MALICE MIZER is rather different from most indies/major visual rock bands in Japan. Their early music style combines Baroque classical music with gothic and vampiric sound while recent music sound more like romantic French cafe-ish music. Visually, they dress in Baroque theatrical costumes, along with furs, feathers, masks, capes, and various props. Their glamourous appearance is very eye-catching and interesting. They uses opera chorus and classical instrument such as: wind instrument, trumpet, violin, organ, etc. (however, most sound are created by synth. guitar though....) to create an atmosphere that embodies the 17th century European Gothic feels. Most of the songs are either sad and beautiful, or goth horrific.
MALICE means malicous, MIZER means tragedy. MALICE MIZER was formed at Aug 1992 around KOZI and MANA. Then later they joined TETSU (vo) and YU~KI (b) in Oct. KAMI (dr) used to be a supporting drummer but later he offically became one of the members. They released first album "Memoire" in 7/24/94 and a deluxe version "Memoire DX" on 12/24/94, however on 12/27/94, vocalist TETSU left the band (kicked out by MANA, he's not in "Mega 8 Ball", a very grunge American-ish band). Their activities re-start after they joined new vocalist CAMUI GACKT on 10/95 and release 1st single in 12/95. They released 2nd album "Voyage~sans retour~" on 6/9/96 and 2nd single on 10/10. And in July 1997, MALICE MIZER major debut by "Nihon Columnbia" with their 3rd single "Bel Air"!!!!
MALICE MIZER's image definitely is one of the most original and beautiful in the visual rock world. They wear baroque style dresses and coat most of the time, with each member has a role of his own! GACKT is the handsome prince, MANA is the queen (usually dressed in blue), KOZI is the pierrot (dressed in red), YU~KI is the vampire count and KAMI is the guy with the mask. All their costumes and makeup are very beautiful and fancy, wonder how they can have so much money spend on them even when they were in the indies. Right now we can see lots of MM copy bands. Their live concerts are very different from any other rock bands too. Their lives are more like "musical performance" than a rock concerts because MANA and KOZI dance more than they play instruments! It is quite funny to see them dance, such as how MANA likes to fall into GACKT's arm! And they have short shows like: vampire YU~KI fight off KAMI and KOZI to bite queen MANA and then fly away, and then MANA saved by prince GACKT and they started dancing....etc etc. They are interesting but I think they need more dancing practice......imagine MANA, KOZI and GACKT dance like SMAP guys on stage with those costumn......haha! Also, MANA mentioned in magazine interview that MALICE MIZER's music intend to represents the world of "shoujo manga" (girl's comic)....I guess he meant the really old 70s ones like "Rose of Versailes" or something....^^;;;
The two vocals are very distinctive (so are their music style). The previous vocalist TETSU is much more emotional, he has a really chilling voice and sing opera-ish (and sing off-key sometimes). I prefer the current vocalist GACKT's voice, who's smooth and charming, fit very well with their recent romantic sound. The music in MEMORIE is very good though, but I wish they can re-make them with GACKT as vocal. I like their debut single very much because it has more guitar in it. Their latest single has really nice violin in it too. Basically I like them very much because they're unqiue and different than any other visual bands. Click NEXT to explore our world of MALICE MIZER!
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