New Sigh Content?!

Imaginary Sonicscape

I’m glad how Sigh is always churning out content, all of which is top-of-the-line quality. After Hangman’s Hymn, they did Tribute to Venom which was pretty good in itself. Their latest appears to be hitting next month.

It’s going to be a reissue of what I believe is their best album ever: Imaginary Sonicscape. The reissue is entirely remastered by James Murphy, who remastered Gallows Gallery in that blue-coloured version, and also worked on Hangman’s Hymn, from what I know.

The reissue will also include two new tracks: one of which was included only on the Japanese version. The two are Voices and Born Condemned Criminal. Also, Bring Back the Dead will get an extended version. Since that’s one of my favourite tracks on the album, I can’t wait!

I really loved the style they used on IS, so I’m dying to hear more in the same style. The reissue will hit stores January 20th, 2009. Wonder how long it’ll take for the Internets to pick it up.

There’s also some news of a future project, hell concrete news. The next album will be released in 2009 and is titled Scene from Hell / Tempore Belli / Vanitas. The End Records describes it as “The album will feature massive orchestrations, including a string quartet and brass players.”

Awesome. Brass! String Quartets! Massive orchestrations! Sigh is one of the greatest metal bands I know!

Aronofsky’s The Fountain and Other Stuff

Darren Aronofsky became one of my favourite directors when I saw Requiem for a Dream. I just watched The Fountain, and it has cemented my love for this visionary director.

While I miss the “hip-hop sequence” from RfaD, Aronofsky was awesome on The Fountain as well. Hugh Jackman was perfect, becoming what must be one of the few Hollywood actors are truly like.

The Tree of Life

A metaphysical drama set across three parallel, connected storylines (the film is about as genre-defying as Mulholland Drive), Aronofsky does it full justice. Like RfaD was incredibly intense, this film is questioning, ethereal, floating.

Some of the scenes were painfully beautiful, such as the one where Creo draws the black ring around his finger. Won’t go into spoilers now.

What I find curious is the connection to Mayan myths. I have seen the connection in at least two other stories: Sanitarium, the psycho-thriller game I blogged about before, and Indigo Prophecy, which I also blogged about before.

Indigo Prophecy: Psychothriller crosses Viking myths crosses Mayan myths, all on LSD watching the X-Files

I guess that explains the strange sense of deja vu regarding the aesthetic themes: a slick modern world coupled with Mayan mythology. Come to think of it, Grim Fandango may also loosely fit the theme, albeit in a purely aesthetic sense.

The Fountain bears several similarities to Sanitarium. The most obvious link would be an emphasis on medical research. While The Fountain doesn’t look at it as cynically as Sanitarium, it’s still kinda surprising. I wouldn’t imagine Aronofsky playing Sanitarium!

The second similarity I see is the idea of having multiple stories run parallel to each other, mirroring each other. Still, it’s not really a concept exclusive to either of these tales. A third similarity I can see is perhaps the recurring theme of life and death.

I liked The Fountain much better, though. I’m not sure if I can compare it to RfaD or not. They both look so vastly different, in vastly different realities. I just know that I have to get my hands on Aronofsky’s next: The Wrestler as soon as I can.

…

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.”

- Howard Roark  from The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

“No matter where you go, everyone’s connected.”

- Lain Iwakura from Serial Experiments: Lain

“When one person is cursed, two graves are dug.”

- Ai Enma from Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

- Harry Lime from The Third Man

“He is drowned in emotions
He fades away from pain,
And heart is beating in the rhythm of ocean,
And soul is trying to forget her last mistake.”

- “Monarch of the Red” by Capitollium on Engraved Fear