Let’s start off the year with a challenge by reviewing an album which I really like, but is a nightmare to describe. Even by Japanese standards, Gonin-Ish is a strange band. Comparisons can be drawn to the likes of Sigh, but despite Anoji Matsuoka’s occasionally harsh vocals, Gonin-Ish is not really an extreme metal band. What they are is extremely adventurous and meticulously thought out, which may go a long way in explaining why their third album ‘Shinin Sanka’ was fifteen years in the making despite the band remaining active. It has been worth the wait, however; ‘Shinin Sanka’ may just be their best work yet.

Technically, Gonin-Ish qualifies as progressive metal. The band just does not sound anything like most bands under that moniker. Sure, there are plenty of odd time signatures, but those seem to be influenced by jazz and classical music rather than seventies prog rock or the post-Dream Theater metal landscape. Despite never straying to abstract territory, Gonin-Ish has a fairly avant-garde approach to songwriting in the sense that repetition is not really their thing, many of their songs bordering on being through-composed. Gonin-ish’s songs consist of movements rather than verses and choruses, which keeps the music both surprising and consistently unsettling.

Even without reading the credits, it becomes clear quite quickly that keyboard player Masashi Momota is one of the main songwriters of Gonin-Ish. Melodically, most of the songs are built upon his piano parts and lead guitarist Fu-min Takahashi frequently plays the melody lines in unison with Momota. When he is not, he is often weaving an almost baroque-styled tapestry of harmonic guitar patterns with Matsuoka, though aggressive riffing with an organic, yet surprisingly abrasive rhythm guitar tone is not uncommon. The melodies themselves generally evoke a horror atmosphere, which given the drawings in the booklet and presumably the lyrics is likely exactly what the band intended.

Normally, this is the point where I would recommend a handful relatively accessible songs to help those who are curious get acquainted with the band. Not unlike its predecessor ‘Naishikyo-Sekai’, it would almost be better to jump straight into the deep end with the seventeen-minute closer ‘Tomurai No Tsuki Ni Naku’. It is incredible how Gonin-Ish tosses so many contrasting sections into one song that only repeat within themselves – none of them ever returns later in the song – without sounding even the least bit disjointed. Momota and Matsuoka are smarter songwriters than that. Their goal is to lure the listeners in, not to confuse them out of the album.

While ‘Muge No Hito’ and ‘Akai Kioku’, which closed ‘Naishikyo-Sekai’, will probably always remain the finest half hour of music Gonin-ish ever released, ‘Shinin Sanka’ does feel a bit more consistent than its predecessor. The album is exactly an hour long and that time is over before you know it. I was not a big fan of how Matsuoka doubled herself in unison on a few songs on the previous album, but she sounds fantastic all the way through here. As does the music. Weirdly, as complex and unpredictable as Gonin-Ish tends to be, they aren’t anywhere near as inaccessible as descriptions of their music may suggest.

Recommended tracks: ‘Tomurai No Tsuki Ni Naku’, ‘Soshite Mu Ni Kaesu’, ‘Dokuyaku To Saisei’