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Japanese black metal mavericks SIGH have just released their latest album I Saw The World’s End (Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV), which sees the band reinterpret their 2007 album, Hangman’s Hymn, in an even more focused and extreme fashion. We caught up with vocalist Mirai Kawashima to get a fascinating insight into this new recording and more SIGH related goodness.
We begin with Mirai telling us the reasons why the band chose to re-record Hangman’s Hymn now. “I can say, Hangman’s Hymn is one of my best compositions, but at the same time, it is not my favourite album, because it’s got some flaws, the production is very poor, the drumming is too monotonous. So I always wanted to re-record it.”
Mirai continues by explaining why he won’t repeat this feat with any of the band’s previous work. “Other albums like Scorn Defeat, the debut album, and Imaginary Sonicscape have some flaws, but I will never, ever re-record those albums. Even with today’s digital technology, if we would re-record, it would just lose its magic. I can say that re-recording can be a double edged sword, but I was quite sure Hangman’s Hymn would be a big exception, and I think I was right about it.”
He then tells of re-recording the albums closing track, Finale: Hangman’s Hymn/In Paradisum/Das End, and how it ended up sounding even more triumphant and bombastic this time around. “All the melodies and motifs are coming back on the finale of the album, so it has to sound very bombastic. I really wanted to make it as symphonic and epic as possible with real trumpet and trombones and flute. When we did it in 2007, most of the orchestrations were done on the samplers. But this time, I asked orchestra musicians to play the real trumpet and trombone.”
Mirai then details an interesting insight into the creation of the original Hangman’s Hymn album. “Hangman’s Hymn was a quite different album compared to the previous works. They’ve got everything from heavy metal to jazz to classical to techno. Hangman’s Hymn is the first album that I limited the elements of the album. It’s got only thrash metal and classical music, and that was it. Back then, I was totally into classical music. I have two big musical backgrounds, heavy metal and classical music, so I wanted to mix the beauty of classical music and ugliness of extreme metal.” Mirai then enthused about how he has free rein of combining all sorts of eclectic influences to create the unique music of SIGH. “I don’t think there’s any limiting music, I think we inherit that free rock spirit from the 60s and 70s. That’s what we are doing. We just play everything.”
As SIGH are such a fantastic live act, Mirai tells us about what forthcoming live dates that the band have in store. “We are coming back to Europe this August. It’s going to be a two week tour. We’re going to play at some summer festivals like Brutal Assault in Czechia and Frantic Fest in Italy. We’re going to play everything from the debut album to the latest Hangman’s Hymn stuff too.”
Mirai then tells us that there is no rest for the wicked, and that SIGH are already up and running with brand new music. “We have already started working on the brand new album, which we are planning to finish up by the end of this year, and hopefully it will be out in the middle of next year. It’s going to be totally different from the new Hangman’s Hymn. It should be closer to Shiki but it’s going to be a bit different again.”
Casting back to the band’s early days in black metal and being signed to Deathlike Silence, the label spearheaded by Euronymous from MAYHEM. “That was a very special period, because black metal was something special. I talked on the phone with Euronymous, he was a very innovative person. He always had a lot of new ideas. So it was very, very exciting to talk to him on the phone. I was exchanging letters with everyone from the Norwegian scene, Count Grishnakh from BURZUM, the EMPEROR and ENSLAVED guys.”
He goes onto to reveal how crazy those early days of black metal were. “I got a letter from Count Grishnakh saying you should burn the churches in Japan too, because I’m burning the churches in Norway but it was very hard to believe, so I was not sure if he meant it. But later on, we found out everything was true. It was a very unusual time.” Mirai then tells how black metal was received in Japan at the time and just how underground it was. “It was very, very underground, because back then, everyone was totally into death metal, NAPALM DEATH, CARCASS and Earache Records. That stuff was so huge, but nobody even knew about black metal in 1992 or 1993, it was very underground.”
We conclude this talk with Mirai talking about the longevity of SIGH, and how they stay open minded with their music and staying true to what they have always done. “I never thought we’d be playing this long, but this is just a love for music, especially the music I listened to growing up in the 80s, I was totally into evil, crazy thrash metal, from the 80s, and still love it. I still listen to those bands. I’m already 55 but not much has changed in me. I’m still feel like I’m still 20 or 30, that’s probably the reason we’re still up and running!”
I Saw The World’s End (Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV) is out now via Peaceville Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS122 here:
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