Gardenia – Single

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 eleventh single, and their first audio release after the album “薔薇の聖堂” (Bara no seidou) and its singles. It contains five tracks; An intro, the title track “Gardenia” and an instrumental version of that song, and the B-side “崩壊序曲” (Houkai jokyoku) and an instrumental version of that song. This B-side song was an outtake/cut song from the album “薔薇の聖堂” (Bara no seidou).

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 is the first release where Klaha is included as official member, as he was still a guest musician before.

This is the first entry in a trilogy of singles with music videos that would encapsulate the very end of MALICE MIZER. It was supposed to lead up to a fourth album, something lighter, a breath of fresh air after the darkness, but sadly, MALICE MIZER went on indefinite hiatus after the third single of this trilogy.

Gardenia had a music video completely filmed and edited, which was planned to release on VHS and DVD alongside the audio single… But the video form got cancelled, and was never released. It is supposed that they had a computer crash, or a tape malfunction, and lost the master files…. Luckily, a shorter version of the music video once aired on a TV channel, and was recorded by a fan. This recording leaked on the internet in its early days, but is very low quality. This fan-recording, and a 15-second commercial of the song is all we have left of the original shoot.

Later, the band reshot some scenes using the same costumes and props, and combined it with live footage of the Gardenia tour, and released it as a new version of the music video on the Cardinal DVD.

There’s two versions of the single, both released on the same day with the same catalog number. The “first” press contains a slipcase with an alternate cover, and a sticker, but has no OBI. And the “second” press contains the OBI, but has no extra slipcase or sticker. The rest is identical in both presses.

2 Versions:

Tracklist: