Malice Mizer

Members
Vocals: Klaha (ex-PRIDE OF MIND)
Guitar, Synthesizer: Mana (ex-Ves:tearge, GIRL's, matenrou, now in Moi dix Mois)
Guitar, Synthesizer: kozi (ex-Girl, Matenrou, Eve of Destiny, DALLE, now in XA-VAT)
Bass: YU~KI (ex-ze:ro)

Former members
Drums: GAZ (ex-DATURA, KneuKlid Romance, the Night Breeze Zinnia, DOVERMAN, BUZZ BONE)
Vocals: tetsu (ex-MEGA 8 BALL, nil, ZIGZO, THE JUNEJULYAUGUST)
Drums: kami (ex-Kneuklid Romance) [passed away]
Vocals: GACKT (ex-cains:feel, ex-YELLOW FRIED CHICHENz, now: solo)

About Malice Mizer
Malice Mizer was a Japanese band in the visual kei music scene, active from August 1992 to December 2001. Formed by Mana and Közi, the band's name stands for "malice and misery" — their answer to the question "what is human?". Their music was characterized by their strong goth and classical influences.

Malice Mizer were as famous for their music as for their live shows, featuring lavish historical costumes and stage sets, whimsical dance routines and band members flying suspended from wires. Throughout their history, the band went through several different lineups and three drastic image changes.

On December 11, 2001, it was announced that Malice Mizer would go on indefinite hiatus.

History

Tetsu era (1992 – 1994)

Malice Mizer was formed in 1992 by Mana and Közi with Tetsu on vocals, both Mana and Közi on guitars/synthesizers, Yu~ki on bass and Gaz on drums. From the outset, the band established their trademark "twin guitar"' sound, whereby two guitars play different melodies creating polyphony. Malice Mizer's sound during the Tetsu era was a mixture of early 1980s goth and strong classical influences. Their first official release was the song "Speed of Desperate" on the 1993 compilation Brain Trash. Before this, they had released a demo tape called Sans Logique which contained no vocals. Shortly after the release of Brain Trash, Gaz left the band to join Kneuklid Romance, while Kneuklid Romance's drummer Kami in turn joined Malice Mizer. In 1994, the band released their first album, memoire, on Mana's newly founded Indie music label, Midi:Nette, and shortly after re-released it with an additional bonus track ("バロック"; Baroque) under the title memoire DX. Only days later, singer Tetsu left the band. While the exact reasons are unknown, Tetsu went on to take a different direction in his work.

Gackt era (1995 – 1999)

In 1995, after a year of inactivity, Malice Mizer recruited Gackt as their new vocalist. Under his influence, the band's music became more wistful and romantic in its mood, incorporating even stronger classical influences as well as French pop music. Visually, the band abandoned their 1980s goth look for colourful historical costumes. In 1996, Malice Mizer released their second album, Voyage 〜sans retour〜. The band became increasingly popular and in 1997 signed with the major label Nippon Columbia, where they released a number of successful singles, a short film ("ヴェル・エール 〜空白の瞬間の中で〜 de l'image"; Bel Air-Verte Aile ~Kuuhaku no shunkan no naka de~ de l'image), and, in 1998, their first and only major label album, merveilles. The band even had their own radio show around this time. In January 1999, at the height of Malice Mizer's success, Gackt left the band to start a solo career, taking a substantial part of their fan base with him. Malice Mizer left Nippon Columbia and returned to Mana's Indie music label, Midi:Nette.

A few months after Gackt's departure, drummer Kami died of a subarachnoid hemorrhage, leaving behind a handful of songs, which the band eventually released as part of the mini-album/video boxset 神話 (Shinwa ~Kami's Memorial Box~). Kami was never replaced; from that point on, Malice Mizer would only use support drummers (namely Shue, whom is not shown in the band's later and final music videos, nor credited) and Kami would be credited as "eternal blood relative" on all their future releases.

Klaha era (2000 – 2001)

In the second half of 1999 and the beginning of 2000, Malice Mizer — still without an official vocalist — released a number of singles and began to work on a new album. Eventually, they recruited Klaha (real name Masaki Haruna), vocalist of visual kei/darkwave band Pride of Mind. By then the band had abandoned the lighter pop music sound of the Gackt era for a dramatic mixture of classical music, Goth and heavy metal music, and adopted an elaborate funereal Goth look. In the summer of 2000, they released what would be their last album, 薔薇の聖堂 (Bara no seidou), followed by a very spectacular and theatrical live show, featuring pyrotechnics, a choir of veiled nuns and a scaled-down cathedral as stage prop. In 2001, Malice Mizer starred in a feature length vampire movie, 薔薇の婚礼 ～真夜中に交わした約束～ (Bara no konrei ~Mayonaka ni kawashita yakusoku~), and released three more singles: Gardenia, Beast of Blood, and Garnet ～禁断の園へ～ (Garnet ~Kindan no sono e~). Eventually the band members decided to go their own separate ways, leaving disband messages on their official website, Miroir, which can still be viewed today. · close