Japan's Church Of Misery Debut New Zealand Shows Announced

Japanese doom metal legends Church of Misery have announced they will be bringing their dark, heavy riffs to Aotearoa for the first time ever, with shows lined up at Wellington's Valhalla and Auckland's Whammy Bar in October. The gruesome four-piece, whose lyrics focus on serial killers of world history, kicked off in 1995 and are steadily riding the international third wave of doom metal alongside the likes of fellow travellers  Electric Wizard and Cathedral. Aside from their trailblazing (yet never officially released) debut collection ADV.1996, the sludgy unit have six full length studio albums to their name including their most recent collection 'And Then There was None…' (2016). As if they needed any extra accolades, bassist Tatsu Mikami may well play the lowest-slung bass in the entire world, here are the tour details…

Church Of Misery - DOOM of New Zealand Tour
Monday 8th October - Valhalla, Wellington
Tuesday 9th October - Whammy, Auckland
Tickets available HERE via UTR

Check out the meaty video for ‘Brother Bishop’ from 2013's Thy Kingdom Scum...

Here's their hellishly heavy track 'I, Motherfucker (Ted Bundy)' from 2004's The Second Coming...

Press Release:

For the first time on Aotearoa’s shores, all the way from Japan, oozes the doom that is CHURCH OF MISERY. Coming to its sludgy start in a dark corner of Tokyo in 1995, thanks to the bassist Tatsu Mikami solo project, Church of Misery Official reflected his darker, heavier musical taste after Salem, a renowned thrash metal band he played with, broke up. Influenced by Doom bands such as Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, and also 60s / 70s heavy rock like Leaf Hound, Blue Öyster Cult and November, came CHURCH OF MISERY - whose lyrics deal exclusively with serial killers of world history. With 20 years serving mass, CHURCH OF MISERY have earned a place right next to Electric Wizard and Cathedral the forefathers of the third wave of Doom.

The bands first Demo, ADV.1996 was recorded in 1997 became synonymous with the band even though it was never released officially. Instead, a bootleg released without the bands approval led to CHURCH OF MISERY reaching audiences the world over. Since 2001 the band has released six full length albums, most recently being “ And Then There was None…” in 2016. While Mikami has stayed through, other members have come and gone, the current line up includes Hiroyuki Takano on vocals, Yasuto Muraki on guitars and Junichi Yamamura on drums.