I can think of many bands that started out as a Black Metal Bands, but that reinvented themselves and came to make interesting, non-conventional music - ENSLAVED, ULVER, SOLSTAFIR to name a few. SIGH are by any measure a Black Metal legend, one of the first bands to be signed to the infamous Deathlike Silence Productions. They weren't a very conventional Black Metal band even back in the day and later developed their unique, idiosyncratic style. Off-kilter is a word that comes to mind when one thinks about how to characterize their music. The only band that I can think of that can equal their level of eccentricity is the legendary first-wave Black Metal band MASTER'S HAMMER. SIGH are going strong for almost thirty years now, releasing albums quite regularly in two or thee year intervals. What's more, the band keeps reinventing their sound and all their albums are quite different from each other.

On their eleventh LP "Heir To Despair" SIGH show themselves yet again to be a band that refuses to compromise their artistic vision and to make a run of the mill album. For the most part this is a Heavy Metal album - the trademark psychedelic mix of Thrash Metal riffs with and flamboyant melodies played on various acoustic instruments is still very present here - but there is also quite a bit of experimenting going on. The first half of the album has more riffy songs, many of which are fast and aggressive, but in which we always find some interesting compositional shift that distinguishes them from run of the mill Speed Metal or Thrash Metal songs. Intricate guitar playing and instrumentation are a matter of course here; dramatic strings, or Japanese pop music melodies or flutes get seamlessly blended with the guitar riffs. I found myself bursting out with laughter when hearing a flute playing a melody remarkably similar to DMX's "Where My Dogs At" in the Thrash banger "Hands of the String Puller" for example - and moments like this are not rare.

The second half of "Heir To Despair" gets a bit more experimental as I've alluded to earlier. The first part of the three part piece "Heresy" shifts between minimalist electronica and Industrial Metal, and the song features a section with Baroque chamber music and there is a coda with a grand Wagnerian female choir. Part two is a creepy instrumental piece which is followed by some euphoric Psych Rock music which gets gradually more glitchy and the tracks is ended by ominous cacophonic sounds. Yep, it does get pretty wild. The album closes with the ten minutes long title song (by far the longest one here). It starts off with melodic, NWBHM inspired riffs, but there is a dramatic turn and a long chunk of the song sounds like a weird Japanese chanson before the heavy riffs come back almost at the end. If non-conventional is what you want there is plenty of it here.

"In Somniphobia" will remain my favorite SIGH album, but I appreciate what they do on this album - it is a strong and original release and a step up from their last album "Graveward". The production is fantastic - it sounds amazing and you have to appreciate all the technical skill that went into producing this. Although I see how this might not be for everyone, in my opinion this is a worthy addition to SIGH's distinguished discography.