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sigiriya-darkness-dies-today

[colored_box color=”grey”]Rating: 8
Label: Candlelight records
Website: Link
Author: Achilles Pantogyios[/colored_box]

If someone had asked me “What do you think about Sigiriya?” about one year ago, I think I’d find myself in a really awkward position. I had no idea that four out of 5 members of Acrimony had reunited under a stoner project and graced this genre with the release of “Return to Earth”. After some listening sessions I was persuaded that most of the familiar elements of sounds were there, yet under a new perspective of songwriting. The shorter in duration and more musically compact tracks worked totally fine for me. Sigiriya did not try to reproduce something that was gone; instead they tried something refreshingly new. A few months after that I found out that their new release was about to come out, under the fantastic title “Darkness died today” and man, wasn’t this album another punch in the face.

Many impressive bands have emerged from the stoner/fuzz-in-general madness of this past decade (loosely), but the old wolves have returned to teach the cubs a trick or two. This album is packing serious heat and grabs you by the face from the very first oh -so – 90’s riff of the amazing “Dragging The Bones”. There is no overanalyzing to be done around “Darkness Died Today”, it is based around a strict “take it or leave it” policy. Sigiriya construct songs of averagely 4 minutes in length around one or two main riffs and then it’s up to the listener if they’ll like it or not. The catch here is that you WILL like it! This album is literally full of hits (if we exclude the closing song that didn’t impress me, which also happens to be the greatest in length)!

Each and every song made me think “This is definitely the highlight of the album” and whisper “Groovy” in the style of Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead 2. They hit the center of the target with every note and what really increases the power of that album is the sound of the instruments, a fine blend of recognizable early stoner settings with much better recording equipment that also succeeds in not being a polished, negatively professional mediocrity. Worth of mentioning is also the vocal performance of the new singer, Matt Williams, which, combined with certain musical parts, colors “Darkness Died Today” with an American punk/ new wave of American heavy rock aesthetic, as it can be seen in the ridiculously catchy bulldozer of a song “Return To Earth” (Yes, you deciphered it right, it’s the same reference pattern as “Hymns To The Stone” in “Tumuli Shroomaroom”).

“Darkness Died Today” is commercial in the good way. First of all the songs included can also be blasted in irrelevant with the stoner genre radio shows, TV shows, rock bars, you name it. Second, it feels like Sigiriya, in order to make this record, sat around the table and picked out the riff that can capture your hearing attention best, no compromises made. This may seem like an oversimplifying review but honestly, there’s no dancing around it, there are no fancy tricks, “Darkness Died Today” is a victory of simplicity. There is no point in telling you what each song offers, I can only advise you to play this album really loud and warn you that trying to find a favorite track can be quite difficult. It seems “Darkness Died Today” definitely “crash landed like a meteorite” on our speakers.

Track List Line Up
01. Dragging the bones
02. Guided by mountains
03. Return to Earth
04. Godspeeder
05. Tribe of the old oak
06. Obelisk
07. Freedom engines
08. Sleeping with the dogs 		Paul Bidmead – Bass
Daren Ivey – Drums
Stuart O’ Hara – Guitars
Matt “Pipes” Williams – Vocals