HOOMAN AFTER ALL: SiM's absolute banger of an album.

 

2026 has proved to be quite the strong year for music, especially if like me, you're into Japanese rock and metal. Several of my favourite artists have graced the scene with new material with D'espairsay coming back from their over a decade-long hiatus with the banger that is RAPTURE. DIR EN GREY released their follow-up album to Phalaris, MORTAL DOWNER, lynch. one of my all-time favourite bands came out with an appropriately titled album: Climax and that's but a few examples off the top of my head. SiM just decided to drop their new album: HOOMAN AFTER ALL on September 2nd and I just couldn't resist checking it out straight away. Make no mistake, I am extremely glad that I did.

FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet)

Starting off the album with FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet) was a brilliant move as it gets the blood pumping in all the right ways. It's a fun, catchy tune that will have you singing Da-Da-Na-Na-Na-Na, Da-Da-Na-Na-Na-Na along with Mah during the choruses. Built for crowds to sing along to, that's for sure. I love the switch-up near the middle of the song, SiM have always delivered fabulous ebbs and flows in their song structure. You also get to hear an excellent breakdown and the lyrics made me laugh when Mah tells his 'sneaky' wallet to get its ass back in the car.  

BLiNDEYES

Following up the great opener, we get something I have been hoping for with a collaboration occurring between SiM and the amazing HANABIE. More specifically, Yukina provides the vocals as a guest performer on BLiNDEYES and as expected, she absolutely nailed it. What surprised me is just how well her voice blended in with Mah's. Crunching guitar riffs meet harsh vocals before Mah switches to his wonderful clean vocals in the chorus whilst Yukina screams in tandem. A suitably heavy track with a lot of Japanese lyrics for the screaming sections, not a complaint. 

DALALA

The hype continues into DALALA with some fantastic work on the drums that really stands out. The frantically paced song has one of the better breakdowns on the album and Mah's signature vocals shine throughout. An extremely catchy chorus is the cherry on top, not too dissimilar to the opening track. 

HOLD MY BEER

HOLD MY BEER starts with a heavy dose of reggae-ton before switching gears to a much more metalcore sound. The switch-up shouldn't work as well as it does. One lyrical line stood out to me during the course of this short, but sweet track: "You hold my beer while I swim in your tears that fall." I love that line, even if it doesn't present the song's narrator in the best of lights. 

Karen's Son

What can I say about a song named Karen's Son? Mah's lyrics for it are genuinely hilarious and are about exactly what you're thinking. The melodic vocals are beautiful, I've enjoyed Mah's voice in general, but it really shines when he can go clean for songs like this one. The band took a pop-punk approach to the sound for this one, which isn't always my favourite, yet works well enough for something like this. A short and sweet track, in fact the shortest of all songs on the album at just 2 minutes and 30 seconds. It grows on you in repeats. 

The Sniffing Cats Ska

Another collaboration is up next as The Sniffing Cats Ska features HEY-SMITH. A ska-inspired song about sniffing cats never sounded so good! No seriously... The instrumentation has such a rhythmic flow, with brass instruments adding the ska flavour. Not much more to add other than the fact that it's amusing that of all the songs to collab on, HEY-SMITH are featured on the song about sniffing cats. 

HOOMANS AFTER ALL

The titular track: HOOMAN AFTER ALL, brings the reggae-ton sound back to the forefront. It a song seemingly from the perspective of cats with the verses listing different cats living their different lives and made abundantly clear via the chorus. It is this track which explains why human is spelt the way that it is. 

GHOST iN TOKYO

Back to a much more hype sound in GHOST iN TOKYO. There appears to be some electronic work going on behind the crunching guitar, pounding drums and bouncing bass. The lyrics on this one are rather poignant and as someone who for a period lived in Tokyo, I can relate somewhat to it. So many people living in the same city and yet you can feel like a ghost. I adore Mah's vocals for the last pre-chorus, just spectacularly beautiful. 

ZiON

ZiON brings about a collaboration with another artist I have an appreciation for. Masato from Coldrain brings the heaviness with the verses having a certain intensity to them with screaming vocals blended in with cleans. It's appropriate given that it's essentially a rally cry for the most part. The softer chorus makes for a great contrast in comparison and rather than feel out of place, it balances everything out well. Zion makes me think of The Matrix, honestly. 

BLACK SUBMARINE

BLACK SUBMARINE brings a different vibe to the mix with a much more hip-hop rap fusion focus. Whilst it's definitely not my favourite sound, the switch-up in the pre-chorus is lovely and the breakdown hits hard. Bonus points for the Metal Gear Solid references thrown in there, showing that Mah is knowledgeable when it comes to pop culture. 

FREEZE ME UP

FREEZE ME UP brings some anger out of Mah in the verses, with him shouting at someone he clearly doesn't like. This continues until the clean vocals hit in the chorus and once again the contrast just works perfectly. I really like the breakdown in this song as well. 

Sailing On

Concluding the album, Sailing On brings things down with a much more mellow, slower-paced track. That doesn't mean that there aren't any punch as there is some heaviness, especially in the fantastic screaming bridge. Lyrically, it's a fantastic way to end things with Mah proclaiming that he embraces the person that he is, including the changes in his life after he used to hate himself. He even states that he was 'born to rip and break the norm' and yet, he embraces being the outsider in some respects. I can relate. 

Overall, I think I put it best in the title of this blog post: HOOMAN AFTER ALL is a banger of an album. It's fun, it's chaotic and it exemplifies every single thing about SiM. They've managed to carve out a niche to call their own and I love that they've kept at it this entire time. My personal favourite songs of the album are probably FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet), BLiNDSiDE, DALALA, Karen's Son, GHOST iN TOKYO and SAILING ON. Heavily recommend giving the album a listen. There just might be a song for you.