SIGH have announced their new album Goh-ka, arriving September 4 via Peaceville Records.
And because this is SIGH, the concept is not “we wrote some riffs and found a spooky font.” The title itself carries three meanings: infernal fire scorching sinners, the world-burning fire at the end of time, and karma. So yes, the album is already doing more philosophical damage before you even press play than most bands manage across a whole deluxe edition.
The record’s central theme is Kuso-zu, a series of Buddhist paintings and illustrations depicting the nine stages of a human body’s decomposition after death. The point is meditation on impermanence, death, and detachment from physical beauty and worldly attachment. In less ceremonial terms: no matter how beautiful you are, the body still rots. SIGH, naturally, heard that and decided it needed nearly an hour of avant-metal grandeur.
Mirai Kawashima has described Goh-ka as being as personal as Shiki, both musically and lyrically.
Musically, the album stirs together CELTIC FROST, VOIVOD, BLACK SABBATH, horror cinema, and Japan, then throws in psychedelic rock, prog rock, and classical music like additional ingredients in a cauldron that should absolutely not be left unattended.
The lineup features Mirai Kawashima, Dr Mikannibal, guitarist Nozomu Wakai, Frédéric Leclercq of KREATOR and DRAGONFORCE on bass, and drummer Mike Heller of RAVEN and FEAR FACTORY. OPETH’s Mikael Åkerfeldt also contributes a guest guitar solo on “Unputenpu,” because apparently the album needed one more ornate shadow crossing the wall.
Goh-ka was recorded across multiple studios and mixed and mastered by Lasse Lammert at LSD studios in Germany. The album will be released on colored vinyl variants, CD, and digital formats, with pre-orders from the Peaceville store and band store including a free 10-track SIGH sampler titled Legacy Of Horrors.
SIGH will also be on the road across Europe and the U.S. around the album cycle, including old-school trio sets, U.S. dates in July and August, and a September European run.
Track Listing:
01. Kuso-shi 1, 2, and 3
02. Jigoku-Zoshi 1: Unkamusho
03. Anzenshokon
04. Kuso-shi 4, 5, and 6
05. Shoso
06. Unputenpu
07. Jinmenjushin
08. Jigoku-Zoshi 2: Tokatsujigoku
09. Kushukankyo
10. Kuso-shi 7
11. Kuso-shi 8 and 9 / Mettaijakujo
Tour Dates:
July 9 – Torgau, DE @ In Flammen Open Air – Scorn Defeat set
July 10 – Fredericia, DK @ Metal Magic – special old-school set
July 11 – London, UK @ Downstairs at the Dome – special old-school set
July 26 – Fire In The Mountains
July 28 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
July 29 – Portland, OR @ Star Theater
July 30 – Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial
July 31 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone
Aug. 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ 1720
Sept. 3 – Aleksandrow Lodzki, PL @ Summer Dying Loud
Sept. 4 – Cracow, PL @ Zaścianek
Sept. 5 – Ostrava, CZ @ Metal III
Sept. 7 – Munich, DE @ Hansa 39 @ Feierwerk
Sept. 8 – Leipzig, DE @ Moritzbastei
Sept. 9 – Berlin, DE @ Badehaus
Sept. 10 – Copenhagen, DK @ Beta @ Amager Bio
Sept. 11 – Hamburg, DE @ Betty
Sept. 12 – Oberhausen, DE @ Death & Damnation Fest
Sept. 13 – Leeuwarden, NL @ Neushoorn
Sept. 14 – Utrecht, NL @ DB’s
Sept. 15 – Paris, FR @ Backstage By The Mill
