ADRENALIN: After a number of label changes over the years, do you feel that you've finally found a home in The End Records and how do they stand out as better than your previous labels?

MIRAI: Yes, definitely The End Records are the best label for us. What is great about them is that they respect their artists and they are very serious about their business at the same time. You know most of the labels lack either of them.

ADRENALIN: Upon researching the band, I discovered that the first letter of the names of your eight releases since 1993 spell out S.I.G.H.  if read in succession from year of release.  This is similar to Morbid Angel's idea of using the chronological order of the alphabet for the first letter of each album.  How are things going on the planning for the next succession of S.I.G.H. albums?

MIRAI: The next album will be entitled "Scenes from Hell/ Tempore Belli/ Vanitas". As you see, another SIGH cycle will begin. I really do not see any point in changing it at the moment!

ADRENALIN: You are considered as one of the first black metal bands to come out of Japan.  How has the scene changed since your inception and what are your opinions of the extreme Japanese music scene in general?

MIRAI: To be honest, I'm not too familiar with the Japanese "scene" any more, but I guess it has evolved pretty much. When we released the first album in 1993, we didn't see many Japanese bands have international releases, however now more and more bands are getting internationally recognized. It's a good thing for sure.

ADRENALIN: I love the way SIGH has evolved over the years from a traditional black metal band to a more avant-guard sounding metal act.  Was this a conscious decision or was it something that evolved naturally?

MIRAI: Well, I guess it was both conscious and spontaneous. We wanted the sinister sound, and found out that so-called avant-garde music such as classical music from 20th century fits the best from the fact that Penderecki is used for The Exorcist, Bartok is used for The Shining etc. I must say being avant-garde has never been our purpose. We needed to take in their composition techniques to express our view with music at all.

ADRENALIN: What direction do you see SIGH taking with your future projects?

MIRAI: The next album will not be that far from Hangman's Hymn, but the songs are a bit longer, complicated and sound more sinister. And we'll use a real string quartet, trumpet, tuba etc., so it should sound much more powerful and vivid compared to Hangman's Hymn.

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