SAIGAN TERROR released its first album in 1999 and its second in 2019. Hardly any band has left a gap like that and come back as if nothing had happened.
Koenji, 1997
The band started in 1997 in Koenji, a Tokyo neighbourhood long associated with Japanese punk. At its centre, then and now, is the guitarist SHIZURU SAIGAN, whose name the band carries.
The first records came out in 1999: the mini-album March of Saigan and a self-titled seven-inch. The sound drew on the crossover thrash and skate rock of the American west coast in the 1980s, the point where hardcore punk and thrash metal met.
Then the band went quiet for a long time.
2016
The second version of SAIGAN TERROR came together in 2016, with MRxSAKi on vocals, AYUMI on drums and H8MONGER on bass alongside the founder.
It moved quickly. In 2017 it shared a split seven-inch with FIGHT IT OUT, the Yokohama band. In 2019 came the second album, Anatomy of Saigan, about twenty years after the first.
The music had changed in the meantime. The newer material adds death metal, grindcore and powerviolence to the old crossover base. The band is sometimes described as grinding crossover thrash.
It also made its first music video, for the song “Uncle Murder.” That was a first in a career of more than two decades.
The Exhibition
In 2019 the band was given something few hardcore bands ever get: an art show. An exhibition called SAIGAN TERROR展 was held at TOKYO CULTUART by BEAMS, a gallery run by the fashion retailer in Harajuku.
It makes sense once you know the style. Crossover thrash has always had a strong visual side, from skateboard graphics to record sleeves, and the exhibition treated this band’s as worth showing.
Crossing Over Again
The band has kept finding new company. It appears on a track with the rappers JNKMN and rirugiliyangugili, a long way from where a Koenji thrash band started in 1997.
Why It Matters
Some bands are careers. SAIGAN TERROR is more like a long-running local institution that happens to make records.
Start with Anatomy of Saigan.
