Rockfreaks.net

King Sigh

Entering

Written by: DR on 08/04/2010 18:21:20

You may or may not have noticed that I haven't exactly been review-active over the past week or so. This isn't (completely) down to laziness, but due to nearly every album on my "to-review" list being "challenging", and therefore needing uber-amounts of listens. King Sigh's debut "Entering" is not one of these albums. My reason for delaying the review of it is that old cliché among reviewers about how once they've reviewed it, they'll stop listening to it, but they don't want to stop listening to it so they delay the review, or something like that.

Maybe I've spoilt the ending slightly, but this band from some obscure Belgian village by the name of "Scherpenheuvel" are good. Very good, actually, at what they do, but it's what they do is what makes them good. What do they do? They've created something that lends from post-rock, post-metal occasionally, and the world of general instrumental music, and turned it into a hybrid, of sorts. Before you switch off at the name-dropping of "post-rock", know this: King Sigh are free from all of the opinion-dividing connotations that genre carries. They are not pretentious, or long-winded, and they don't waste any time with eight-minute symphonies that takes patience to digest. Their longest song clocks in at just under five minutes.

It's this straight-forward, fairly ambitious and mildly crescendo'y manner that makes "Entering" a pleasing, and quickly rewarding listen. They also combine those aspects with some welcome characteristics of the picture-esque nature of post-rock to good effect. First song "Under The Radar" borrows from Explosions In The Sky with some dainty keyboard work, and "Tulipa" brings Caspian's "The Four Trees" to mind. Tracks such as "Sand Monster" and "Tony Vivid" have post-metal suggestions along the lines of If These Trees Could Talk.

I highly recommend "Entering" to pretty much everyone, because it's readily-accessible enough to draw fans who wouldn't typically pay mind to this genre. It might even by the kind of segue between rock and post required to encourage them to check out bands that are a little further down the post-rock trail. It's a pretty simple album; it's not as prolonged as This Will Destroy You, or as loud as the likes of pg.lost and If These Trees Could Talk, but it's good and solid and thoroughly enjoyable. King Sigh might have stumbled onto something here.

Download: Under The Radar, Tulipa, Tony Vivid
For The Fans of: If These Trees Could Talk, pg.lost, Goonies Never Say Die
Listen: Myspace

Release Date 2009
Self-Released