Sigh – I Saw the World’s End Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV
Release Date: 13th June 2025
Label: Peaceville
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash.
FFO: Spider God, Thy Catafalque, Ihsahn.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Sometimes, it’s best to find a band later in their discography, when they’ve got multiple releases under their belt and, for the most part, are consistent in their output. Today’s band Sigh I didn’t discover until their last record Shiki, and since listening, the urge to crank something else by Sigh has been intense. The focus of today’s review, I Saw the World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV, is a re-recording of their 2007 album and, as a newer fan of the band, it’s effectively a brand-new album of music and, in this reviewer’s humble opinion, one of the finest metal treats of the year.
From listening to this album straight through with very little in the way of pausing or stopping, the pace is simply blistering, borderline frenetic and manic. There are blast beats over tremolo riffs over loud banshee screams and orchestral elements that add a touch of class, Fleshgod Apocalypse doing black metal. Combine them all and voilà: you’ve created a Sigh song. What the album successfully achieves is an air of exhaustion, catharsis, and pure pleasure, a 12 round fight with unendingly precise and well-placed shots to the head and body, but walking away knowing you’ve come out better than you came in. Because Sigh doesn’t just strike with prototypical black metal ferocity for the full duration. No, these guys love to throw in all sorts of genres, not resting on any laurels and not pulling punches.
Me-Devil is a perfect representation of this strive to make memorable music: immediately they strike with an orchestral ostinato, a beat that makes its appearance all throughout the song and is one of the catchiest pieces on the record. The band swiftly transitions to their frantic pace, the vocals reminiscent of Dani Filth when he’s in his lower register, and a beat ripped straight from the thrash era, chugging riffs and double bass instead of the tremolo riffs and blast beats an excellent musical decision. The crescendos where orchestra and metal meet make for some excellent start / stop shifts in the groove, and the shredding solo towards the end the perfect explosion of energy to shift back into one more round of symphonic black thrash death metal.
The orchestral elements, basically a full-time symphony, succeed in making this record sound majestic, royal, celebratory, and not once does it feel forced or overblown. It bursts from the speakers and makes its presence known, but it also does a masterful job in highlighting the instruments it’s working with. The bass pops from the speakers on The Master Malice, the symphony instantly the most noticeable piece but the rumble of the bass unmistakable, the bevy of simultaneous soundscapes allowing a listener to focus their attention on individual pieces rather than a cacophonous mess of noise. The Memories as a Sinner is an unrepentant death thrash track, rife with pummeling riffs, blast beats, dynamically energetic fills and a wealth of musical energy, unwavering in its intensity and focus. When the orchestral elements do make their presence known, they don’t take the focus, they merely add an element of heavy to the rhythm, as if a symphony joined Slayer on stage and matched the intensity.
What sticks out the most about this album is that it’s energizing, not exhausting. The music, while chaotic, frenzied, and virtually relentless over the course of the 50+ minutes, contains so many interesting elements, so much variation from track to track, from segment to segment, performed with surgical precision, that by the end of a full listen, while catching your breath, you’ll want to go back and listen again. The band rewards listeners with their finale, Finale: Hangman’s Hymn / In Paradisum / Das Ende; where some bands may end the album with a light instrumental to ease listeners into the end, Sigh knows of no such thing. Dueling shrieks over lightning quick riffs and blistering trumpet pepper us early, a brief but intense solo preceding a momentary reprieve, the silence deafening, before the band transitions into their blistering initial pace, the symphony giving college vibes, a celebration of what’s being played and recognized, the perfect segue into the final moments, the orchestra now front and center, bringing the listeners’ heart rate down as the sound of a rain shower closes it out, Sigh having just provided one of the most wildly enjoyable records of the year.
Even though this was a re-recording, and thus not technically a new album, the band was so disappointed with their first try that this might as well be a new record, with what’s contained in these 12 tracks. Wickedly produced, energetically satisfying and musically precise, this record is by far one of the most enjoyable black metal albums in recent memory. Anyone who is a fan of the genre, the band, or both, needs to check this out. Even if you’ve listened to the first release, this is the one the band wants to receive focus. And they’ve given us every reason to give it focus, no exasperated sigh to be heard.
(5 / 5)
