S.H.I.

***"4 死 Death", the second, game-changing full-length usurpation from Japanese experimental hardcore/metal/industrial supergroup collective S.H.I. (Struggling Harsh Immortals) finally finds it's first ever release on CD and cassette tape via Sentient Ruin after its original 2021 release on vinyl via Relapse Records. Simultaneously re-released along with the equally crushing 2015 debut album "死", the two reissues are a mandatory spiritual mission for Sentient Ruin to reconsecrate two of the most visionary, devastating, and overlooked Japanese hardcore releases of the past decade.  Masterminded by legendary vocalist and performance artist Katsunori "Cherry" Nishida of Japanese hardcore and heavy metal cults Zouo and Danse Macabre, and co-conspired with other long running members of the Japanese experimental punk and metal underground coming from bands like Nashi, Outo, Mobs, The Rude Boys, Gewalt and Rise from the Dead (among others) "死" sees S.H.I. construct a majestic syncretism of violence and experimentation by fusing hardcore punk, heavy metal, noise rock, industrial and psychedelia into an unseen demolition of reality. "死" and the subsequent 2021 Relapse Records-issued full-length followup "4 死 Death" (also now released by Sentient Ruin for the fist time ever on CD and tape formats) represent the transfiguration and perfect continuation of Nishida's enigmatic and uncompromising vision into the future, carrying Zouo's and Danse Macabre's bludgeoning and caustic torch into the experimental unknown as a violent and bleak means of transcendence. The two albums stand stark, enigmatic and imposing as a dark and death-scarred psychedelic trip into Japan's iconic and most deviant underground fringes of hardcore punk, metal, noise, and industrial, perfectly following in the steps of many legendary Japanese experimental violent acts like Zeni Geva, Crow, and G.I.S.M. as well as in those of iconic international acts like Killing Joke, Coil, Neurosis, Voivod, Amebix, SWANS and Discharge, who in the early 80's had laid the groundwork for visionary crossroads of aggression and experimentation through the hybridization of punk, metal, psychedelia and industrial to devastating, history-changing effects.