Malice Mizer is the band Mana formed in August of 1992 with band member Kozi. The band original consisted of Mana (Synthesizer/Guitar), Kozi (Sythesizer/Guitar), Yu~ki (Bass), Gaz (Drums) and Tetsu (Vocalist). Soon after, on March 15, 1993 drummer Gaz left Malice Mizer. Only two days later, the a new drummer, Kami, was added to the group. Malice Mizer released their first album, 'Memoire', on July 24, 1994 which was made soley by the band members themselves. Later, in December of the same year, the vocalist Tetsu left. The bands activity didn't continue until almost a year later.
The new vocalist, Gackt, was added to Malice Mizer in 1995. They produced their first full album entitled 'Voyage'. It debuted as #1 on the ORICON INDIES charts for June through July. With Gackt they also produced three singles (Bell Air, Au Revoir, and Gekka no Yasokyoku.) On March 18, 1998, Malice Mizer realeased their first major album, Merveilles, which debuted as #2 on the ORICON charts. Later. their fourth single, Illuminati, was released on May 5th.
On January 19, 1999, Gackt officially left Malice Mizer due to musical differences and financial troubles. This, however, wasn't the end of Malice Mizer's fall. On June 21, 1999, Malice Mizer's drummer, Kami died of Subarachniod hemorrhage.
Once again a new vocalist was added to Malice Mizer - Klaha. Bara no Seidou, Malice Mizer's second album, was released on September 1, 2000. Many songs on this album were written by Mana because for some time the band lacked a vocalist. The style of the album had a much darker feeling than their previous releases, and it really displayed Mana's heavy use of classical music. |
