Shinkou Shuukyou Gakudan NoGoD (新興宗教楽団NoGoD)

Shinkou Shuukyou Gakudan NoGoD is a relatively new indies visual kei band from Tokyo. Their style ranges from heavy to ballads, with a very unique touch that prevents the band from sounding similar to dozens of other heavy indies bands out there. The most charasteristic element in their music is definitely the vocalist’s high-pitched, unique and skilled vocals, which have become one of the band’s trademarks, along with the elaborate black and red outfits and various anti-religious hints.

The anti-religious hints are everywhere: the band’s full name means ‘the new religion band NoGoD’; their lives have had names like ‘the big religion war’; they call their fans ‘believers’ and their lives ‘propagation’ and so on. However, their lyrics don’t have anything particularly anti-religious, and overall, it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. It’s the band’s ‘thing’ — they’re doing their own thing and they have their own ‘cult’ and ‘followers’, who seem quite devoted if you consider how quickly this band is gaining popularity!

Shinkou Shuukyou Gakudan NoGoD, or more conveniently just NoGoD, was formed by the vocalist, Danchou in Tokyo in March 2005. The first half year, Danchou spent gathering members around him, practising and planning — or as he says, ‘experimentally propagating daily’. The band rehearsed and planned in silence to be able to start with full power from their very first live instead of starting with little experience and only gradually getting better.

Finally on the 19th of October 2005, NoGoD had their first live at Akasaka L@N. By that time, the line-up had been decided as follows: Danchou on vocals, Aki and Kyrie on guitars, Karin on bass and K on drums. After less than a month, on November 12th, NoGoD released their first demo single Kimi ni Okuru Bukiyou de Migattena Uta. The demo was sold out on the same day.

The rest of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 the band spent by doing lives and sessions with several other smaller bands in different live houses all over Tokyo, until on the 24th of February, they released their first mini-album, Tenbatsu Enban. On the 20th of April, NoGoD had their first oneman live, called Shuukyou Daisensou, at the Ikebukuro CYBER.

On July 12th, the band released the first single of their two-month consecutive release campaign. The single went by the name Aka Fukyou and also started a series of similar names; Aka Fukyou means ‘Red Propagation’, and the release campaign’s next single, released on August 30th, was called Kuro Fukyou, ‘Black Propagation’. These two singles helped NoGoD gain quite a bit more fans, especially overseas.

Soon after, the band announced the release of their second mini-album. It was released on December 6th and entitled Kanna Fukyou; ‘Godless Propagation’. This was also the first time that NoGoD decided to go with two types of one release; Kanna Fukyou was released as two different versions, one contained a bonus DVD and one contained a bonus song, a live version. The limited edition’s DVD contained a rather interesting, fictional story about the formation of NoGoD, a PV and a live video.

Something else that was also interesting about the mini-album was that Murai Kenjirou (bassist of CYCLE, ex.cali≠gari & SEX MACHINEGUNS) worked as the band’s ‘sound adviser’ for the album, and upon listening this influence becomes noticeable; the bass lines on it are a lot more audible and the overall sound is deeper than on NoGoD’s previous releases.

2007 saw the release of the single Atria, which peaked at number four on the Oricon indies charts. This single was also the last single that featured Aki as part of the band; he left after this single and was replaced with Shinno. Shinkou Shuukyou Gakudan NoGoD then released Ten, a single that featured rerecorded songs with their new guitarist. The next single would be the live only single Batsu, followed by Saikou no Sekai, another live distributed single. In April of 2008, NoGoD released their first full album: Mugen Kyou, which reached number six on the charts.

Yume to Tsuzuki was a live single distributed later that year.

October and November of 2008 saw the release of  Midori no Kaze and Ao no Daichi, both of which charted on the Oricon charts. These singles featured a distinct style than what was featured on Mugen Kyou. It has also recently been announced that NoGoD is set to release their second album, Gokusaishiki, on February 25th. One can only wonder where this band will go next.

~ 世愁歌