Nightmare (ナイトメア, Naitomea) is a Japanese Visual Kei band.
History
Nightmare began in January 2000 by Sakito and Hitsugi while most of the members were still in high school. Soon, Yomi was invited by Sakito, Ni~ya by Hitsugi, and Zannin joined after they heard their classmates were forming a band. They were all influenced by either X/X Japan or LUNA SEA in some form.
Just as the band began getting much 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.
They debuted in 2003 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, it was Nightmare's busiest year. Releasing three singles (Varuna, Tokyo Shounen, and Shian) and another full album (Libido), the band once more toured around Japan. It was called TOUR CPU 2004. Their most well known live, "Tenka Daiboso" at Hibiya Yaon showed the best of Nightmare's charismatic performance to fans everywhere. From 2005-2006, Nightmare continued working hard, releasing more singles and their third full length album in 2006, anima. It was well received by fans and is still the most well known album by Nightmare to date. Their tour, [anima]lism, completely sold out.
With three albums and several tours under their belt, Nightmare released a " best of" album, "Gianism- Nightmare no Kuse ni Namaikidazo" on May 2006. They also released "Gianism - Omae no Mono wa Ore no Mono" and "Gianism - Ore no Mono wa Ore no Mono," a re-release of the songs they performed during their indies era in two albums a month later. 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 (the WORLD) and ending (Alumina) for the anime Death Note, respectively, spanning episodes 1-19. In February 27, 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.
On 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 3rd, 2007; the other titled "DIRTY," released on November 7th, 2007. DIRTY will be another opening theme song to the anime「魔人探偵脳噛ネウロ」(Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro), "Private Evil-Eye Nougami Neuro." The series began airing in October.
To wrap up the year of 2007, they will be having another tour called "DIRTY Influence" in selected cities in Japan in December 2007. To kick start 2008, they have decided to do a Zepp tour titled "2008 ZEPP TOUR six point killer show" starting in March 2008.
They will also be releasing their first single of 2008 titled WHITE ROOM but no release date has been announced by the band's website yet. On May 21, 2008, they will be releasing their fifth original studio album titled "KILLER SHOW."
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.
Along with that, all the members except for Yomi have a monthly column in different music magazines.
* Hitsugi has his in SHOXX magazine titled 猫ふんじゃった (A Cat's Minute). It used to be called "ZOZZY," an inside joke with the members when they were first interviewed in SHOXX back in 2004. Yomi had made a comment saying they should do a whole SHOXX magazine dedicated to Nightmare only. Hitsugi said if they were to do that, they should change the magazine name to "ZOZZY" instead and turn it into a comic magazine.
* Sakito's is in B-PASS magazine titled 鈍行いくの？~五十音の旅~ and has 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). Recently, he was a DJ for InterFM's show, UP's BEAT, every Monday night as the show has various DJs hosting every night.
* 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!).
Music Style
Most of their songs have a heavy metal element with a heavy bass line, tricky rhythms and changes in melodic keys. Although their recent songs have a slight avantgarde/alternative element (this is prominent especially in their "anima" album), the band has still kept its roots from their indies' days. They have also experimented with jazz, ambience, electronica, techno and bossa nova styles of music. Even though most of their songs are fast tempoed, they have written a fair amount of rock ballads as well.
Nightmare also has an unofficial "series" when it comes to their songs titled Gianizm. According to Sakito, he said Gianizm derived from Doraemon's character Gian. 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.") Coincidentally, this is also the name of the two 'best of' albums they had re-released their indies' songs on.
Flipside Band: Sendai Kamotsu
Sendai Kamotsu (translating to 'Sendai Movers'), is Nightmare's side project, or "ura-band" (ura meaning underside or flipside). All members of the band wear a red jumpsuit uniform like regular moving companies. Created in 2001 before their major debut, each respective members got in touch with their outrageous alter egos and rocked out. In this band, they have a mysterious sixth member, keyboardist and sound manipulator Kurihara. The real identity of this member was never revealed. Their style of music ranges from samba to ska to heavy metal, something different from what they're used to doing as Nightmare. They have released three DVDs, two singles, two albums and a new single release on October 10, 2007 titled "Gei School Otokogumi" with the coupling song, "Over the Geinbo." On August 8th, 2007, they had a live at Enoshima titled "Enoshima Men's Carnival."
In October, they had a three day tour titled「教師ぎんぎん物語」 (Kyoushi gin gin monogatari), translating to "Happy Classroom Stories."
The members are:
* Chiba (Yomi)- Vocals
* Satty (Sakito)- Guitar
* Fullface (Hitsugi)- Guitar
* Wen Chen Chen (Ni~ya)- Bass
* Gigaflare (Ruka)- Drums
* Kurihara- Keyboardist/SFX
Subject: Nightmare - band 
Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:47 pm
