Not being a regular BBC listener, I’m not familiar with the show Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone – but I will say that, at this very moment, I am both very grateful to and very angry at Mr. Maconie. Grateful because last night, he debuted an awesome, strange-as-fuck new Sigh song, “The Transfiguration Fear,” which will appear on their upcoming album, In Somniphobia. And angry because this dude who apparently has no idea who the fuck Sigh are has gotten to hear In Somniphobia  before I have. Bastard.

ANYWAY, the song is what’s important, obviously, and if it’s any indication of the rest of In Somniphobia‘s quality, we’re in for another treat from my favorite Japanese band. Imaginary Sonicscape-esque sci-fi keyboards? Glorious Dr. Mikannibal saxophone? Congas? Classic rock style bluesy guitars? A whistling outro? All in one totally bizarre package? Just one more question: WHEN CAN I HEAR THE REST OF THIS ALBUM?!?!

You can stream the track (via a stream of the show on which it debuted) here. It starts around the 16:45 mark.

In Somniphobia is scheduled for a March release via Candlelight Records.

-AR

Major props to Tortiss for sending this in!!!

Yesterday, Sergeant D. posted a Metal Edition of the classic parlor game Marry, Fuck, or Kill, and you guys responded, uh, enthusiastically, surprising no one. And because we’re equal opportunity offenders — don’t forget that this is the site which posts leaked naked pictures of women and men alike — we decided that today we should post a metal d00dz edition.

So we sat down with the Mansion’s resident feminist, Leyla Ford, and presented her with some hot metal d00dz for a new game of MFK. Check out the results after the jump…

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Sigh’s Scenes from Hell, which was released Tuesday on The End Records, is the first great album of 2010. This is in an indisputable fact. Anyone who tries to dispute it should be banished to the album’s cover art. Don’t even step, sucka.

Now the band has released a video for the song “Prelude to the Oracle.” I have almost no idea what’s going on in this video, but any clip that has a blood-soaked Dr. Mikannibal dressed as a midriff-bearing angel is okay in my book!

Buy this album. Seriously. Do it.

-AR

When Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima offered to do a series of blogs from the studio where the band is recording their new album, Scenes from Hell, it was an opportunity too cool for us to pass up. Below find Mirai’s final report; here are links to his previous entries:

PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5

Enjoy!

I’d like to start the final studio report by announcing the great contribution to Scenes from Hell by David Tibet from Current 93. Not only did he write the excellent text for us, but he also recorded the spoken words for the record. It gives a truly amazing atmosphere to the album.

The album has finally been mixed and mastered. We were supposed to finish mixing it by the end of June, but it was not easy at all. Of course I knew it’d be tough to mix all those orchestral instruments properly, but it was much harder than expected.

Click to read more…

When Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima offered to do a series of blogs from the studio where the band is recording their new album, Scenes from Hell, it was an opportunity too cool for us to pass up. Below find Mirai’s third entry; you can find his first one here, his second one here, his third one here, and his fourth one here. Enjoy!

OK, this time we’ll give you the real studio report. So there’ll be no Dr. Mikannibal’s nude. I’m very sorry about that.

We’ve been in the studio for a while. Well, it’s a good studio. The engineer is great, so is the equipment. But the problem is the smell. The studio is in the basement and it smells very bad, it’s got a typical “basement” smell, you know, something truly musty and stale. And what’s worse is that the smell haunts you even after you leave the studio. I’ve already washed my hair twice, but I can still detect it…

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Seriously. Ever since Metal Hammer gave us that Web of Death thing, I’ve been knee-deep in pussy. Incredible. It’s amazing that I’m even able to type right now, I’m so worn out. And that’s why you start a website. For the groupies.

Which brings me to my next point: now that we’re famous, we don’t want to be friends with you anymore. Don’t take it personally, we just prefer to rub elbows with other fabulous, famous people. You were great on the way up, but now? Fuck you. M’kay?

Here’s what else went down this week:

• We spoke with Lacuna Coil’s Christina Scabbia, and managed to get through it without embarrassing ourselves too badly.
• Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima wrote another awesome guest blog from the studio, begging the question: is Dr. Mikannibal’s diet hot or not?
• The Haunted’s Peter Dolving lashed out against Lamb of God; you lashed out against Peter Dolving.
• NEW CONVERGE SONGS! NEW CONVERGE SONGS! NEW CONVERGE SONGS!
• Someone actually played IWRESTLEDABEARONCE’S “Tastes like Kevin Bacon” for Kevin fucking Bacon.
• How many Andrew WKs are there, anyway?

Alright. I’ve got like ten girls clawing at me right now, beckoning me back to bed. I’ll see you Monday, if they’ll give me a rest, already.

-AR

When Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima offered to do a series of blogs from the studio where the band is recording their new album, Scenes from Hell, it was an opportunity too cool for us to pass up. Below find Mirai’s third entry; you can find his first one here, his second one here, and his third one here. More will follow in coming days and weeks. Enjoy!

OK, this time I’d like to talk a little bit about Dr. Mikannibal’s favorite foods first. As we reported before, her preference of foods is slightly different from others. Just take a look at the above photo of the noodles with those giant worms. She eats anything from gross bugs to bull’s penis. She even keeps hundreds of cockroaches to eat! Well, at first she was keeping them as a bait for her pet Gecko, but now they’re her important protein suppliers. According to her, “Roaches taste just like a shrimp.” Don’t get me wrong, this ain’t a Japanese culture or anything, it’s just her!

Click to read more…

When Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima offered to do a series of blogs from the studio where the band is recording their new album, Scenes from Hell, it was an opportunity too cool for us to pass up. Below find Mirai’s third entry; you can find his first one here and his second one here. More will follow in coming days and weeks. Enjoy!

First of all, our apologies to people who were looking forward to the sequel to Dr. Mikannibal’s recording rules for the serious studio report this time. She’s still working on the vocals, naked as usual.

Well, the biggest difference between the recording of Scenes from Hell and the previous albums is definitely the use of orchestral instruments. There were a few of “real” trumpet parts on Hangman’s Hymn, too; however, this time they fill the album from the beginning to the end.

Obviously the real instruments sound way more powerful, vivid and emotional than MIDI or synthesizers. But handling them isn’t easy at all.

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When Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima offered to do a series of blogs from the studio where the band is recording their new album, Scenes from Hell, it was an opportunity too cool for us to pass up. Below find Mirai’s second entry; you can find his first one here. More will follow in coming days and weeks. Enjoy!

At the moment, we are recording the vocal parts. This time, a half of them are taken care of Dr. Mikannibal.

To get the best result, she sets several strict strange rules on her during the recording.

The first rule is: Get naked when you record the vocals.

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When Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima offered to do a series of blogs from the studio where the band is recording their new album, Scenes from Hell, it was an opportunity too cool for us to pass up. Below find Mirai’s first entry; more will follow in coming days and weeks. Enjoy!

OK, before we start the actual studio report, we’d like to begin this blog by talking a bit about our 8th album, Scenes from Hell.

Yes, now it’s simply entitled Scenes from Hell, instead of Scenes from Hell/Tempore Belli/Vanitas. There are several reasons that we cut the title short, but the biggest one is that the length was pretty much annoying! There are going to be eight tracks on the album, with titles such as “The Sould Grave,” “The Red Funeral,” and “L’art de Mourir.” The musical direction is not that far from that off from Hangman’s Hymn, but the songs are longer, more sinister and a bit more varied, and they all are about hell, war and death! This will be the perfect score to old war movies or Godzilla (The first one, of course!).

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The hottest women in metal are signed to The End Records. That might sound crass, but it’s true: my big crushes of ’08 are, without a doubt, Made Out of Babies’ Julie Christmas and, now, Sigh’s Dr. Mikannibal. We got to see the good doc in action the other night as part of the MetalSucks co-sponsored Sigh/Unexpect tour, and while Sigh clearly killed in every way imaginable (no big shock there), I think it’s safe to say that all eyes were on Mikannibal. She wears tight, short leather outfits, she dances, she headbangs, she plays the sax, and, oh yeah, her death metal growl is every bit as good as that of Sigh mastermind Mirai Kawashima.

I’m saying I wanna marry this chick.

Headbanger’s Blog has an excellent write-up of the show, complete with photos of Kawashima, Dr. Mikannibal, and the rest of the gang in action. But why just read about it when you can experience it for yourself? There’s still six dates left on the tour! The band plays all your favorites – “Death with Dishonor,” “Me-Devil,” “Inked in Blood,” even their cover of Venom’s “Black Metal” (which, at this point, is probably better than the actual Venom’s live version of “Black Metal”), and, like I said, you also get to ogle Dr. Mikannibal.

Get the remaining tour dates after the jump!

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