«Goh-ka» is Sigh’s thirteenth album. It was released on September 4, 2026 via Peaceville Records and is the record where the band’s avant-garde metal meets folk, progressive and black metal in the same track.
Country: Japan
Genre: Avant-garde Metal, Progressive Metal, Folk Metal
For fans of: Thy Catafalque, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Arcturus
On «Goh-ka» Sigh do something few dare: they place traditional Japanese instruments next to the guitars, without turning them into a spectacle. They aren’t the record’s «gimmick» — they’re members of the band, with mixed vocals and switches you don’t manage to predict.
The sound is the work of Lasse Lammert on mix and mastering and is the reason the record sounds full without clogging: Mike Heller’s drums have weight without crushing the quieter passages, while flutes, percussion and traditional instruments — with Mirai Kawashima and Dr. Mikannibal on most of them — come forward exactly the moment they should.
Nozumu Wakai’s guitars shred and soar together, even at the most black metal points, as on «Jigoku-Zoshi 1 – Unkamusho» and «Jigoku-Zoshi 2 – Tokatsujigoku», where nothing gets lost in the racket.
Our take
There are also the points that add nothing: «Shoso» and «Kushukankyo» pass without leaving anything, «Kuso-shi 7» comes close to Tool-style filler, and «Kuso-shi 4, 5» and «6» tire a little with repetition. But those aren’t what stays: «Unputenpu» has a guest solo from Mikael Åkerfeldt and is the catchiest thing on the record.
«Goh-ka» wins on every listen. It has dense work, clean performances and a logic that rarely succeeds on avant-garde records: the different materials aren’t stacked, they lock together. For an outfit counting over three decades, it looks like a record by veterans who never got comfortable.
See «Jigoku-Zoshi 1 – Unkamusho»:
More on the same side of metal: The ten albums of September 2026: Sigh, Krolok, Tombstalker and more.
See also
See also: The Ocean – Solaris and Playgrounded – A Flower To Water.
See also: Rotting Christ – A Dead Poem
