JAPANESE SYMPHONY: Malice Mizer

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Malice Mizer

PROFILE
It's hard to define the genre to which Malice Mizer belonged. Their looks, inspired highly by the Gothic imagery, Victorian style and XIX century decadence, might fool a layman, especially if he has never heard of Visual Kei before. Also the name of the band itself is a bit tricky, but according to Mana and Gackt the words "malice" and "misery" are the best answer to the basic question "What is human?", which was the foundation of the band's concepts. One could expect Malice Mizer to create loud or heavy music, but their discography is in fact a quite peculiar mix of rock, pop, metal, classical music, electronic sounds and whatever else you might think of. Their style changed over the years but sometimes even the songs from one album sound as if recorded by completely different bands. And even though they set new trends in fashion (Mana is said to be one of the creators of the Gothic Lolita style) their music stays unique as no one can copy their sound.

BIOGRAPHY
Each member contributed to the variety and uniqueness of Malice Mizer, however the unquestionable leader of this band was Mana, the eccentric guitarist, who not only composed most of the music, but was also responsible for the visual aspects. It was him together with a friend and fellow guitarist, Közi, who in August 1992 formed Malice Mizer. Soon afterwards they hired Yu~ki as their bassist and in 1993 the first drummer, Gaz, was replaced by Kami. It is not quite clear why in 1995 their first vocalist, Tetsu, left the band. Some sources claim he didn't live up to Mana's high expectations, others that it was Tetsu himself who didn't like the fact that Malice Mizer concerts were always more like a theatrical performance rather than just a musical one. It took the band several months to find his replacement, a vocalist who would fit the group much better and would satisfy the expectations of the other members. He was finally found in in October 1995, after an audition/karaoke party; his name was Gackt. Some time later in an interview Yu~ki recalled that Gackt fit the band perfectly; he had the same attitude as the rest of the members and felt just "at home" from the very first day. He also had knowledge and many new ideas about music which definitely contributed to the growing quality and variety of songs and thus to the growing popularity of the band itself.It was already after Malice Mizer went major and released their very successful album Merveilles (debuted at Oricon CD album chart at #2) that Gackt decided to leave the band and pursue a career as a solo artist. No sooner than the band found a new vocalist a real tragedy occurred, Kami was found dead from cerebral hemorrhage. In a state of shock the band decided to take some time before taking any important decisions, and in the meantime the vacancy after Gackt's departure was to be filled by their backup vocalist. Klaha surprised everyone with the amazing power and clarity of his voice, and it was during his "era" that the music of Malice Mizer became darker and heavier, suiting their image more than ever before. Nonetheless, despite the growing popularity and the success they had had as a four piece, after the releases of "Bara no Seidou" and a few singles, in December 2001 Mana, Közi, Yu~ki and Klaha decided to part, putting an end to Malice Mizer.

MALICE MIZER OFFICIAL SITE

ILLUMINATI

May 20, 1998

1. ILLUMINATI

2. N.p.s.N.g.s [ N-type ]

3. ILLUMINATI (Instrumental)

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Gekka no yasokyouku

February 11, 1998

1. Gekka no yasoukyoku

2. Gekka no yasoukyoku de l'image

3. Gekka no yasoukyoku (Instrumental)

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