What do you do when you’ve got the blues for murder only? You seek sanctuary in your local branch of the Church Of Misery. Japan’s premier doomsayers kept us waiting for a little while there, but evil never dies, as they say, and there are still murders yet unsung. Born Under A Mad Sign lurches into view with a warped, warty, groaning stagger that’s as ugly as the heinous crimes it chronicles: when the only constant member and main songwriter is the bassist, you ought to expect that he’d grow comfortable taking center stage, and Tatsu Mikami is not one to shy away from his responsibility to shake the listener’s bones loose. Mikami isn’t the only founder on deck this time around, though: original vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda returns to lay down his first gravelly bellows with the Church since the very late-released semi-debut, Vol. 1, and the result of this new lineup is a gruesome chemistry that hasn’t been heard in a little while. Stoner metal is not known for its rigid adherence to standards of personal hygiene, but even with all this competition Born Under A Mad Sign is still one of the filthiest albums you're liable to hear all year.

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