SiM have unveiled ‘FREEZE ME UP’, the new song serving as opening theme for the upcoming anime Black Torch, and confirmed it will appear on their forthcoming seventh album Hooman After All, out 2 September via UNFD.
The Japanese four piece have form here. Their 2022 single ‘The Rumbling’, written as the season four opening for Attack On Titan, became a global breakout, topping Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs and pulling in well over 100 million streams. ‘FREEZE ME UP’ follows the same path, featuring in the newly released main trailer for Black Torch, an adaptation of the manga in which a teenager raised in the ninja arts and able to talk to animals crosses paths with a black cat that turns out to be a creature of legend.
“Manga is a universe. There are as many galaxies as there are readers,” says vocalist MAH. “This song is my attempt to express, through sound and words, the Black Torch galaxy that expanded inside my own mind.”
Self described “Reggae PUNX from Japan”, SiM fuse nu metal, hardcore and postmodern hard rock with the renegade spirit of reggae, ska and punk, a blend that has carried them from selling out the Nippon Budokan to festival stages including Download. Hooman After All is their first full length in three years and gathers recent singles ‘FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet)’ and ‘BLiNDEYES’ alongside the new track.
We are always glad to see a band bridge heavy music and anime as naturally as SiM do, and on the strength of ‘FREEZE ME UP’ the new record looks set to widen their reach further still. The accompanying Hooman After All World Tour reaches the UK in January 2027, with stops including Bristol’s The Fleece on 28 January and London’s Electric Ballroom on 30 January.
Hooman After All arrives on 2 September via UNFD.
