RAISE A SUILEN

Raise a Suilen, the BanG Dream! franchise band under Bushiroad, crafts a high-tech electro-rock style built around chugging guitars, powerful vocals, piercing keyboards, bass wubs, super-tight drumming, and high-pitched rapping. Alongside acts such as Roselia, Poppin' Party, and Morfonica, the group functions as the real-world counterpart to a fictional ensemble featured in an anime series and video game, with the same seiyuu who voice the characters also handling live instruments and recordings. The unit first assembled to support franchise acts lacking their own instrumentalists, yet audience demand prompted an initial live appearance in March 2018 under the provisional moniker the Third. By July the roster was locked in and the permanent name Raise a Suilen was revealed, a reference to a bamboo screen that evokes lifting a stage curtain and aligns with the band’s theme of emerging from the background. The finalized lineup comprised veteran solo performer Raychell on bass and vocals as Rei Wakana, better known as Layer; Riko Kohara on guitar as Rokka Asahi, aka Lock; Natsume on drums as Masuki Satou, aka Masking; Reo Kurachi on keyboards as Reona Nyuubara, aka Pareo; and Risa Tsumugi as DJ Chiyu Tamade, aka Chu² (pronounced Chu-Chu).

Their first single, “R.I.O.T.,” arrived in December 2018 and peaked at number six on the Oricon chart. Subsequent releases “A Declaration of ×××,” “Invincible Fighter,” and “Drive Us Crazy” each reached the Top Ten. The band’s inaugural headline concert occurred at World Memorial Hall in Kobe during July 2019, followed later that year by a joint performance with Roselia before a massive audience and two appearances at the CharaExpo convention in Anaheim, California. Their debut album, Era, surfaced in August 2020 and climbed to number two on the charts, with the single “Sacred World” issued later the same year.