GISM 'Detestation'

Originally released in 1983, Detestation is the landmark debut from GISM, one of the most singular and influential bands to emerge from the Japanese hardcore underground.

Led by Sakevi Yokoyama with the unmistakable guitar work of Randy Uchida, GISM pushed far beyond the boundaries of hardcore, colliding punk with heavy metal, thrash, glam, industrial noise, and experimental music at a time when those worlds rarely crossed. The result is a record that still sounds confrontational and difficult to categorize more than four decades later.

Detestation became enormously influential across hardcore, metal, crust, and extreme music, pairing Sakevi’s ominous vocals and radical visual aesthetic with Uchida’s blazing leads and a sound that could move from raw punk violence into full-scale heavy metal without warning.

As Maximum Rocknroll wrote upon its original release, the music was so intense that GISM made “VENOM sound like the KNACK.”

This Relapse Records edition is the first fully authorized reissue of Detestation, prepared in direct cooperation with Sakevi. The vinyl faithfully recreates the presentation of the original 1983 LP and includes an A3 poster and Japanese-style OBI strip. Any unusual spelling or design elements have intentionally been preserved from the original release.

A foundational document of Japanese hardcore and punk-metal crossover, finally available again in an official edition.