Japanese black metal legends Sigh are celebrating an incredible 35 years of pushing extreme music’s boundaries! With a dozen studio albums, countless global performances, and an unwavering dedication to sonic evolution, they’ve rightfully earned their place as one of metal’s most revered and influential cult acts.

To mark this monumental anniversary, Sigh has turned its gaze back to their 2007 opus, “Hangman’s Hymn.” This album was a compositional tour de force, notable as Sigh’s first concept album, famously weaving aggressive ’80s thrash influences (think Wehrmacht, Sarcofago, Repulsion) with complex classical arrangements, particularly inspired by German symphonies. However, “Hangman’s Hymn” never quite met the band’s own exacting standards in terms of its original execution and production.

Frontman Mirai Kawashima has personally undertaken the ambitious task of rectifying this. He’s meticulously re-recorded this intricate, at times overlooked masterpiece with Sigh’s current lineup and modern production sensibilities. The result is the newly titled “I Saw the World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV,” set to drop on Peaceville on June 13th.

Mirai himself sheds light on the project’s genesis: ““Hangman’s Hymn”, which was released in 2007, is one of my best compositions of my whole career, but it does not necessarily mean that this is my favorite Sigh album. The excessively monotonous drumming must be the biggest issue. The guitars are sloppy. The production is far from the best. And my orchestrations and vocals could have been much better. So what if we re-record this with better musicians and today’s production? The idea was always in my head, and finally the time has come to make it happen. I do know that re-recording can be the double-edged sword. “Scorn Defeat” has some flaws. So does “Imaginary Sonicscape”. But I will never ever re-record those albums as I am sure that it would lose their magic. But “Hangman’s Hymn” is an exception. You can easily tell what I mean if you listen to this completely re-recorded version.”

With Nozomu Wakai on guitar and the formidable Mike Heller returning on drums, “I Saw the World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV” is poised to be Sigh’s fiercest, most brutal, and most symphonic album to date. The flawless delivery from the new members, coupled with fresh orchestration featuring real orchestral instruments, brings an entirely new dimension to the work. The album’s enhanced production, courtesy of Lasse Lammert, and striking cover artwork by Eliran Cantor, complete this monumental re-imagining.

About SIGH:

Japanese black metal pioneers Sigh originally formed in 1989/1990. Their genre-defining debut, ‘Scorn Defeat,’ arrived in 1993 via Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions. With each subsequent release, Sigh solidified their reputation as one of Japan’s most influential and revered metal exports. Their career has been a captivating journey through the strange and the psychedelic, eclectically incorporating a vast mix of genre styles and relentless experimentation. Sigh has consistently remained a vital creative force in the avant-garde metal landscape while fiercely maintaining their old-school roots, as powerfully demonstrated by their stellar 2022 album, ‘Shiki.’

Photo Credit: Itsutaka Takusagawa

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