Imaginary Sonicscape

Sighs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 20, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The End Records
• ASIN: B001MLVKVO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,570 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A kaleidoscope for the ears..., December 4, 2001

By 

William Ragan (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imaginary Sonicscape (Audio CD)

Japan-based Sigh have wandered far from their Black Metal roots, and that's a good thing. Their first release "Scorn Defeat" on Deathlike Silences was mostly mid to fast-tempo BM that only hinted at the experimentalism of later releases, where they morphed into a strange hybrid of metal, jazz, soundtracks and classical. The music on this release is their most vibrant ever, a keyboard-dominated kaleidoscope of music that combines 70's prog-rock keyboards, 80's NWOBHM riffing and 90's black metal vocals. Sigh have really hit upon an interesting combination: The songs here are ultra-catchy but full of layers of subtle instrumentation that reveal themselves through repeated listens.. not to mention the creative and bizarre touches, like dropping an electro-dub break in the middle of "Scarlet Dream", or having a chorus of vocoded voices provide backing to the boogie-rock influenced "Ecstatic Transformation". A real cornucopia of sounds for metal fans with an open mind and a healthy appetite for the exotic.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best albums I have ever had the privilege of owning, March 15, 2006

By 

Thomas C. "Maso" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imaginary Sonicscape (Audio CD)

I've had this album for years, and I just went on amazon to order their latest album which I haven't obtained yet and cannot wait to listen to. So, as I was browsing, looking to see what the fans thought of this album, and this definitely made me feel like adding my part of enthusiasm. This album *is* as good and as f*cked up, weird, mixed up with every style you can think of as everyone else says on this page.

One great thing about this album is, not one song sounds like any other, they all stand quite on their own. I forget if the guitarist is Satoshi or Shinichi, but anyway, whichever one it is, his soloing on this album is very tasteful over all, more Tony Iommi-sh type licks mixed with some jazz and classical influences. Quite fresh, I think it's that guy's best job up to date with lead guitar. Since one other person made a perfect description of most of the songs on the album, I'll just point out a few other things. The recording quality is better than previous Sigh albums, so you can hear all the noises and effects a lot better, it's a lot more synth heavy than the previous records (don't get me wrong, there was always a lot of synth on Sigh albums, but not like on this album), the variety of songs is incredible, and musically, it is definitely the band's best effort. The album is flawless as far as I'm concerned.

I'll just say a bit more about Slaughtergarden Suite, the 11 minute song, as it is my favorite on the album. Someone else said it was like a bad trip, well, the beginning certainly is. The track grips you with a very slow beat, broken by cymbal crashes and distorted guitar sounding very much like thunder, with weird vocoder-filled synth sounds creeping up outta nowhere, rocking your mind and your senses in a completely different direction. Shinichi (or Satoshi, whichever one it is that plays guitar @_#) pulls a wonderful intro solo, and then a second one during the slow first part of the song, where he gets his guitar to sound very much like a flute, in the phrasing and the tone, something I really liked.

Then you get a small build up, where Mirai says some pretty bloody things that I don't really remember, with noise building up to the point that your ears start to cringe. Just as it's about to become annoying, or even unbearable, the noise starts and the song breaks into some crazy kinda weird funky, rock groove, with a little simple guitar line playing over and over on some kinda hypnotic bass groove. Anyway, I just realized that my describing of the song could be quite long and could ruin the experience for some readers. But I could sum up my point to this! All the songs can be talked about this much, because there is just so much cool material on every track. It changes all the time, it grips you cause the music is good, it grips you cause the weird psychedelic sounds really do plunge you in some kinda trance, and.. you know, what, enough. Just do yourselves a favor, and BUY THIS ALBUM! If you like metal, or progressive rock and you can stand death metal vocals (fans of Opeth, gather! This music will please you!), this album will tickle your fancy. 5 stars, and I would give it more if I could.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ?!?!?!?!?!?!?, November 11, 2005

By 

Nicholas Adam Chupka "Metalhead" (Derwood, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imaginary Sonicscape (Audio CD)

If metal is ice cream, Imaginary Soundscape is the whole freakin' Baskin Robbins sitting on a busy street corner in Japan.

Combining Slayer-like thrash riffs, Iron Maiden-like melodic metal, black metal atmospherics, calypso reggae breakdowns, evil sonic dub beats, energized disco breaks, and psychedelic pop, Sigh released one of the most eclectic and speckled metal albums of the new millenium.

When the album opens with "Corpsecry/Angelfall" you will think that most of the references above are overexaggerated, but then you will reach the stretch end of this track, which features pure classcial music that would be very fitting for an old Francis Ford Coppola film.

When the second track enters with the heavy synthesizers, you will begin to realize that you may have stumbled upon everything you were never expecting. On "Scarlet Dream" the synthesizers are sustained and tweeked to produce a range of sounds, some melodic, and some no more than high-pitched squeals designed to do nothing more than add a disturbingly twisted edge to the song.

And don't get me wrong, this is not simply an album of wanking oddities, because the components of true metal are always present. To boot, the guitars on this album are great; meaty hooks with some impressive solo work.

Still, it is when this band pushes the envelope that they truly shine. "Nietzschean Conspiracy" is basically a stoned-out dub track with death metal vocals. Very creepy, very cool.

The next track, "A Sunset Song", is my personal favorite, and easily the most sunny song despite the infectious death metal chorus, "Tear me apart, delightful, tear me apart sac ree fi!" (sacrifice with Japanese accent). The song opens like a vintage Flaming Lips track, before dipping into a Joan Jett and the Blackhearts type verse riff. If this isn't odd enough, try to recall the Star Wars disco song if you can, because this song has a breakdown in the middle which calls to mind said classic.

Just to show you they're serious, the band follows this track with a truly moving and exhilerating one and a half minute classic piano ditty. Very classical, VERY metal.

The next two tracks are more straightforward metal like the first one, but like even that track, they have their moments of unconventional thinking. The album concludes with an 11 minute epic which literally sounds like having a bad trip and not being able to tell if you're at a jazz or metal show. Now THAT is truly frightening.

If you are a metal fan always interested in hearing what nobody else is doing, or if you are of the adventurous type who is looking to expand the horizons past more traditional musical approaches, then the Japan-based Sigh's Imaginary Soundscape is precisely what you are looking for. You'll laugh (seriously, you will), you'll hold your breath, you'll dance, you'll headbang, and most importantly, you will come back again and again to hear this unsurpassed mixture of metal, melody, psychedelia, and far-out fun.