Legendary Japanese avant-garde band Sigh has announced details of their new album Heir To Despair set for release on 16th November via Candlelight Records. Better still they have also shared new track ‘Homo Homini Lupus’ which features the one and only Phil Anselmo! Jam the track out right now!
https://sigh.lnk.to/HeirToDespair
Vocalist Mirai Kawashima comments:
“Homo Homini Lupus” is one of the fastest and the simplest tracks on “Heir to Despair”. Don’t expect other songs to sound like this. “Homo Homini Lupus” means “Man is wolf to man” in Latin. Thomas Hobbes referred to this verb to describe how men would act in the state of nature before we were civilized. The world shown in “The Walking Dead” series should be the best example of what we truly are. Men become wolves, or should I say men are wolves in their real nature. Look what our ancestors did during the wartime! Look what our ancestors did during famine! We have own wolves inside.”
Mirai met Phil 20 years ago when they were both in US death metal band, Necrophagia adding, “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”.
Heir to Despair can be taken as Sigh’s first attempt to intentionally take in Japanese / Asian musical feel. Mirai used some Japanese traditional singing techniques and the ex-Estradasphere Shamisen (the Japanese traditional instrument) master, Kevin Kmetz is featured on several songs. Moreover, 90% of the lyrics are in Japanese, which never happened on the past Sigh albums.
The album was mixed by a Canadian engineer, Phil Anderson, and mastered by Maor Appelbaum, who has worked with a lot of great artists such as Faith No More, Yes and Yngwie Malmsteen to name a few. Phil and Maor have a perfect combination and they have worked together on many projects. Thanks to them, Heir To Despair turned out the heaviest Sigh album.
The cover artwork, which exactly fits the concept of the album, was again drawn by Eliran Kantor. Eliran did the artworks for the past Sigh albums such as Scenes from Hell (2010) and In Somniphobia. (2012).
Mirai adds, “I just suggested to Eliran that the album is about insanity and gave him some Japanese psychotropic drug advertisement from the 60s / 70s, which I love, to show him what kind of artwork I wanted. The result was perfect. The woman on the artwork looks ostensibly happy but the plant she’s watering is withering, and her room looks like a mess. This is what true insanity is about. This is what true horror is about. These days people are trying to pretend to be as happy as possible on SNS, but what kind of darkness do they have in their mind? You cannot draw the line between sanity and insanity any more.”
Heir To Despair is available to pre-order now – https://sigh.lnk.to/HeirToDespair
Sigh – Heir to Despair track listing
1. Aletheia
2. Homo Homini Lupus
3. Hunters Not Horned
4. In Memories Delusional
Heresy Trilogy
5. Heresy I: Oblivium
6. Heresy II: Acosmism
7. Heresy III: Sub Specie Aeternitatis
8. Hands of the String-puller
9. Heir to Despair.
Sigh are:
Mirai Kawashima: Vocals, Flute, Piccolo, Keyboards, Guitar, Taishogoto, etc
Dr. Mikannibal: Vocals, Alto Saxophone
You Oshima: Guitar
Satoshi Fujinami: Bass
Junichi Harashima: Drums
https://www.candlelightrecords.co.uk