Guitarists on Demand returns after five years with the 13-track G.O.D.V
The Japanese-led collective’s eighth release spans nearly an hour and brings 13 guitar composers together with guests from Angra and Dream Theater circles.
· Edited by Peter Luha
Credit: ViViX (via source)
Japanese-led guitarist and composer collective G.O.D. — Guitarists on Demand — released *G.O.D.V* on October 25. It is the group’s eighth work and its first new collection in five years, assembling 13 pieces by 13 participating members. The digital edition is available on Bandcamp for $13.99, while the ViViX CD carries a ¥3,300 price and is scheduled for general Japanese retail distribution on November 18.
Producer Masahiro “Godspeed” Aoki founded G.O.D. in 2013 as an international collective for guitarists who also compose. The broader roster now numbers 18, and this edition introduces Korean guitarist JungMato. Across nearly an hour, the album moves through instrumental rock, fusion, progressive metal and heavier modern guitar styles rather than imposing a single house sound.
Opening track “Fragments of Soul,” written by Aoki, expands the project beyond its guitar roster with Derek Sherinian on keyboards, Angra bassist Felipe Andreoli and Angra drummer Bruno Valverde. The remaining tracks retain the compilation-like authorship model: each composition is credited to its guitarist, from Seda’s “Relinquished” and Satoshi Oka’s “Black Swan” to JungMato’s “Essentia” and Mitsuyo’s closing “Humanity.”
That structure makes *G.O.D.V* useful as both an album and a survey of current instrumental-guitar writing across Japan and its international network. The five-year gap, new member and high-profile rhythm-section guests give this edition a clearer identity than a routine collective sampler.
Credit: G.O.D. Guitarists on Demand
Why it matters
G.O.D. is a rare long-running platform built around guitarist-composers, and its return connects Japanese instrumental guitar with prominent progressive-metal players.
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