Relapse Records, in a collaboration with Cherry Nishida, are proud to present AGONY憎悪REMAINS, a collection unearthing all of the material from Nishida's legendary Japanese hardcore band ZOUO, as well as 4 死 Death, a brand new album from Nishida's current outfit, S∴h∵i.

Originally formed by friends of a local skateboard crew in the early 80's, ZOUO quickly became torchbearers for Japanese hardcore punk at the time. The band's music was a direct reflection of their collective frustrations and takes on their culture; the lyrics detailed the bands hatred for "societal hypocrisies and existing religions." ZOUO's debut The Final Agony 7" remains a landmark release to this day - tracks such as "Sons of Satan" and "Making Love with Devil" showcase some of the most raw and evil punk to ever emerge from the underground.

Following ZOUO's releases, mastermind Cherry Nishida delved deeper into Japanese hardcore, forming DANSE MACABRE - a band solely dedicated on honing into the psychology of a serial killer.

Nishida now returns with S∴h∵i (Struggling Harsh Immortals).

Wishing to break from the genre's confines. S∴h∵i's new discordant take on rock, metal, and punk, infuses industrial elements and noise with a stark audio/visual presentation. An evolution of his prior material, S∴h∵i is directly correlated to Nishida's views on the human condition and the human minds he finds to be "unconsciously derived and mutated." For Nishida, S∴h∵i represents the struggle and search for the free spirit.


Our take: Both Rich and Usman are writing about Zouo for their staff picks this week and I encourage you to read both, but I thought I’d also chime in with my take in case anyone misses the staff picks. Zouo was a seminal 80s Japanese hardcore band, often mentioned in the same breath as G.I.S.M. because of their raw, gritty sound and catchy, metallic guitar leads. Zouo’s 1984 7” EP The Final Agony is one of the most collectible records in the history of Japanese punk. If you like old Japanese punk, it’s a record you should be familiar with and have in your collection in some form (warning: you’d be lucky to pay less than $500 for an original pressing). The A-side of Agony憎悪Remains is a discography of Zouo’s studio recordings, including the aforementioned The Final Agony EP and Zouo’s contributions to the Hardcore Unlawful Assembly compilation LP (which is important because the track “Frustration” only appears there and is one Zouo’s best songs). The b-side contains a mix of live recordings from three different shows, focusing on songs that didn’t appear on the official studio recordings, and the digital version offers several additional tracks from each of the three gigs. I love Zouo, I bought a copy of this record for myself, and I am stoked there is a licensed domestic US release of this music. However, I have a lot of nit-picking to do. First, there is virtually no information on this release. Yeah, there are some (blurry) pictures of Japanese punks with cool haircuts, but it doesn’t say anywhere on the packaging where these tracks come from. The origins are pretty obvious for The Final Agony and Hardcore Unlawful Assembly tracks, but what about the live tracks? Is the 1984 set that appears here different than the one Crust War released in 2011 as the A Roar Agitating Violent Age album? I don’t think so, but I’m not positive. There’s also no info about Zouo or the scene from which they came, nor are there reproductions of Zouo’s (fucking awesome) original artwork. The layout is also covered in this fake Photoshop distressed texture, making it look like Integrity’s recent albums. None of these things are crimes against humanity or anything and they’re not even deal-breakers (like I said, I still bought a copy), but I think these choices obscure some of Zouo’s mystique, which is such a big part of their appeal. So, in summary, get this, but know there are levels beyond this that are even cooler.