SIGIR is a Melodic Death Metal band from Finland. If you're wondering about the name, it's a bit of a mystery-at least to me. I mean, it does translate to "cigar" in English, but I doubt if that's it. SIGIR is also the acronym for the Special Interest Group for Information Retrieval who apparently just had a great conference somewhere, but that one is even more unlikely than the first. I think we're just going to have to live with a little uncertainty until someone interviews the band and asks them. Sometimes a SIGIR is just a SIGIR.

What do we know about this curiously named band? They hail from Vesanto, Finland. They formed in 2019, and on May 26, 2023 they released their debut album, "Rainmaker," on Gramophone Records. A search for Gramophone Records on Google, btw, will yield five million results for literal gramophone records, one result for a bricks-and-mortar record shop in Chicago (which actually looks really cool), and one result for Gramophone Records Finland. Hint: that's the one you want.

"Rainmaker" comprises seven tracks and has a runtime of 41 minutes-so a fairly substantive debut. Two of the tracks, "The Lantern" and "Depraved," were previously released as singles this year. I have seen mention of an EP which was reportedly released in 2019 and then re-recorded in 2022. I presume those tracks are included on this album and are more than likely the above mentioned singles.

SIGIR features a dual guitar assault, which is always appreciated. There are a number of nicely executed acoustic movements peppered throughout the album including the intro to the title and opening track, "Rainmaker." There is no mention of keyboards in the lineup, but I bumped into one report citing Petri Alango as contributing the orchestrations. There are clearly synths on most of the tracks-not overwhelming or foreground but adding atmosphere. The guitar performances are top-notch and both Viljami Toikkanen and Valtteri Pitkänen seem to contribute lead solos. Most of the drum work is hyper-overdrive, which is the band's default mode. As far as vocals, no clean singing here. Overall, the melodic elements infuse the album with more harmony than discord.

The more interesting tracks have a mixed tempo, which adds more texture and nuance, underpinning the melodic vibe. These tracks included "Depraved," "The Offering," and "From Time to Eternity." These are also my choice of standout tracks. I should note, however, that fans of more traditional Death Metal may have the opposite preference. Production values are fairly strong, pushing the needle toward the technical side of Death as opposed to hellscape Black.

I couldn't get a sense if there was an overarching narrative or theme, but that's largely because I didn't have access to all the lyrics and the song titles are ambiguous enough to suggest a number of possibilities. As far as actually discerning the lyrics from the vocals, well, these concert-battled ears lack that kind of fidelity even with over-ear, noise reduction wired headsets.

All in all, "Rainmaker" is a solid debut for SIGIR. They left me with more questions than answers, which is a good hook to come back for more.