Marking 35 years of Sigh, a 2025 fully re-recorded edition of the band’s classic 2007 opus, Hangman’s Hymn (the band’s first concept album). The resulting work is by far the fiercest, most brutal, and most symphonic Sigh album to date. Blackened Thrash meets Classical music.
Available as black or limited marble vinyl edition.
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Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/1990. The genre-classic debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ followed on Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions in 1993, and with each subsequent release, Sigh grew to become one of the country’s greatest and most revered metal exports. With a journey through the strange and the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed with the stellar 2022 album, ‘Shiki’.
As the band reaches the milestone of thirty-five years of existence, it was also time to re-visit their 2007 opus, ‘Hangman’s Hymn’. A compositional powerhouse in itself, the title was notably Sigh’s first concept album; a mix of fast thrash metal from the 80s such as Wehrmacht, Sarcofago, Repulsion & classical music - especially German symphonies. However, ”Hangman’s Hymn” was always perceived to be not fully up to the band’s own standards and expectations in its execution and production, and so main-man Mirai Kawashima set about to finally do justice to this at times overlooked masterpiece of intricate songwriting, by making a full re-recording with the current Sigh sound and delivery, under the title of “I Saw the World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV”.
Mirai himself explains the background to the project:
“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 returning Mike Heller on drums, I Saw the World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV is by far the fiercest, most brutal, and the most symphonic Sigh album to date, with the added flawless delivery of the new members and new orchestration with real orchestral instruments. Finally, the production by Lasse Lammert also brings a whole other dimension to the album. Cover artwork appears courtesy of Eliran Cantor.
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