Sakevi Yokoyama, the vocalist in Japanese hardcore punk/metal trailblaers G.I.S.M., has died. Distribution company Beast Arts International and Relapse Records confirmed that Yokoyama “passed away peacefully” on August 24. “Working with Mr. Sakevi on G.I.S.M. is a chapter in the history of Relapse Records, unto itself,” Relapse wrote on Twitter. “Honoring the work of a true sonic and artistic pioneer is a source of deep pride for us all. We pray for repose for Mr Sakevi’s soul.”

Shigehisa “Sakevi” Yokoyama founded G.I.S.M. in 1981 with the late guitarist Randy Uchida, bassist Kannon “Cloudy” Masuo, and drummer Tohru “Monamour” Hiroshima. The “G.I.S.M.” acronym famously had a few different meanings, including “God In The Schizoid Mind,” “Guerrilla Incendiary Sabotage Mutineer,” “General Imperialism Social Murder,” “Gnostic Idiosyncrasy Sonic Militant,” and “Guy Individual Social Mean.”

GISM had their first performance in 1981 at the University of Tokyo before releasing their self-produced debut album, Detestation, in 1983. The next year, G.I.S.M. were featured on the International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation (later retitled P.E.A.C.E./War In 1997), which also had contributions from 50+ hardcore bands such as Dead Kennedys, Butthole Surfers, Crass, and many others.

The groundbreaking Japanese hardcore band released three albums in total: Detestation, 1987’s Military Affairs Neurotic (M.A.N.), and 2001’s SoniCRIME Therapy. Sakevi created the artwork for each LP. The band played their final show in 2002. Sadly, Uchida died of cancer in 2001, and Hiroshima died just last year.

Famously antagonistic, Sakevi once shot a flamethrower into the crowd at a show. Rumors of him using intimidation tactics to stop the selling of bootleg G.I.S.M. records and merch ran rampant. There was also an unverified rumor of Sakevi stabbing an audience member for taking his photograph.

G.I.S.M. performed in the Netherlands in April 2016 at Lee Dorian’s Roadburn event — their first performance after a 13-year hiatus and their first show outside of Japan. Curator Dorian had this to say about the booking in 2016:

Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in some pretty amazing activities. This achievement is fairly high up there, in terms of things that have excited me the most. When I got asked to curate Roadburn 2016, I obviously drew up a list of favourite bands and started a process of elimination. I tried Rudimentary Peni but, alas, it was not to be. Then I thought about G.I.S.M….. I thought it was an extremely long shot for many reasons. Mainly because I knew that they had never performed outside of Japan but also, they hadn’t even performed a show in Japan for over a decade.

Back in ’93 whilst in Tokyo with Cathedral, G.I.S.M. vocalist Sakevi came to the show and invited me and some others back to his apartment the next day, where we all hung out, got stoned and watched human dissection videos (!) amongst other things. It’s a night I will never forget. It’s hard to under-estimate the influence that G.I.S.M. has had on extreme music, particularly hardcore punk over the years. I would say that alongside Discharge, they are probably the most influential in the raw and dirty world of metallic-edged, proper, noisy, hardcore.

Anyway, via mutual friends, I managed to track Sakevi down again and put forward a serious offer for G.I.S.M. to come over and perform at Rituals For The Blind Dead. After a couple of mails backwards and forwards, he agreed to come and play. I still can’t quite believe that this is actually happening but the flights are booked and they are getting ready to come and boot you so brutally fucking hard in the ass!!!