Japanese band Sigh have announced details of their new album ‘Heir To Despair’ set for release on 16th November via Candlelight. They have also shared new track ‘Homo Homini Lupus’ which features Phil Anselmo, which you can listen to below.
Heavily inspired by old crazy progressive bands like Brainticket, Embryo, Agitation Free, Between, Gentle Giant, Os Mutantes, Modulo 1000 and Black Widow, “Heir to Despair” turned out to be a heavy, psychedelic and exotic album filled with vintage keyboards and flute.
“Homo Homini Lupus” is the first track to be shared from the record featuring guest vocals from Phil Anselmo. 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 civilised. 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 honour 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”.
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.”
You can listen to Homo Homini Lupus on digital services via the link below or via the YouTube video.
Ex guitarist in Zenopede, ex vocals for a goth covers band that was hailed as the future of Welsh music, former DJ, promoter and nightclub director. Writer for Gear4Geeks’ Blog4Geeks and owner of Gear4Geeks ltd. First published music critique was Kerrang letter of the Week.
Definitely has never been the future, present or past of Welsh music.
