hail middle.
1Sigh
Imaginary Sonicscape

Yeah, there's a reason everyone recommends this album as the entry to Sigh. Psychedelic progressive metal with symphonic flair. They were trying really hard with the experimentation after Infidel Art, and Mirai fully captured what he had been attempting with the previous three albums here. At least with most bands, something like this would just be lightning in a bottle, but in exploring Sigh's discography, I think there's potential for this fantastic album to be upended. Especially since the I albums are the best ones; get hype for Shiki's successor.
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