Malice Mizer

Malice Mizer (pronounced Mee-zer) is a Japanese rock group, fitting in the genre of Visual Kei (also known as Visual Rock) and under the overall umbrella of J-rock. They are characterized by a classicaly gothic/baroque/over-the-top-theatrical style of dress and makeup. Their musical style changes as the group evolves and loses memebers, but it's ranged from heavy goth to goth-pop to new romantic baroque. They're a very very theatrical group, known for performing very involved stage-plays with elaborate costumes during their concerts. Various members of Malice Mizer are Mana (guitar/bass), Kozi (Guitar), Yu~ki(Guitar), Kami (Drums), Tetsu (Vocals), Gackt(Vocals)

Originally started in 1992 by Mana and Kozi as an Indies band, they had a distinct hard edge to their music that was complimented by the screeching Tetsu (who was vaguely ugly, and didn't look good Malice Mizer-ed up).

After a while, they got a new lead singer, Camui Gackt. A self-obsessed pretty boy, his romantic bass-y voice nevertheless got MM their big break and they got signed to a major record label and produced their first major album, Merveilles.

However, the sucess didn't last long, as Gackt split with the group shortly afterward and their drummer Kami died. Currently they have a new lead singer Klaha, but mostly have seem to have lost their center. Oh well, they're still my favorite band.

Malice Mizer Albums:
memoire
Voyage sans retour
merveilles
Bara no Seidou

Malice Mizer are a rather succesful japanese Visual Rock groups, which is modernized Glam Rock. They made a big evolution in their years as the group.

Founded in 1992, the band consisted only of Mana (Guitar, Synthesizer) and Közi (Guitar). It was built around the idea of "What is human?", and the band's name should be the answer to it (malice and misery). They also consist of three other members, Tetsu (vocal), Kami (drums) and Yu~ki (Bass). At this time, they made excellent Gothic Rock.

After the release of their first very succesful CD "Memoire" Tetsu left the band because of musical differences.

The opera-like singer Camui Gackt joined the band, and the musical style began to drift in a more pop-like direction. They released two albums, "Voyage" as indie but "Merveilles" as major. After Voyage, in 1999, Gackt left the band. The reason is unknown, but Gackt started a solo-career and is a very succesful pop-rock singer at the moment.

5 months later their drummer Kami died. Since this moment Malice Mizer began to get darker again.

In August 2000, Klaha joined the band as a singer. His voice is also more opera-singer-like, but he has an even deeper voice than Gackt. They released a new album, "Bara no Seidô" (Church of the Rose), a very dark and baroque album. Not one happy song can be found on this CD.

At the moment they are in the process of developing the new Malice Mizer. They released two singles, "Gardenia" and "Beast of Blood", which show us what Malice Mizer will be : An excentrical goth/industrial band. Many of the older fans think that the current Malice Mizer is better than the one with Gackt.

They disbanded in december 2001. Now, all except Yu~ki pursue their own careers. Mana founded a new band, Moi dix mois, which seems to be rather an extended Malice Mizer than a new band, Klaha is a solo singer and Közi is now a member of Eve of destiny, also touring Europe with them. It seems that they would like to reunite one day, but right now they walk quite different ways.