Obsidian Kingdom - Mantiis

Spanish band Obsidian Kingdom state on their bandcamp that their music is hard to classify heavy music with plenty of contrast. Stating that your music is difficult to classify can often work against you because there are no easy reference points for a potential listener or reviewer. However Obsidian Kingdom are correct that they fit almost directly under the heavy metal umbrella. Although they're not afraid to wander off into other and explore and incorporate other musical directions.

Obsidian Kingdom's "Mantiis" album introduces itself to a listener as post-metal with "Not Yet Five" and like all post-metal, it would be the perfect instrumental soundtrack to a rainy day whether rooted in reality, film or a documentary. "Oncoming Dark" sounds like a Peter Murphy tune due to the vocals and acoustic guitar but the drumming defies gothic or pop tendencies as it is firmly entrenched in heavy metal. Black metal rears its ugly head in "Cinnamon Balls" and attacking riffs that veer towards groove metal bring the track to its conclusion.

Unlike a lot of post-metal, "The Nurse" swings towards jazz although this shift comes very late in the track and doesn't continue long enough. "Answers Revealed" starts as a progressive rock track but finishes with a bite of chunky metallic slab. Is there black metal jazz fusion? As far as I know there's only Sigh but in "Last of the Light" Obsidian Kingdom throw their name into the gauntlet as they incorporate jazz, black metal and Latin rhythms. There's also more of the black metal jazz fusion approach in "Endless Wall". Although I haven't listened to Queensryche in years, the quiet yet still heavy "Fingers in Anguish" brings Geoff Tate's crew's softer moments in the late eighties to mind. It's clear that this album was intended to be listened to as a whole when the last song"And Then It Was" commences with the lines "When the music over, turn off the lights". The song itself starts with clean singing but that doesn't last long at all before a black metal journey unfolds.

Much like the aforementioned Sigh, Obsidian Kingdom join them as heavy metal artists that are able to mesh styles yet manage not only to keep the listener interested in what's around the corner by continuously offering surprises but also own the sound that they have created. The album, "Mantiis" is free from the band's bandcamp site and because Obsidian Kingdom are feirce belivers on free digital music online, their entire discography is up for download.

There is also a nice looking digi-pack CD offered at a price.

4/5


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Sigh - Insomniphobia

Sigh, In Somnophobia,2012
Candlelight Records


Admittedly black metal was getting even more boring with a bunch of bands treading out the same old corpse paint and covering the same old ground. But while you’re likely balling your eyes out about the demise of Ludicra, you’ll pleased to know that Japan’s Sigh have returned with a new album.

The latest album opens mixing classical metal with classical music and black metal in “Purgatorium”. For the most part the vocals are clear although it’s pretty hard not to figure out lyrics such as “I live, you die.” Ignoring the black metal vocals “Keeper of The Seven Keys” period Helloween is a band that comes to mind when listening to this song and ignoring the black metal vocals.
“The Transfiguration Fear” is an opera from hell complete with a church trained sounding choral group. The song has a few jazzy moments but it is the choir that assists to convey an aura of unforeseen terror.

The nearly half an hour “Lucid Nightmares” is made up of seven separately titled chapters. “Opening Theme” is exactly that with an evil voice welcoming the listener into their nightmares. ‘Somnophobia” conjures up hell with metallic noise, jazz and more eerie choral voices. The metal works out the door and the jazz takes over towards the end of the track before. L’Excommunication A Minuit” has the vocalist take the role of mad ringmaster with the band walking high upon their carnival music tightrope to occassional bursts of inexplicable laughter. Creeping blues opens “Amnesia” and the vocals are much more film noir blues than metal. When the black metal vocalscome into play the musical proceedings veer towards jazz complete with keyboard tinkering. “Far Beneath The In-Between” adds a short snake charm to the lounge jazz metal hybrid insanity.

While Sigh are going to be exalted in many quarters for “In Somnophobia” due to their innovation, it’s only really their experimentation that keeps a listener interested because there’s a serious absense of hookiness in a high percentage of tunes on this album. This weakness makes difficult for the indiscriminate listener to tell where one song ends and another starts. The vocals are clearer than most black metal but Sigh still often fall into the unclear mirky vocal genre trap. Despite its failings this album will get repeat playings due to simultaneously fulfilling jazz and metal listening desires.

3/5

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Sigh- Scenes from Hell review

Sigh - Scenes From Hell

SIGH “Scenes from Hell”, 2010
(The End Records)

Anyone that has spent time in Asia will tell you that here’s an overwhelming busyness. This sense of urgency can definitely be heard in avant-garde Japanese black metal band, Sigh’s music, which punishes a listener with unrelenting violent brutality and then the next, one moment, and then the next, engages with Wagnerian symphonic compositions. The album is an aural workout as it often sounds like at least two records are battling it out but honestly, both sounds manage to work in unison.

The blastbeats and evil hobgoblin black metal vocals in “Prelude to the Oracle” are countered with a number of short orchestral bites. “L’art De Mourir” has a stronger classical lean where satan’s minions have a symphony orchestra that adds weight to the sheer metallic heaviness that rushes through. “Soul Grave” is deceptive in that it is at turtle pace if the drumming is ignored but it’s so difficult not to be engrossed with the song as a whole. An eerie effect is created through the narrated part at the start of the three-part opus, “Musica Tempora Belli”. The second part, “The Summer Funeral” has some near spoken and the sung parts move close to black metal opera with the slow moody classical violin aiding the audibility of the vocals. The third part “Musica Tempora Bella” starts out fast and metallic but this is broken with narration. The rollercoaster ride then continues with a surprising sax coming in and hinting at more unexpected twists will be in store for those who have gained admission.

My main complaint with this album is that at times the vocals could be a little clearer. When it’s all too easy to second-guess so many bands’ next chord progression, drumbeat or lyrical phrasing, SIGH come as a welcome relief. The bustle on this record will cause going back for more with the intent of scratching more than just under the surface because hidden treasure are still there to be excavated.

4/5

http://www.myspace.com/sighjapan

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