Founded in 1989 as a hard rock band and comprises Shinji Wajima (lead guitar), Ken-ichi Suzuki (bass guitar), Noriyoshi Kamidate (drums). Wajima and Suzuki used to go to the same high school, Hirosaki High School in Aomori prefecture. Influences include Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and King Crimson. The first drummer, Noriyoshi Kamidate　played until the 3rd album Ougon No Yoake. Masuhiro Gotô joined the group Gerard as a support member of the 4th album Rashomon. After that the 3rd drummer, Iwao Tsuchiya joined the group. After Iwao left the group, Gotô joined as an official member in 1996. The latest drummer, Nobu Nakajima joined in 2004. All members share the vocals.

They often write about Japanese classical literature, for example, Osamu Dazai, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Jun-ichiro Tanizaki.. They often take up topics about hell, buddhism, the universe and gambling. Wajima and Suzuki have a local accent called "Tsugaru-ben," which adds a unique atmosphere to their songs. They always wear Kimono on stage; Wajima looks like an literary master of Meiji era, Suzuki paints his face white and looks like an monk of buddhism. He wears "Fundoshi", old Japanese underwear under the Kimono. While Nakajima wears Koikuchi shirt and sunglasses and looks like a Japanese gangster. In the band's early days, Suzuki often wore cloths like Nezumi-otoko, a rat man (a character of Ge-Ge-Ge No Kitaro by Shigeru Mizuki), which made them impressive.