SIGH have announced their EU & UK Summer Tour 2024! Find all confirmed dates below!
The band states: “Sigh have played in the UK once in a while, but as far as the tour goes, we’ve just done once. It was in 1995 and we toured with Primordial and Hecate Enthroned. It’s been almost 30 years since then, and many things have changed. We are looking forward to playing at ArcTangent Festival and visiting other UK cities. We will play some songs which we haven’t played for a long time or we haven’t at all along with the obvious ones. There will be a lot of fire and blood, if the situation allows. Be sure to come see us if you are around!”
13.08.24 – London (UK) – Oslo 14.08.24 – Glasgow (UK) – Cathouse 15.08.24 – Leeds (UK) – Boom 16.08.24 – Bristol (UK) – Arctangent Festival 17.08.24 – Haarlem (NL) – Complexity Festival 18.08.24 – Gent (BE) – Asgaard
After releasing their latest, full length album ‘Shiki’ in 2022 and now their new live album ‘Live: Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’, now SIGH will be bringing their signature brand of Metal to the masses across Europe and the UK this autumn.
This will be a headline tour for Sigh and features Laster as special guests throughout the tour as well. The tour will be both a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the band’s debut album ‘Scorn Defeat’ but will also see the band performing material off their new album ‘Shiki’.
This will also be the first to run feature their new guitarist Nozomu and promises to be one for the ages.
Mirai elaborates on the tour below:
“Although we played in Europe here and there, it’s been a while since we actually “toured” there. We really cannot wait to be on the road again. This tour includes Poland where we have never played before. Also it’s been almost 30 years since we played in Ireland last time!
This tour is not only to support the latest album “Shiki” out on Peaceville last year but to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our debut album “Scorn Defeat”. With the new guitarist, Nozomu, on board, I can assure that Sigh has by far the strongest line-up ever. Don’t miss The Eastern Forces of Evil!”
The full list of dates are as follows:
27-10-2023 NO – Oslo – Hostsabbat* 28-10-2023 DK – Copenhagen Stengade* 29-10-2023 NL – Maastricht – Samhain Festival* 30-10-2023 FR – Lille – La Bulle 01-11-2023 IRE – Dublin – Grand Social 02-11-2023 NI – Belfast – Deers´ Head 03-11-2023 UK – Manchester Damnation Festival 04-11-2023 UK – Manchester Damnation Festival 06-11-2023 FR – Paris – Backstage by the Mill 07-11-2023 FR – Nancy – MDE Artem 08-11-2023 DE – Kassel – Goldgrube 09-11-2023 CZ – Prague – Underdogs 10-11-2023 PL – Poznan – 2Progi 11-11-2023 DE – Berlin – Urban Spree
Following the announcement of SIGH’s new live album, ‘Live: Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’ and first single ‘Mayonaka no Kaii’. The band have unveiled their next track to come off the live album ‘A Victory of Dakini’.
The track is taken from the band’s visionary album ‘Scorn Defeat’, which the band will be performing in full, later this year at the UK’s Damnation Festival. The track, reminds us of the band’s beginnings and explores their more primitive style that would come to progressive into the fully fledged Sigh sound we know now.
The song details the story of a Japanese goddess ‘Dakini’ that rides on a white fox, according to Buddhist religion. Kujaku-Ou is a Japanese manga published around 1988 – 1991 and in it featured a lot of oriental occultism and were often the inspiration behind Sigh’s early material. Originally Dakiki is a goddess from India that would eat human flesh, however in Japan she is considered to be the goddess of sexual lust.
Mirai elaborates below:
‘A Victory of Dakini” is the opening track of our debut album “Scorn Defeat”. I believe the first track of the first album is something special for most bands, and this is true to our case, too. Of course the song is way more primitive and simpler than what we are doing today, but obviously it’s got a magic feeling, which we will never ever recapture. “Dakini” is a goddess riding on a white fox in Buddhism. I wrote this song inspired by a Japanese manga, “Kujaku-ou”.
‘A Victory of Dakini’ kicks off the live performance with ominous chanting before Sigh’s signature Death Metal crawl begins, conjuring all manner of otherworldly entities. The song itself is a masterful blend of Japanese culture with angular Death Metal precision, a style that has only been improved upon with each release right up until 2022’s ‘Shiki’.
With a title referencing the band’s original underground live release ‘The Eastern Force of Evil’ released back in 1997, this new performance captured recently in Japan features the line-up of founder & mainman Mirai Kawashima on bass/vocals, Dr. Mikannibal on vocals/saxophone, Nozomu Wakai on guitar, and Takeo Shimoda on drums.
‘Live: The Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’ will be released on a 2 disc CD/DVD set / LP / Digitally
‘Live: The Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’ track listing:
OPENING-Touji No Asa (live) [01:31] A Victory of Dakini (live) [05:59] Purgatorium (live) [04:48] The Transfiguration Fear (live) [04:00] Kuroi Kage (live) [07:46] Shingontachikawa (live) [04:51] Mayonaka no Kaii (live) [05:39] Shoujahitsumetsu (live) [03:54] The Soul Grave (live) [04:04] Introitus (live) [03:04] Inked In Blood (live) [03:07] Me-Devil (live) [03:06] Satsui (live) [04:27] Evil Dead-ENDING (live) [04:07]
Cult Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/90, featuring mainman Mirai Kawashima, Satoshi Fujinami & Kazuki Ozeki. Following initial demos, Shinichi Ishikawa was brought in to the band. It was following this shift that Sigh set about recording the masterpiece debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ for the then-Mayhem guitarist Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions, going on 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. However, at its core, Sigh has always remained true to its roots of old school metal, and 2022’s ‘Shiki’ album represented a new high point for the band, encapsulating all that was endearing about Sigh, with a perfect mix of styles and injection of eastern flair.
Following the announcement of the band’s new live album, ‘Live: Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’, SIGH now give us the first experience what fans can expect in the form of the performance of ‘Mayonaka no Kaii’.
Taken from 2022’s ‘Shiki’ album, ‘Mayonaka no Kaii’ brings with it a spectral atmosphere which is no coincidence considering Mirai’s frightful experience that informed the song.
At exactly 00:00am Mirai was woken up and after a quick trip to the bathroom, quickly returned to his slumber. Yet, despite what felt like a few hours, he woke up and was faced once more with the clock face at exactly 00:00am. Thinking the battery in his clock was dead, he looked at his phone and to his surprise there it was, 00:00am as well… A truly otherworldly and inexplicable experience.
Mirai elaborates below:
“Mayonaka no Kaii”, which is based on my eerie experience, is my favourite track off the latest album “Shiki” released last year, and it’s been always on the setlist since it was out. It got all the elements Sigh have from hammond solo, shakuhachi solo, flute solo, vocoder and so on. Also it definitely is a fun-to-play song. The adrenalin starts to flow towards the ending!
He continues: “I’m not a person, who easily confuses dreams and reality. I clearly remember going to the toilet at the first alarm, and I took the watch out of the room after the second one, so neither of these was a dream. This was the first experience in my life which I cannot logically explain at all. It was SO scary.If you have a similar story, let me know.”
‘Live: The Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’ track listing:
Cult Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/90, featuring mainman Mirai Kawashima, Satoshi Fujinami & Kazuki Ozeki. Following initial demos, Shinichi Ishikawa was brought in to the band. It was following this shift that Sigh set about recording the masterpiece debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ for the then-Mayhem guitarist Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions, going on 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. However, at its core, Sigh has always remained true to its roots of old school metal, and 2022’s ‘Shiki’ album represented a new high point for the band, encapsulating all that was endearing about Sigh, with a perfect mix of styles and injection of eastern flair.
With a title referencing the SIGH’s original underground live release ‘The Eastern Force of Evil’ released back in 1997, this new performance captured recently in Japan features the line-up of founder & mainman Mirai Kawashima on bass/vocals, Dr. Mikannibal on vocals/saxophone, Nozomu Wakai on guitar, and Takeo Shimoda on drums.
Following swiftly on the back of the release of the highly acclaimed ‘Shiki’ album and coming in a year which also marks 30 years since Sigh’s highly influential debut, ‘Scorn Defeat’, ‘Live: The Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’ captures the band in fine form as they perform a wide collection of old and new tracks covering all the way from the aforementioned first album, up until the band’s first Peaceville studio album, ‘Shiki’. With flawless musicianship and accompanied by a stellar audio mix, ‘Live: The Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’ truly represents the very best of Sigh’s legacy.
Frontman Mirai had the following to say about the new album:
Our new live album was recorded in August 2022 whilst we performed our live stream that we did during the pandemic, which was a cliché in the world under the Pandemic. However, the recording of both video and audio, turned out by far better than we had expected and we thought it’d be a good idea to physically release it rather than just putting it on YouTube or somewhere.
Mirai continues:
This is a document not only about our blood-drenched stage but also about the new era of Sigh that began with Nozomu on guitar. 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of our debut album “Scorn Defeat”, and “Live: Eastern Forces of Evil 2022” covers our whole career from “Scorn Defeat” to the latest “Shiki” released in 2022. Don’t miss it!
‘Live: The Eastern Forces of Evil 2022’ will be released on a 2 disc CD/DVD set / LP / Digitally
‘LIVE: THE EASTERN FORCES OF EVIL 2022’ TRACKLISTING
OPENING-Touji No Asa (live) [01:31] A Victory of Dakini (live) [05:59] Purgatorium (live) [04:48] The Transfiguration Fear (live) [04:00] Kuroi Kage (live) [07:46] Shingontachikawa (live) [04:51] Mayonaka no Kaii (live) [05:39] Shoujahitsumetsu (live) [03:54] The Soul Grave (live) [04:04] Introitus (live) [03:04] Inked In Blood (live) [03:07] Me-Devil (live) [03:06] Satsui (live) [04:27] Evil Dead-ENDING (live) [04:07]
The CD/DVD edition of includes both audio and visual presentations of the show, and also features 2 extra tracks, including a cover of the Death classic, ‘Evil Dead’. The DVD also includes 3 additional promo video tracks in the shape of ‘Mayonaka No Kaii’, ‘Satsui’, and ‘Shoujahitsumetsu’.
The band have announced they’ll be performing at two festivals later this year – Netherlands Samhain Festival and UK’s Damnation Festival (2 different sets) including ‘Scorn Defeat’ in its entirety.
Following the release of ‘SHIKI’, their new studio album, the cult Japanese black metal legends SIGH have released a new video for the track “Shoujahitsumetsu”.
Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima explains the meaning behind the track “‘Shoujahitsumetsu’ is a word in Buddhism and stands for “Anything that is alive has to die in the end”. I tried to express my fear of death through the album, and this song should be the case in point. This is the most furious track on the album filled with my feat that will never fade away.”
The release of the performance video comes just as the band are returning to London for their first show in 12 years – they played on Wednesday 14th December at the Scala with Anaal Nathrakh!
Sigh’s recently released opus, ‘Shiki’, is dark & eclectic blackened heavy metal, shrouded in traditional eastern influences, and marks the latest chapter in the Sigh legacy, which includes some of the band’s heaviest and darkest material for some years; has been wowed fans new and old and received critical acclaim from the worldwide media – a selection of comments from reviews are to the right.
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