THC Zine: Sex Messiah has played in all the NWN/Hospital Fest concerts, and will play, including the upcoming fest next year. They trailblazed the combination of black metal and extreme metal bands with harsh noise, power electronics, and death industrial artists. What are your thoughts on this pioneering combination of different artists? Please tell us about your experiences playing live in these shows.
First of all, I should correct one thing: NWN/Hospital Fest has only happened once so far. Sex Messiah played at the first edition, and we are also scheduled to play the next one next year.
The first NWN/Hospital Fest was very different from a normal metal festival. Extreme metal, noise, power electronics, death industrial, and other different forms of underground music were gathered in the same place.
Even if the methods of sound are different, I think what lies underneath is close: darkness, violence, obsession, extremity, and a sensibility that exists outside ordinary musical values.
I also think it was inevitable that this happened in Osaka. Here, there is no strict division between scenes by genre. It was something that could be built naturally by friends from our scene.
Your latest release, Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros, has the distinction of using Spanish lyricism compared to the last full-length before it, giving it a much more evil atmosphere. How did these ideas form, and what are your comments about it?
The reason Spanish lyrics are used on Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros, is that the drummer who played on this series of releases is Bolivian, and he wrote the lyrics.
I started doing vocals in Sex Messiah from Metal del Chivo, released in 2022. After that came the three-way split with Evil and Immortal Death, the split EP with Tormentador, and then Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros. These releases are connected as part of the same period.
I think Spanish gave a different texture to Sex Messiah’s music. It has a different sound from English or Japanese, and it strengthened the evil and ritualistic atmosphere of the work. Since the lyrics were written by someone who actually has that language, it entered the work without feeling forced.
The latest album was also your first one to do both vocals and guitar, although there were also splits and compilation releases in between. What are your thoughts on taking on vocals and lyrics in addition to main songwriting on guitar?
As a full-length album, Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros was the first one where I did both vocals and guitar. I started doing vocals in Sex Messiah from Metal del Chivo in 2022. Before that, I was mainly responsible for guitar, songwriting, and lyrics.
Taking on vocals changed my position in the band in a major way. Vocals are not just an additional part; they are an element that determines the impression of the band itself. By playing guitar and using my voice at the same time, I feel that I can control the aggression and atmosphere of the music more directly.
In the past, I limited my own abilities to some extent because I was trying to bring only BLACK METAL elements into Sex Messiah. However, after the number of members decreased and the band became more personal to me, I removed that limitation.
On Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros, I put everything I had into it. I played psychedelic guitar using fuzz, and because I studied classical singing when I was a child, I also incorporated that kind of vocal technique. Rather than forcing what I had inside me into the frame of BLACK METAL, I used it in the form that was necessary for Sex Messiah.
Which of the split albums are your favorite, and how did you get in touch with the killer bands on those releases, such as Anatomia, Impurity, Evil, Tormentador, etc.?
Every split has a different meaning, so it is difficult to choose only one favorite. Each release has a story behind it that goes beyond a simple collaboration.
I was a fan of Impurity, and I went to see them at NWN Fest in Germany, where they played their first show outside Brazil. One of my purposes was to talk to them directly and try to make a Japan show happen. After that, their Japan tour actually happened, and Sex Messiah did a short Tokyo and Osaka tour with them. We released the split with Impurity to commemorate that tour.
Evil is a band I invited to play the Osaka show with Impurity. At that point, I had never met them before, but I really liked their demo. That show became their first live performance outside Tokyo. Later, we released the three-way split with Evil, Immortal Death, and Sex Messiah. Evil had a strong personality and roughness from the beginning, and they are one of the important Japanese bands to me.
Anatomia is a band I deeply respect. When they play in Osaka, I try to go see them as much as possible, and they have also played at my own events. The split with them also came from many years of respect. They also played at the Tokyo show of the Impurity tour.
That tour was the first event I organized by myself, so I feel that my life accelerated from that point.
I am friends with all the members of Tormentador. I saw Holocausto at NWN Fest in 2016, and their live performance was truly tremendous. It left a very strong impression on me. As with Impurity, I have great respect for veteran Brazilian bands. Even after many years of activity, they have not become modern or stylishly polished, and they continue to maintain a rough passion.
Tormentador includes the vocalist of Holocausto, the original drummer of Sarcófago, and a member of Impurity as a support guitarist. When I heard their album, the impact I felt from seeing Holocausto live in 2016 came back to me. I contacted them immediately and asked them to release a split with Sex Messiah.
The split with Tormentador was also the first record I ever pressed. In that sense, it is a release I have a very strong attachment to.
These splits are not just releases with names placed side by side. They came from actual live shows, negotiations, respect, impact, and underground connections.
Please tell us about your other projects, especially Immortal Death and Moenos.
The idea for Immortal Death was born while I was drinking with close friends. The vocalist, 062, is the original vocalist of Sex Messiah. Even after he left Sex Messiah, he has remained my close friend, and he has created many of Sex Messiah’s artworks, including Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros.
The bassist, Hellstorm, had moved from Mie Prefecture to Osaka shortly before the band was formed. I invited him to hang out, and he got along with 062 immediately. They started saying that they wanted to do a band together.
Hellstorm also has an outstanding sense. He created the cover artwork and logo for the Immortal Death demo. I write the songs for Immortal Death, but it is a band that strongly reflects the personalities and aesthetic sense of 062 and Hellstorm.
Moenos is my solo project. I started it during a period when Sex Messiah could not be active because members had left. I wanted to continue making music in some form.
I think of Moenos as satanic psychedelic drone. It is different in form from Sex Messiah, but it expresses the darkness, obsession, religious feeling, and psychedelic sense within me in another way.
How did Nuclear War Now! Records get in touch with Sex Messiah? What can you say about Yosuke and his label and the other killer bands on the label’s roster?
I got to know Yosuke because I went to NWN Fest in Germany. That trip was important to me not only as a musician, but also as a listener of underground metal.
I went to the NWN! Fest he held in Germany three times as an audience member. Each time, it brought me great influence and important encounters.
I think Nuclear War Now! is one of the most important labels in extreme metal. Yosuke has unearthed dangerous and individual bands from all over the world, and over a long period of time, he has built a very strong identity for the label.
Of course, Impurity and Tormentador, which I mentioned earlier, are both great bands. Another important thing for me was meeting the members of Volahn and Siege Column when Sex Messiah played NWN Fest in Mexico. They are excellent musicians, and they helped us as support members during our U.S. tour. It is great to meet people with whom you can have mutual respect on a musical level.
Please tell us about your label, Sex Desire Records, and the current label roster of artists. What are your criteria for choosing a band worthy to be on the label?
Sex Desire Records started as a label to release an official bootleg CD by my friend’s band from Chile, Slaughtbbath.
From the beginning until now, it has always been a very personal label. I release only my own works and things I truly like. I have never thought about making money from it or changing the scene through it.
Sex Desire Records is not run with a fixed roster like a normal label. It is more personal than that. For each release, I deal with something that I strongly react to, and something that I feel has a reason to be released by me.
What matters to me is whether I react strongly to the music. More than popularity or technical perfection, I value strong atmosphere, obsession, and a real underground spirit.
I want to release bands that have their own air and necessity, not bands that are only imitating a style. Sex Desire Records is closer to a record of my own taste, respect, impulse, and obsession than a business.
Among the sonic palette of Sex Messiah’s lethal black metal assaults are the dark ambient and ritualistic harsh noise elements. When did you first discover harsh noise/power electronics/dark ambient/industrial? Have you played with the pioneer Japanese noise artists such as Masonna, Merzbow, Kazumoto Endo, Linekraft, Govt Alpha, etc.?
As Sex Messiah, we have played with noise and industrial artists such as Controlled Death, Linekraft, din-i-ilahi, and Blood Church Kommand. Among the artists mentioned in the question, we have played with Linekraft and Controlled Death. Controlled Death is a project by Masonna.
There is a live venue in Osaka called Bears. It is like a sacred place of the underground. If you spend time there, you naturally come into contact with psychedelic and noise artists’ live performances. For me, noise and psychedelic music were not things I consciously brought in from the outside. They entered my body through places like Bears.
For me, noise and metal are not completely separate worlds. Both can express violence, chaos, death, ritual, and spiritual darkness. Even if the methods of sound are different, there is something common at the root.
I have a close personal connection with Guilty Connector. The members of his unit BBVGC and din-i-ilahi are also long-time friends. We have also organized events together.
So it is not unnatural to me that ritualistic noise elements enter Sex Messiah’s music. They are not decorations added afterward. They are things that entered my body through places like Bears and through actual live situations.
Who are your favorite artists and/or current playlists you’re listening to right now?
Recently, my favorites are JPI Vio-Lens Kommand from Uruguay, Elcrost from Vietnam, and Ceremonial Incantations from the United States.
Towards Harmonious Civilization Zine 
Leave a comment