Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
Tokyo’s avant-garde extreme metallers SIGH reveal details of their upcoming new album release, ‘Heir To Despair‘.
The first new record from the band in three years, the nine-song ‘Heir To Despair‘ is set to arrive from Candlelight Records on November 16th. Speculation about what to expect from the album musically has been running rampant, helped in part by some recent posts by the band via social media.
They were sparked with the revelation of a single from the album titled “Homo Homini Lupus” (“One Man Wolf” in Latin) that features vocal contributions from a guest, Phillip Anselmo of Pantera, Down, Scour, etc. fame. To quote the comment from SIGH:
“Homo Homini Lupus” does not represent “Heir To Despair” in any way. If you like the song, you will be 100% disappointed. I guarantee it.”
Intriguing promotion, is it not? The track is streaming below, along with album artwork, tracklist, and more. The collaboration between SIGH and Anselmo has its obvious origins in the fact that vocalist Mirai Kawashima met Phil 20 years ago when they were both in the U.S. death metal band Necrophagia. Mirai comments:
“It is a great honor for us to finally have him on our album! He added a great atmosphere to the song with his very deep voices! It should be VERY easy for you to tell which parts were sung by Phil.“
Further guesstimate work about the song contents of the ‘Heir To Despair‘ album has fixated on the results being eccentrically progressive in nature. An exotic, psychedelia-tinged foray in metallic alternatives to the rather symphonic orchestral elements of the previous release from SIGH, 2015’s Graveward. Also, 90% of the new album’s lyrics are in Japanese, something which has never happened on past SIGH albums.
‘Heir To Despair‘ was mixed by Phil Anderson and mastered by Maor Appelbaum (Faith No More, Armored Saint, Goatwhore). It is adorned with artwork created by Eliran Kantor, who did the artwork for past SIGH albums such as “Scenes From Hell” (2010) and “In Somniphobia” (2012).
SIGH:
Mirai Kawashima: Vocals, Flute, Piccolo, Keyboards, Guitar, Taishogoto
Dr. Mikannibal: Vocals, Alto Saxophone
You Oshima: Guitar
Satoshi Fujinami: Bass
Junichi Harashima: Drums
Tracklist:
01. Aletheia
02. Homo Homini Lupus
03. Hunters Not Horned
04. In Memories Delusional
Heresy Trilogy:
05. Heresy I: Oblivium
06. Heresy II: Acosmism
07. Heresy III: Sub Specie Aeternitatis
08. Hands Of The String-Puller
09. Heir To Despair
