Sanctus
04-30-2015, 07:03 PM
I first heard NoGoD from a compliation album of 90's visual kei covers, the title of which I cannot recall. What interested me was the fact they covered a Siam Shade song, a band which sounded similar to Van Halen, and they did it in such a way that made it appear they were influenced by similar bands in vocals as well as the other instruments. NoGoD's album Tetralogy features four previously released songs with a combined runtime of 26:26. For those accustomed to pop music the songs would probably be considered long, the shortest song spanning a total of 5:50, while the longest song is a little over 7 minutes, but this isn't unusual for those familiar with more extreme forms of music. Lengthy can be good or bad. Typically I prefer songs that are longer, but I find this a little uncalled for and pretentious. NoGoD isn't that heavy as you might hope they were from their name.
Their sound is sort of what you'd expect if you throw a modern rock style in with Van Halen, basically Van Halen with modern production. Their compositions are more technically challenging than I'm used to from many current rock bands, though they aren't by any means all that creative. The majority of the album I'm hearing a bunch of predictable riffs I've already heard before, though not always together. They do have pretty good taste; many of them are catchy riffs. I'm sure if I spent an evening listening to music with them I'd find we have a lot of the same musical affinities. One area where I think they deserve a lot of praise is in arrangement. The riffs usually transition very well one to another, which is pretty hard to do when you have lengthy, somewhat exaggerated songs. They only get a little sloppy on the third track. But the drums make it work. There isn't a single song that simply fades; each track has a proper ending. They usually sustain the last note of the guitars or vocals a second while the drums immediately transition to the next song and the guitars finish to come back in with some picking to introduce the song. If you weren't paying attention you probably wouldn't know where one track ends and the next begins. Of course, it isn't as though there aren't other bands who do this well, I just seldom here it done well for an entire album. It almost makes me feel like I'm hearing them live. The bass is nothing special and doesn't deserve to be mentioned at length. For those who've followed rock music seriously for several years this album is totally missable. Just revisit your 70's collection if this is what you're looking for.
Their sound is sort of what you'd expect if you throw a modern rock style in with Van Halen, basically Van Halen with modern production. Their compositions are more technically challenging than I'm used to from many current rock bands, though they aren't by any means all that creative. The majority of the album I'm hearing a bunch of predictable riffs I've already heard before, though not always together. They do have pretty good taste; many of them are catchy riffs. I'm sure if I spent an evening listening to music with them I'd find we have a lot of the same musical affinities. One area where I think they deserve a lot of praise is in arrangement. The riffs usually transition very well one to another, which is pretty hard to do when you have lengthy, somewhat exaggerated songs. They only get a little sloppy on the third track. But the drums make it work. There isn't a single song that simply fades; each track has a proper ending. They usually sustain the last note of the guitars or vocals a second while the drums immediately transition to the next song and the guitars finish to come back in with some picking to introduce the song. If you weren't paying attention you probably wouldn't know where one track ends and the next begins. Of course, it isn't as though there aren't other bands who do this well, I just seldom here it done well for an entire album. It almost makes me feel like I'm hearing them live. The bass is nothing special and doesn't deserve to be mentioned at length. For those who've followed rock music seriously for several years this album is totally missable. Just revisit your 70's collection if this is what you're looking for.