Nightmare (Japanese band)
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Nightmare |
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Nightmare (ナイトメア, Naitomea) is an influential visual kei band from Japan. They enjoyed mainstream success with the inclusion of "The World" in the anime series Death Note and are considered a major influence in the ongoing visual kei scene.[1]
History
Nightmare was started in January 2000[2] by Sakito and Hitsugi while most of the members were still in high school.[3] Soon, Yomi was invited by Sakito, Ni-ya by Hitsugi, and Zannin joined after he heard his classmates were forming a band. They were all influenced by either X Japan or Luna Sea in some form or other.[4]
Just as the band began getting more recognition at live houses and small concerts in the Sendai region, Zannin left the band for unknown reasons. Eventually, Ruka (formerly Luinspear) joined the band as a support member at first, but became the permanent drummer after a short time. Their line-up hasn't changed since.
Their major label debut was in 2003[2] with their single "Believe." Three months after their debut, they released a three A-side single, Akane/Hate/Over, a first time for any band to release any single with three A-side tracks. In December 2003, they had their first tour along with their first album release Ultimate Circus. Following their release was a tour named after the album, performing songs from "Ultimate Circus" as well as songs from their indies era.
In 2004 Nightmare released three singles; "Varuna", "Tokyo Shounen", and "Cyan"; as well as another full album, Libido. Nightmare once more toured around Japan under the name "Tour CPU 2004". From 2005 to 2006, Nightmare continued working, releasing more singles and their third full length album in 2006, Anima, for which the support tour, [Anima]lism, completely sold out. In 2006 they performed a live at NHK Hall titled "Gianism Tsu."
With three albums and several tours under their belt, Nightmare released a series of "greatest hits" albums. Later on that year, they released their ninth single since their debut titled "The World/Alumina." These two songs were used as the first opening and ending themes for the anime series Death Note, respectively, spanning the first nineteen episodes.[2] On 27 February 2007, they released their fourth album, "the WORLD Ruler." Following the album release was "The World Ruler" three month tour all around Japan. After finishing their tour for barely a month, their rock ballad single was released on June 6, 2007 titled "Raison d'Etre." It was the opening theme song to the anime Claymore.[5]
In June 2007, they had a three-day concert event titled "the WORLD RULER ENCORE." On September 23, 2007, they performed at Nippon Budokan for the very first time. The concert was called "Far East Symphony ~the FIVE STARS NIGHT~" and tickets were all sold out within two weeks. Later in 2007, they released two more singles, titled「このは」("Leaf") on October 3, 2007;[6] the other titled "DIRTY," released on November 7, 2007.
To wrap up the year of 2007, they had another tour called "DIRTY Influence" in selected cities in Japan in December 2007. To kick start 2008, they decided to do a Zepp tour titled "2008 ZEPP TOUR six point killer show" in March 2008. At the beginning of the year, they released two more albums, Nightmare 2003−2005 Single Collection and 極東シンフォニー〜the Five Stars Night〜@BUDOKAN. Nightmare 2003-2005 Single Collection was released under their old label, Nippon Crown.
Their first single of 2008 titled WHITE ROOM was released as a limited download via the internet. On May 21, 2008, they released their fifth original studio album titled "KILLER SHOW." Beginning in June, they had a live house tour all around Japan titled after their latest album.
Ni~ya was a guest performer for Penicillin's new single released in August 20, 2008, titled, 「RAINBOW / SCREAM」.
On September 17, 2008, they released another single titled "Lost in Blue". It was the opening theme song to the anime adaptation of 魍魎の匣 (Mōryō no Hako) by CLAMP.
Because of the Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku earthquake in the summer of 2008, Nightmare held a charity concert on September 26, 2008 at ZEPP Sendai. Proceeds of the concert were donated to the victims. During their live house tour and arena tour ("Nightmare LIVE HOUSE TOUR 2008 killer show" and "Nightmare TOUR 2008 Grand killer show"), they set up a donation box for proceeds to the earthquake and made a quick appearance on 『24時間テレビ』 ("24 Hour Television"). The proceeds totalled up to 304,048 yen. They also invited victims of the earthquake to their show in ZEPP Sendai as their guests.
On December 3, 2008, they released another single titled "NAKED LOVE." This song was the ending theme to 魍魎の匣 (Mōryō no Hako).
They started 2009 with a short 2-day tour titled "the 9th new departure" and announced they will be releasing a new studio album called Majestical Parade. One of the songs from the album, "MELODY," was available for a limited internet download on April 29, 2009 through DWANGO. Majestical Parade was released in Japan on May 13, 2009.
During the month of May 2009, the band has been busy with "NIGHTMARE LIVE HOUSE TOUR 2009 PARADE OF NINE", a nine-stop live house tour ending with a show in Toyama on May 31, 2009. Setlists from the tour have included new material from Majestical Parade, as well as many of the Gianism tracks.
The band did another long hall tour starting in June called "NIGHTMARE TOUR 2009 PARADE~Start of [X]pest eve~." On May 17, 2009, Nightmare collaborated with the internet video company Nico Nico in streaming a live concert via Nico Nico Live. The concert lasted for 19 minutes and 34 seconds.
The summer 2009 tour was topped off by the band's second appearance at Nippon Budokan on August 29, 2009, in the PARADE TOUR FINAL "MAJESTIC".
A new single "Rem_" was released on the 22nd of September, with the B-side track "Love Addict." The band will be doing a six-show Fan Club-only Live House tour in December 2009, and will be celebrating their 10th anniversary with a special live January 9, 2010 at Saitama Super Arena.
They will be starting of 2010, the year of their 10th anniversary with a new album on the 1st of January, 2010
Aside from appearing on TV shows, magazine covers, and concerts, they also have a radio program with NACK 5 called "Jack in the Box!". Yomi and Hitsugi usually host the show. However, Sakito, Ni~ya, and Ruka do pop in from time to time with the two. They also have another radio show on CBC Radio called "Hyper Nightmare," where they feature tongue twisters sent in by listeners, adult stories that can be sent in anonymously, and phone-in sessions with listeners who can mimic interesting sound effects, TV personalities, anime characters, etc. They also have a new monthly web show on Nico Nico, "Nightmare in Nightwear," in which some of the members (after two shows only Sakito has not appeared) hang out in pajamas, chat, share photos and anecdotes, and interact with web viewers.
Along with that, all the members have done monthly columns in different music magazines.
- Hitsugi had his in "SHOXX" titled 猫ふんじゃった (The Cat Stepped). Previous to that, the members all took turns writing in a monthly column called "ZOZZY". 猫ふんじゃった ended in December 2008.
- Sakito's is in "B-PASS" titled 鈍行いくの?~五十音の旅~ ("Where Will the Local Train Take Me? The Tabi of 50 Trips") and had a free paper column called ディスクガレージ発行フリーペーパー「DI:GA」 ヴィジュアル系だって人間だもの (DISC GARAGE Issue Free Paper "DI:GA" Those Who Are Human in Visual Kei). He was a DJ for InterFM's show, UP's BEAT, every Monday night as the show has various DJs hosting every night early January 2008. Sakito released a compilation of his travel articles that are published in BPASS into a book that goes up to "の". The book also has an extra section on his trip to Taiwan, along with a small DVD documentary of the trip. Pre-orders on the book started on May 13th, the same day Majestical Parade went on sale. The book went on sale June 29, 2009.
- Ni~ya's is in "Zy magazine" titled "JUST FREAK OUT LET IT GO"
- Ruka's is featured in "duet magazine" titled 出てる!出てる! (Coming out! Coming out!).
- Yomi's article can be found in "Pati Pati" titled「必殺 !! 遊び人]-> お便り募集. It debuted on September 9, 2008.
Music Style
Nightmare's band concept is Gianizm and this word occurs in many of their song titles. Gianizm is derived from Doraemon's character Gian.[3] Gian's motto is "Omae no mono wa ore no mono. Ore no mono wa ore no mono." ("What's yours is mine, what's mine is mine.")[3] Incidentally, this is also the name of the two 'best of' albums they had re-released their indies' songs on.[3] However, the band has often ventured into new genres or styles, such as in NAKED LOVE where they experiment with electronic.
Flipside Band: Sendai Kamotsu
Sendai Kamotsu (which translates to 'Sendai Movers'), is Nightmare's side project.[7][8][9][10]
Other
In the anime live action film "20th Century Boys" that was released in 2008, they made a short cameo as the visual kei band playing at Friend's concert.
Members
YOMI - Vocals
咲人/Sakito - Lead Guitar
柩/Hitsugi - Rhythm Guitar
Ni~ya - Bass Guitar
RUKA - Drums
Discography
Albums
- Ultimate Circus
- Livid
- Anima
- Gianism Best Ofs
- The World Ruler
- Nightmare 2003-2005 Single Collection
- Kyokuto Symphony ~The Five Stars Night~ @Budokan
- Killer Show
- Majestical Parade
Mini albums
- Outlaw アウトロー November 21, 2002
Singles
- "Hankōki" 犯行期 September 21, 2001
- "Gaia~Zenith Side~" June 05, 2002
- "Gaia~Nadir Side~" August 21, 2002
- "Jiyuu Honpo Tenshin Ranman" [1st Press] (自由奔放天真爛漫) February 21, 2002
- "Crash!? Nightmare Channel" クラッシュ!?ナイトメアチャンネル October 31, 2002
- "-Believe-" August 21, 2003
- "Akane/Hate/Over" (茜/HATE/Over) November 21, 2003
- "Varuna" April 21, 2004
- "Tokyo Shounen" (東京傷年) July 22, 2004
- "Cyan" シアン October 22, 2004
- "Jibun no Hana" 時分ノ花 April 1, 2005
- "Яaven Loud Speeeaker" August 10, 2005
- "livEVIL" リヴィーヴル December 7, 2005
- "the WORLD/Alumina" the WORLD/アルミナ October 18, 2006
- "Raison d'Etre" レゾンデートル June 6, 2007
- "Konoha" このは October 3, 2007
- "DIRTY" November 7, 2007
- "Lost in Blue" September 17, 2008
- "NAKED LOVE" December 3, 2008
- "Rem_"/Love addict September 22, 2009
Demotapes
- Untitled 2001
- Sapato サバト 2001
- 'Danzai 断罪
- 5 + 1 = ? 2001
- Yaen 夜宴 April 2001
- Untitled July 13, 2001
- Zange 懺悔 August 15, 2001
- akahana no tonakai 赤鼻のトナカイ December 25, 2001
Omnibus
- SENDAI CITY ROCK HERO'Z December 21 2001
- band yarouze ばんどやろうぜ February, 2002
- Decadence 2002 March 14, 2002
- SHOCK JAM CD Edition.1 October 1, 2002
- Shock Edge 2002 October 21, 2002
- HI
References
- ^ SHOXX Vol. 170 April 2007- "Nightmare the WORLD Ruler" p. 40 Translated by JHouserock.com (English). Magazine published by Ongaku Senkasha Co., Ltd. Copyright 2007.
- ^ a b c Nightmare/BARKS Artist Profile (Japanese)
- ^ a b c d CDJapan.co.jp- Nightmare Special Feature (English)
- ^ SHOXX Vol. 176 October 2007- "Konoha Aki kara Fuyuu hedo..." ("Leaves from Autumn to Winter") 50 item question and Interview p. 38-49. Translated by JHouserock.com (English). Published by Ongaku Senkasha Co., Ltd. Copyright 2007.
- ^ SHOXX Vol. 173 July 2007 Nightmare "Raison d'etre" p. 58-59 Translated by JHouserock.com (English). Magazine published by Ongaku Senkasha Co., Ltd. Copyright 2007.
- ^ SHOXX Vol. 178 December 2007 Nightmare Interview p.38-57. Translated by JHouserock.com (English). Magazine published by Ongaku Senkasha Co., Ltd. Copyright 2007.
- ^ *Sendai Kamotsu/BARKS Artist Profile (Japanese)
- ^ "噂のヴィジュアル系!? いやヴィジュアルゲイ、仙台貨物が江ノ島で熱唱!" ("Rumored Visual kei?! No visual gay, Sendai Kamotsu's show at Enoshima!") (Japanese)
- ^ 仙台貨物、リリース続々&ツアーも決定 ("Sendai Kamotsu Release Success and a Decisive Tour") (Japanese)
- ^ *Yamada, Yukiko. BPASS October 2007. "Sendai Kamotsu Enoshima On Stage!" pages 92-93. Published by Shinko Entertainment, Inc. Copyright 2007.