薔薇の聖堂 (Bara no seidou) – Album

MALICE MIZER is a legendary Japanese visual-kei rock band that existed from August 1992 to December 2001.
On this website, you can find a full release database of MALICE MIZER and the bands related to them.
On these specific pages, you’ll find a discography listing the main audio releases. 

General Information:

MALICE MIZER’s third and final full album, containing 10 tracks. Klaha is credited as the vocalist on some tracks, but does not appear in the photography.

After the release of “薔薇の聖堂” (Bara no seidou), Klaha became an official member of the band, and started appearing in photo shoots and music videos.

This album is extremely dark, gothic, neoclassical, and has catholic and horror themes all throughout it. The members were in a dark place when making this, as their beloved friend and drummer Kami had passed away the year before, shortly after their frontman Gackt having left the band on not-so-good terms. This was their way of mourning these losses.

There’s an extensive use of harpischord and pipe organ in most of the songs, and the rock elements are quite minimal. Most of it was composed by Mana, except for two tracks by Közi. It is considered by some to be MALICE MIZER, or even Mana’s greatest masterpiece. Others prefer the rockier/poppier sounds that made MALICE MIZER famous. This drastic shift in tone made them lose some fans in Japan, which in turn resulted in this album not even appearing in the Oricon Music Charts!

Just a week after the release of this album, MALICE MIZER performed it live in its entirety spread over two concerts that were held a day apart, which got compiled into the legendary concert DVD “薔薇に彩られた悪意と悲劇の幕開け” (Bara ni irodorareta akui to higeki no makuake).

Two versions released in Japan. The first press was in the form of an A5 book, and the 2nd press was in a CD jewel case inside of a slipcase. I don’t know when the slipcase version exactly released, as it was a silent repress of some sorts. After this, during the mid-2000s two German presses released, but as I don’t own either of them, I have not added them to this website yet.

4 Versions:

+ 2 German presses… Will be added some day…

Tracklist: