Sigh – I Saw the World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Grymm

Before we start… yes. Yes, we received I Saw the World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV on time back when it was released this past June. There was a debate behind the scenes whether a complete remake of Sigh’s seventh full-length from 2007, Hangman’s Hymn, justifies a full-length review. At the end of the day, newer, current bands and releases that were created in 2025 needed precedence, and thus a remake of a classic album, one that many feel didn’t necessarily need one, took a backseat. In doing so, many people slept on it and decided to move on. Which would be a shame, as not only does I Saw the World’s End sound a hell of a lot better than the original, it improves upon it in almost every aspect.

What Sigh mainman/bassist/vocalist Mirai Kawashima possessed in 2007 was a plethora of ideas and a hunger to see them to fruition. The Mirai of 2025 still possesses those qualities, but also now has a backing band to see them come to life, and the results are a jaw-dropping improvement. Former guitarist Shinichi Ishikawa and former drummer Junichi Harashima weren’t slouches when Hangman’s Hymn was originally released, but current guitarist Nozomu Wakai and session drummer Mike Heller (Malignancy, ex-Fear Factory) bring so much more to the table creatively. The revamp of “Me-Devil” sees Wakai turn the chorus from a straight-ahead thrash riff to a near-blackened assault. His solos are also a massive departure over Ishikawa’s, soaring as opposed to just being a placeholder.

And Heller? Seriously, just listen to “Introitus/Kyrie” of 2025 and compare that to the original. While the original kept a straight-ahead marching attack, Heller’s variety, speed, and skill elevate the song, with rolling tom flourishes, blasts, and fill after glorious fill highlighting Kawashima’s songwriting genius. Elsewhere, his near-militaristic take on “The Memories as a Sinner,” combined with Wakai’s shred-tastic soloing, turns the song into a much meaner tune. In fact, what both men bring to the reworking of Hangman’s Hymn is such a vastly superior improvement that showcasing a few examples was difficult, when they’re all impressive.

It doesn’t hurt that the Lasse Lammert production cleans things up where they’re needed (especially in the bass and live brass instrumentation), and beefs things up where necessary (the drums and guitars). The vocals of Kawashima and his wife, Dr. Mikannibal (who joined just after the original was released), also cut through with alarming clarity and focus, often playing off each other’s delivery. Sure, some of the original’s hiccups remain (I’m still trying to wrap my head around Kawashima’s impish Baby Ms. Piggy-like vocals in the choruses of “Inked in Blood,” but I recognize that that’s a Me Thing), but everything else answers why Kawashima would choose to rework an album that’s already a classic in many people’s eyes. While I loved the original, I Saw the World’s End is several notches above it; it’s frightening. After all, I would take this over a poorly-produced, massively downgraded redux any day of the week.1

Tracks to Check Out: This really is a “sit and absorb” kind of album, so sit and absorb it, will ya?

#2025 #AvantGardeMetal #FearFactory #HangmanSHymnMMXXV #ISawTheWorldSEnd #JapaneseMetal #Malignancy #Pallbearer #PeacevilleRecords #Sigh #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025

Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier

After dropping a new album last year under his Nachtmystium moniker, I had a sneaky suspicion Ken Sorceron would bless us with a new Abigail Williams record this year. And, sure as shit, A Void Within Existence is here. I’ve been covering this outfit for some time now, thankfully, after their spell in the metalcore realm. And each new album continues to push new boundaries, inching closer to grabbing the counter by the balls and dragging it through blackened muck. While some would disagree, 2019’s Walk Beyond the Dark was a brilliant record that might arguably be the band’s best work. That sets a new bar for this ever-evolving group that, I can only assume, becomes more difficult to overtake with each new album and the swinging door of lineup changes and guest appearances. At least for now, the arsenal Sorceron surrounds himself with on A Void Within Existence is a tight group that meshes nicely together. But will this new record deliver the goods and bitch-slap the counter?

One of the best guests on this year’s release is Mike Heller (Changeling, Malignancy, Raven, and a thousand other fucking bands) on drums. Heller brings the intensity that adds layers of depth to A Void Within Existence, which are rarely found on the band’s previous albums. John Porada’s1 prowess also does wonders to the bass-heavy songwriting of Abigail Williams. Complete it with Vale of Pnath’s Vance Valenzuela on guitar, and we have one of the best Abigail Williams lineups. A Void Within Existence sets this foursome down a road of wreckage that can either end in annihilation or perfection. And it all weighs on the songwriting, performances, production, and, well… everything involved in crafting a release, especially with the depth involved in the lyrics and musical direction. Let’s see if I start crying.

A Void Within Existence wastes no time getting off the ground as it explodes with a heavy-bass assault and a murky, dissonant riff. It eventually settles into a groove as the spitting, slathering vocals arrive, supported powerfully by thundering backing vocals. Oddly enough, the pace and vocal arrangements evoke Hypocrisy. But things really get moving with the follow-up track, “Void Within.” Heller’s drum work, in particular, is the perfect teaser of what’s to come on later tracks. After opening with a meloblack passage, the razor-sharp riffs intensify around Sorceron’s vicious rasps. For nearly six minutes, this conglomeration of crushing black riffs, touches of orchestration, and absolute sinisterness paints a picture of sheer darkness. With wild guitar leads, impressive drum work, and a climax to make it worth the journey, “Void Within” is one of the most rounded ditties on the record.

But the best tracks on the album are “Talk to Your Sleep” and the closing number, “No Less than Death.” Seven months into the year, “Talk to Your Sleep” threatens to be my song o’ the year for 2025. This thing is nothing like anything I’ve ever heard from the band. Bass and drum-led, the crushing riff that springs up throughout is arguably the most memorable and headbangable thing ever to come from Abigail Williams. After cracking pavement with its mid-paced approach, it swings back around to begin again, this time with some punching vocals that are further emphasized by the guitars and drums. Then, Porada’s disgusting bass wakes the beast once more as we headbang to the end. Like Walk Beyond the Dark’s “The Final Failure,” “No Less than Death” is a surprising piece that shows Sorceron continuing to push his limits as a vocalist. While “The Final Failure” teased at some clean vocals, while retaining the rasp as the lead, “No Less than Death” goes all out with soaring, soothing cleans and rasping support. This atmospheric beauty takes us along valleys and hills that never end, and, when you thought you’d heard everything this song could offer, it concludes with beautiful, old-school solo work that, depending on your mood, leaves you hopelessly depressed or naively optimistic

After a dozen listens, I can’t find much on A Void Within Existence that makes me unhappy. While it’s compressed, the production still allows all the instruments to lend their weight to the end product. There could be a bit more bass in places, but it’s made up for by the slick drum mix. And, surprisingly enough, the clean vocals are far more forward in the mix than the previous album, which is pleasant to hear. The most predictable track on the album is “Nonexistence,” but it’s a solid, slower piece that draws you into the album’s sad theme. Letting the songwriting brew for the last six years has done A Void Within Existence well. It’s a repeatable record that requires multiple listens to explore every nook and cranny. Knowing the history of the band and its lineup changes, I hope Sorceron can bring these gents back in the future, because this might be the best they’ve ever been.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: facebook.com/abigailwilliamsband
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025

#2025 #40 #AbigailWilliams #AgoniaRecords #AmericanMetal #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BearMace #BlackMetal #Changeling #Hypocrisy #Jul25 #Malignancy #Nachtmystium #Raven #Review #Reviews #ValeOfPnath

ONSLAUGHT KOMMAND – Malignancy
https://eternal-terror.com/?p=64650

RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/malignancy

Malignancy is quite possibly one of the most inhuman and raw-sounding musical documents that I have come all year, and I am perfectly okay with that, thank you very much.

The guitar tone is akin to slime and immediately establishes an atmosphere that can only be described as utterly unpleasant. With its […]

#blackMetal #godzOvWar #grindMetal #grindcore #malignancy #onslaughtKommand #rawBlackMetal

Evilyn – Mondestrunken Review

By Dear Hollow

At first glance, it appears that international death metal act Evilyn only has your demise and destruction in mind. Mondestrunken is uncompromisingly heavy, riffs pushed to their shimmering limits like oil from the collapsing god machine, hellish growls from beyond the stars, and drums funneled through warp speed directly into the collapsing horror of a black hole. It feels like a background of cosmic noise, lifeless, unfriendly, and directionless, but patience yields results: obelisks emerge into the view. Not that they were ever absent, but that our eyes could not behold them. Beneath the fray of entropy, the eyeless stars, and the unending weight of time, patterns emerge. Lifelessness itself resurrects. The dead shall rise again. We were never alone, and that should make us more terrified than ever.

Evilyn was originally founded by Coma Cluster Void’s Jeanne Comateuse, attempting to make cosmic-themed old school death metal with a substantial hit of dissonance. With debut EP Inside Shells, the template was set: devastating death metal with shifting nebulae of tempos and time signatures alongside ruthless discordance. Evilyn’s lineup has shifted,1 its sole remaining member, guitarist/vocalist Anthony Lipari of Thoren, now including bassist Alex Weber of Malignancy and drummer Robin Stone of Norse and Ashen Horde, but the emphasis is as uncompromising as ever. First full-length Mondestrunken (German for “moon-drunk”) is as punishing as it is puzzling, a relentless bombast of death metal insanity fractured and splattered across the face of infinity.

Across thirty-seven minutes, Evilyn creates an OSDM template that is splintered through the fractured light of an alien prism, the result just as chaotic and alienating as you would expect – dissonance is relentless, the tempos and rhythms are constantly shifting, and Lipari’s vocals remain in deep growl mode. Initially overwhelming in terms of utter saturation, repeated listens unearth more and more. Contrary to the dissonance-for-dissonance’s-sake screeching of Mithridatum or Scarcity, or the improvised assaults of Acausal Intrusion or Ar’lyxkq’wr, Evilyn’s palette emerges in the form of motifs. While initially an apparent clusterfuck of discordance and chugs, blastbeats, and aggressing plodding, the motif gradually reveals itself and the song suddenly makes sense – these take several forms. While the off-kilter morphogenetic riffs of “Dread,” “Limits,” “Penance,” and “Slithering” ground their respective sounds like a traditional Morbid Angel blueprint, the pinch harmonics of “Omission” and “Forgotten” are a flaying reminder of pain. “Forgotten” and “Eat the Elite” explore their riffs with careful precision, each rendition more warped and rusted than the last.

The most tantalizing tracks aboard Mondestrunken are the ones with whom only a framework or structure becomes the motif, Evilyn soaring in mood and madness. The album title is most apparent in “Forgotten,” which truly feels like a cosmic drunken dissodeath passage, deepening in intricacy as it continues – its pinch harmonics nearly a misdirect to the approaching doom – while “Interwoven” lives up to its name with a dynamic structure of growing dissonance with each worming riff. “Bloviate” approaches its sound with a “traditional” proto-chorus, a midsection of contemplative open strums that add greater monolithic weight to the obliteration surrounding it. Resounding highlights are centerpieces “Penance” and “Vacuous,” their mercilessly mechanical sound achieving a hypnotic effect. The clockwork guitar plucking in the former collapses to dizzying shredding and animalistic blastbeats that rend planets, while the dissonance achieves a distinctly dying warble. The latter’s constant shifting between 6/8 and 4/4 enacts a cosmic pendulum, swaying between destruction and creation, the clarity of its cohesive conclusion feeling more punishing than the chaos surrounding it. Overall, Mondestrunken’s viciousness is palpable, the breadth organic – continuous and relentless hiss against the breath of life – each instrument organic and audible through the alien shimmering. Evilyn embraces experimentation with just a kernel of a tenet that keeps the mind secured to mortal realms.

Don’t be surprised if you hate Evilyn’s brand of bombastic saturation off the bat. Its dissonance is unending, its vocals one-dimensional, and shifting passages feel like cosmic whiplash again and again. However, it’s a surefire slow burn in spite of its relentless attack, its revelations feeling like the solution of a difficult cosmic puzzle and the kernel of accessibility blooming into monolithic significance. Its audience is limited, but fans of Fractal Generator, Artificial Brain, Aseitas, and Asystole – rejoice! For those willing to ride Evilyn’s warped spiral of the abstract and maddening, Mondestrunken’s secrets are revealed with tantalizing fulfillment.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: evilyndm.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/evilyndeath
Releases Worldwide: August 16th, 2024

#2024 #40 #AcausalIntrusion #ArLyxkqWr #ArtificialBrain #Aseitas #AshenHorde #Asystole #Aug24 #AvantGardeDeathMetal #ComaClusterVoid #DeathMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #Evilyn #FractalGenerator #InternationalMetal #Malignancy #Mithridatum #Mondestrunken #MorbidAngel #Norse #OldSchoolDeathMetal #OSDM #Review #Reviews #Scarcity #TechnicalDeathMetal #Thoren #TranscendingObscurityRecords

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Sh*t That Comes Out Today: June 14, 2024
Featuring releases from Fu Manchu, Malignancy, and Ulcerate.

https://www.metalsucks.net/2024/06/14/sht-that-comes-out-today-june-14-2024/

#FuManchu #Malignancy #SquidPisser #Ulcerate #Alarm #Amnify #APES #Eivør #Fórn #Golgotha #ImpactApproved #Mono #REZN #TheRedScare

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Review: Malignancy Toe the Line Between Madness and Genius on …Discontinued
This shit will make your head spin.

https://www.metalsucks.net/2024/06/11/review-malignancy-toe-the-line-between-madness-and-genius-on-discontinued/

#Malignancy #WillowtipRecords #NewYorkDeathMetal