Sigh remain one of heavy music’s most reliable disruptors. As Japan’s most influential group with origins in the black metal scene of the early 1990s, their credentials are impeccable. ‘Doom is the main musical theme here, but a sinister form of prog metal evolves in parallel like an intriguing sub-plot,’ said Scream Blast Repeat of their 2023 LP, Shiki. After reinterpreting their 2007 album last year, they approach their thirteenth record with no obvious interest in repeating themselves. Goh-Ka is as fascinating as it is bewildering.
A whirling synthesiser introduces the first part of ‘Kuso-shi 1, 2 and 3’ as you wonder if you’ve stepped into an Ennio Morricone version of A Clockwork Orange. Sigh are famous for their unusual experiments, yet this does not feel strange once its hypnotic qualities take over. Adding in a grisly death-doom pulse is a clever move. Unfortunately, new guitarist Nozomu Wakai has little room for manoeuvre among the epic keyboard arrangements. Instead, he’s in the unenviable position of listing off the power chords when he’d rather be shoving the flutes aside to rip into an Iron Maiden solo. His chance comes at 04:45 when he embraces his inner Tony Iommi and then loses his place once again to the plucked strings of the Japanese Shamisen (lute), which specialises in lacking melodic capability. But there’s no need to be agitated by this tussle. After all, this is a band that boasts an abundance of textures in their music. You might reach the finale without noticing the vocals. These slither under a moist death metal gullet until the choir joins at the end.
The album’s heavier instincts emerge on track two. Our man Wakai-san has the spotlight for ‘Jigoku-Zoshi 1: Unkamusho’, where Sigh channel the reckless energy of early Venom. This is thrash with the extravagance of Canadian legends Annihilator. Of course, it sounds like Sigh – they’re good at that, no matter what they do or who they use as inspiration. By contrast, flutes form the basis of ‘Anzenshokon’ with ex-Fear Factory sticksman, Mike Heller, taking up the bongos. The biggest crime of this song is how it produces indifference in the listener. If anything, it reminds you that momentum is seldom present in this record.
The seven minutes of ‘Kuso-shi 4, 5, and 6’ are almost as innocuous, but Sigh remember their purpose here. Chugging guitars and analogue synths build a prog rock ecosystem using a doom metal framework. Of course, there is no tangible structure. The dynamics soar high and then fly low when you least expect them. The idea seems to be reinventing progressive metal with Japanese idiosyncrasies, but some of this could sit on a Gorillaz record, and that’s a problem.
Finding the good songs is easy. ‘Unputenpu’ is a flamboyant metal thrill, full of downward palm-muting and scale runs for Mike Heller to follow as if putting on a lesson for his students in Brooklyn. Mirai Kawashima grinds his words like a man with barbed wire around his throat, yet he finds a melody in the chorus thanks to the backing vocals. Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt is also on hand to add a guitar solo as the keyboard organ adds its weight to the mix. ‘Jinmenjushin’ is another stab at expanding the epic dimensions of metal with double-timing drums and rapid guitar rhythms, but there’s too much happening at once for the best bits to land. You might even ask how this can stretch to six minutes when they’ve used up everything in their armoury after the first two. It’s a relief to hear a frantic three minutes of blackened thrash for its successor, ‘Jigoku-Zoshi 2: Tokatsujigoku’. Here, the blast beats bulldoze through the mix with French horns and vocals that could fit into a meme about an evil guinea pig that eats hamsters.
Sometimes, the blissful interludes are the easiest to remember on Goh-Ka (see ‘Kushukankyo’). That highlights the album’s main weakness: it drifts into boredom far too often. Fifty-eight minutes is too long, even for one of avant-garde metal’s defining bands. The eleven-minute closer ought to reveal its brilliance after repeated listens but never delivers. It’s not through lack of trying or imagination. Kreator’s current four-stringer, Frédéric Leclercq, works hard to establish a circular groove, but everything moves towards a metallic zen meditation that dominates the album’s longer tracks.
The metal world needs Sigh to keep the wheel moving for the genre’s continuous experimentation, which will always be a trial-and-error process. This LP proves they won’t always get it right, but they deserve our respect.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 04/09/2026
Record Label: Peaceville Records
Standout tracks: Jigoku-Zoshi 1: Unkamusho; Unputenpu; Jigoku-Zoshi 2: Tokatsujigoku
Suggested Further Listening: Therion – Deggial (2000), Saor – Origins (2022), Thy Catafalque – XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek (2024)