NoGoD - Make A New World

[Zeus 7997]

Artist: NoGoD Single: Make a New World Score: But what kind of new world is it?

Let's get straight to it. NoGoD has been a band that shows promise but hasn't yet delivered. Albums come and albums go and each time fans find something lacking preventing them from being anything other than "good". But there's always enough to keep people interested, as they've never delivered a "bad" album either. So now the question is: how good is NoGoD's latest effort?

Make a New World has good ideas sandwiched between a lot of fluff. When it gets good, it gets good. But it doesn't stay good for long, and likes to spend time dabbling in sounds and scapes that aren't as interesting as what they produce when they're in top form. In addition, it likes to move between these ideas every two tracks. So while this is an album that every fan of NoGoD can find something that they like in, it's not going to be much. Everyone comes away from this album expecting more from them in a specific department. I'll only speak for myself and request that NoGoD focus more on the progressive metal numbers and leave the ballads and pop songs to bands better at engaging a listener with those tools.

It's not that NoGoD is bad at pop or ballads because they aren't. There isn't an equal amount of attention and effort put into all of the tracks and it's the progressive, energy-filled rock tracks that get the polish and the pop and ballads that are left out to dry. Since the ratio is roughly one progressive effort per four ballads and pop tracks, it's becoming clear how things aren't adding up. Even the tracks that they spend time on feel cut from the same cloth. Very little separates World Ender from tracks like Kamikaze or STAND UP!!. A bit more work on distinguishing World Ender from other tracks in it's vein would have done a lot to improve the opening experience, as Follow follows it and eclipses it in terms of melody and passion. This happens over and over again in painful fashion, until the listener is content with taking only what they liked from the album and pretending the rest doesn't exist. Putting great songs after not so great songs doesn't elevate the former song to the level of the latter. That just makes one song good and one song forgettable.

Likewise, it's not enough for individual parts of songs to excel and others to be standard. Individually, the tracks have to be awesome as a whole. Taking the route of sticking an impressive solo in an otherwise uninspiring song doesn't elevate the whole song to the solo's level. NoGoD does this a lot on this album by luring in the listener with an attractive solo after two boring minutes of whatever genre of the week they're sampling. This is apparent on pendulum which I remember because the first half of the track wasn't interesting to me but the song started picking up at the apex of the solo.

In a way, this isn't just them. They lack some of the fire and passion that they had when I first found them six years ago, but I've also come to expect more of a band that from time to time produces something completely mindblowing. Looking back at it, I'm pretty sure the combination of Ⅰ-回顧, II-懐柔, III-実存, and IV-他者　Philosophia together is more impressive than 85% of the post-Gokusaishiki output. The ordering of the tracks and the constantly switching atmosphere has always been a problem, even since Kanna Fukyou, but now it's parts that are okay and parts that are good and parts that are amazing. They've gotten better at the aggressive upbeat metal sound that likely drew in a lot of their fans, but everything else has plateaued at a middling average and it drags down their albums as a whole.

A year ago, when reviewing V I marked them with an average score and criticized the lack of variation and inspiration. They've patched up both problems but the result can be better. It can start by giving each track the love and detail they give to those awesome progressive numbers that show up once in a blue moon. Those should stay the focus of the album if they can only produce one a year, but the rest of the album should compliment it. If we can stay away from the things like the left-field thrash ender HATE THIS WOЯLD, or slickly disguised Motley Crue worship in EZ LIF3, or the meandering pop track 十人十色 and connect songs together in an order that maximizes strengths and minimizes weaknesses, the next album could be the one where NoGoD rediscovers the magic.

But for right now, I'm still waiting.

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

Again, I have to say I agree with you. And couldn't have said it better myself. 

 

I've been waiting for the day they spark in me the awe that was the first time I heard Atria or just about anything on Gokusaishiki. I think all of the people in the band are so talented and they make great music but after putting out so much of it, most of the album falls to mediocrity that fails to stand out from the rest of their work. I just mean to say that what I liked on Genjitsu and V isn't much different than what I liked on Make A New World, so when you think of it, between these 3 albums of about 12 songs each I think I can vividly remember that I actually really liked ONE song on each:

Kamikaze - Genjitsu

Zetsubou Bye Bye - V

Sanbiko - Make A New World 

 

Then again, like you said, that isn't to say the whole albums are bad. It's just that they aren't very memorable. 

 

Additionally, where most NoGoD fans wet themselves over songs like I-Kaiko, etc. I cannot see myself getting into them any time soon. 

 

What I've done differently this time around than past NoGoD album releases is that I've put the ones I've liked more on a "Current Obsessions" type playlist so I can listen to them more in the context of other songs I love and then maybe it will grow on me quicker because I want to love this band again from the bottom of my heart.

 

To just make a few comments about some of the songs to keep this in the vein of a review rather than a comment on the band's progression:

World Ender had a lot of potential to be great, but then fell short of Follow and became eclipsed.

Banzai had these killer choruses, but messy and disjointed verses.

I-Kaiko, being the instrumental song on the album, left me totally dissatisfied. It didn't separate itself from other songs in this series (if you will) and sounded mediocre by comparison.

EZ L1F3 and Hate This World were interesting tracks that I would probably consider my second and third favorite songs.

Pendulum and Juunin Juushoku were decent songs, but didn't stand out. They stood out more than World Ender only in so far as their composition wasn't messy it was sort of complete.

Finally, I'll say that Sanbiko was my favorite song on the album (which I'm sure my phone will learn and then play to fucking death and I'll get sick of it quickly) due to it's interesting composition and Danchou's splendid voice.

 

Otherwise, overall, I would have to say that it's a generous 4/5 star album but realistically it's probably more a 3/5.

[Shmilly 519]

Maybe this isn't the right place to discuss this, but since we all seem to be on the same page about the progressive metal influenced tracks being their best, what kind of album would you like to see using tracks from their previous (and this) releases? The song that caught my attention from NoGoD was kamikaze, and I've been waiting for an album like that for as long as the next person.

[Zeus 7997]

Maybe this isn't the right place to discuss this, but since we all seem to be on the same page about the progressive metal influenced tracks being their best, what kind of album would you like to see using tracks from their previous (and this) releases? The song that caught my attention from NoGoD was kamikaze, and I've been waiting for an album like that for as long as the next person.

 

An album like that would end up a lot like V, with individual tracks that are above average, but the album as a whole is unimpressive and there's no one memorable killer track.

 

If I were to put together an album by them, there would be more tracks like Tsumibatsu Egoist, Saikou no Sekai, Ring-a Ring-o, Ban Kuro Shinsou Dai Circus, II-懐柔, etc. and less tracks like BANZAI!!!, 十人十色, Raise a Flag, EZ LIF3, etc. I could even live with tracks like pendulum and Kinshi Suzume if they're placed effectively in the tracklist. I'm looking for more maturity and thought in their compositions and organization of music on their album, but they seem to be content tracing their steps too often and throwing shit together haphazardly.

If they release content like this every 13 months, I think they should take an extra 6 to refine the next album.

[Shmilly 519]

-makes playlist-

[nullmoon 784]

Despite a few awesome tracks, I found this album quite lacklustre compared to V (which I consider their best major album). With that said, HATE THIS WORLD is probably my favourite song of theirs since V.

 

By the way, I don't know about you guys but I found Ⅰ-回顧 highly disappointing. Sure, it has some really brilliant parts but as a whole it's so disjointed; it sounds more like an album sample. Furthermore, the song doesn't even run into II-懐柔. Ring-A Ring-O still sounds like a much more suitable first track to the series, and doesn't sound anywhere near as convoluted.