What could happen if Sigh were to write a record about insanity and heavily influenced by artists like Gentle Giant and Os Mutantes? If you’re anything like us, your answer is something along the lines of “awesomeness would happen”, you’d be absolutely fucking right and we’ve got some good news: that record is set to be released later in November. Before we tell you more about it, you can check its heavy metal laden second track, «Homo Homini Lupus», one which Sight’s frontman and main composer Mirai Kawashima describes as “one of the fastest and the simplest tracks” on the record when talking to Candlelight, going a bit further on the band’s page and stating that it “does not represent «Heir to Despair» in any way. If you like the song, you will be 100% disappointed. I guarantee it.”

Regarding the song’s theme, Kawashima explains that its title is latin for “man is wolf to man” and that “Thomas Hobbes referred to this verb to describe how men would act in the state of nature before we were civilized. 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.”

Returning to the album as a whole, «Heir to Despair» will be the first record in Sigh’s discography to be mostly sung in Japanese. Coupled with the fact that Kawashima used traditional Japanese singing techniques and shamisen, played by Estradasphere‘s Kevin Kmetz, throughout the album, one begins to get what Candlelight means when they state that it can be viewed as “Sigh’s first attempt to intentionally take in a Japanese/Asian musical feel.”

The album’s artwork above, was authored by Eliran Kantor. Regarding the way in which it came to life, Kawashima explains that “I just suggested to Eliran that the album is about insanity and gave him some Japanese psychotropic drug advertisement from the ’60s and ’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.”

«Heir to Despair» is set for release on November 16 through Candlelight Records on cd and vinyl formats. Pre-orders are available at this location. To wrap this up, we have collected below some of the amusingly self-deprecating things the band has posted about the record. We obviously disagree with them.

• “don’t forget to keep your expectations as low as possible. Some people outside of the bands have listened to the album but NONE of them said a single word of compliment. Seriously nobody is going to like it. I mean it.” (19/06/18)

• “as for “Heir to Despair”, I like this album but probably I’ll be the only one in the world that likes it. I am sure everybody that has been involved with the album including the band members is baffled at it. They don’t openly say so, but I can tell that. And it has nothing to do with marketing.” (20/06/18)

• “Yes, you may like the artwork as I love it too. But you will never like the album!!” (28/09/18)