MALICE MIZER Biography

It all happened somewhere in August of 1992… Guitarists Mana and Közi, two members of the then-recently-disbanded ‘摩天楼’, or ‘Matenrou’, decided to keep making music together, as they shared close musical visions, and created a new musical project. They decided to name this new band ‘MALICE MIZER’, which is (poor) French for ‘Malice and Misery’.

Why that name? According to them, if you ask the question ‘What is human?’, the answer is: ‘Nothing but a being of malice and misery.’ 

Very soon after, maybe in late August or in September, bassist ‘Yu～ki’, former member of the band ‘ZE:RO’, drummer ‘GAZ’, former member of the band ‘DATURA’, and vocalist ‘Tetsu’, former member of the band ‘Ner-vous’ joined them, turning MALICE MIZER into a full, five piece band.

Before even performing any lives, they decided to record a first demo tape, containing three songs, a bonus sample song, but no vocals yet.

This first demo tape contains many elements that define MALICE MIZER’s sound throughout their entire career, like a dark ambient atmosphere, polyphonic twin guitars, baroque-classical influences, church bells, elements of horror soundtracks, and a lot of synthesizer. This proves that the foundation created in 1992 was rock-solid.

They decided to name the demo tape ‘SANS LOGIQUE‘, a reference to a song by French singer ‘Mylène Farmer’, who had a great influence on the band, especially on Mana. Only 100 copies were ever made of SANS LOGIQUE, making it near-impossible to find. Sadly, it has been bootlegged and faked a lot over the decades, and more fakes than real copies exist, so be careful when buying demos!

With the foundation of the band laid, a demo tape recorded, and many more songs written, they were ready for lives and band advertising. They had a photo shoot, and started designing, printing and distributing flyers, to show the outside world who they were.

The first live was held on 31 October, 1992, which was also where ‘SANS LOGIQUE‘ was distributed to all attendees. 1992 saw four more lives, each time combined with other bands from the time such as ‘SILVER ROSE’ and ‘RED TAIL CAT’.

In december of 1992, the band went into the studio, and recorded two songs: ‘SADNESS’, and ‘SPEED OF DESPERATE’. They decided to send the second song to some record labels on a demo tape in hopes of getting something. One of those labels noticed them, Ariola, a part of BMG, was looking for small indies bands to compile a Various Artists (Omnibus) CD ‘BRAINTRASH’, which came out on the 24th of February 1993. It contains the recording of ‘SPEED OF DESPERATE’ from december 1992.

They kept performing live concerts during early 1993, but in March, drummer GAZ decided that he wanted to leave the band, and after a final live with GAZ on the 15th of March 1993, he went on to join Kneuklid Romance, while at the same time, Kneuklid Romance’s drummer KAMI left that band to join MALICE MIZER as a support drummer. So both bands basically exchanged drummers.

MALICE MIZER continued to do small concerts in March and April of 1993, and on a concert on the 5th of April 1993, they finally released the recording of the song ‘SADNESS‘ as a one-track demo tape that was distributed to everyone present. Because GAZ recorded the drums, but wasn’t present anymore, he got credited in the lyrics insert as ‘THANKS FOR GAZ’.

The “SADNESS” demo tape is another unfindable MALICE MIZER item: Just a few real copies exist, probably also around 100 or 150 copies, and many more bootlegs/fakes exist, who have lower printing and audio quality.

Shortly after, still in April, drummer KAMI officially joined MALICE MIZER, as a real member instead of a support drummer. He changed his name from KAMI (in Kneuklid Romance) to UKYO (in MALICE MIZER), but would soon change it back to Kami again.

MALICE MIZER had now built up enough of a following that they could hold their first nationwide tour, called the ‘Se・duc・tive Tour 93’, which had 7 dates, all in august of 1993.

On the 12th of October of that year, MALICE MIZER held their 1st anniversary concert at 目黑鹿鳴館 (Meguro Rockmaykan), and distributed a demo tape, ‘THE 1TH ANNIVERSARY‘, to everyone who came. It contains the same recording of the song SADNESS as the previous demo tape, but also a live recording of Lafflesia, recorded a month earlier, on the 13th of September.

MALICE MIZER continued to play many gigs the rest of 1993 and in 1994, and became more and more recognised in the indies visual-kei scene, which gave them enough budget to go to the studio to record their first mini-album in April of 1994, ‘memoire‘, which released on the 24th of July, 1994, containing six tracks. 3000 copies were pressed, each with a unique serial number, and it all sold out during pre-orders!

The release of their debut mini-album got coupled with another nationwide tour, ‘Cher de memoire Tour 1994’, which contained 15 dates. The final concert of this tour was sold out. ‘memoire‘ got a second press, this time without serial numbers, which also sold out during the tour.

After the tour, they returned to the studio to expand memoire… One more song got recorded, and although I wish it was more, they recorded one of their best songs, ‘バロック’ (Baroque). ‘memoire‘ was now repressed for the third time, with that extra song and bonus content such as a slipcase and extra photo book, and was named ‘memoire DX‘. (Where ‘DX’ stands for ‘deluxe’)

Around this time, MALICE MIZER’s popularity was rising so dramatically that they held yet another nationwide tour, the ‘Cher de memoire II ONEMAN Tour 1994’, whose last date was on the 27th of December, 1994…

…And Tetsu decided to quit the band after that concert. This would mark the end of MALICE MIZER’s Tetsu era, and the band went on a break for a while, searching for a new vocalist.

MALICE MIZER’s first flyer (Not my scan), introducing all members and their previous bands.

 

 

Flyer advertising MALICE MIZER’s first live on 31 October 1992. This is the coloured master flyer, posted by Mana on Twitter in 2019(?). All others are black and white copies.

 

 

Flyer advertising the Se・duc・tive Tour 93′, which lasted from the 9th to the 27th of August, 1993.

 

Flyer advertising the memoire mini-album, and the Cher de memoire Tour 1994.

 

Tetsu singing live during the ‘memoire’ release gig/party on 1994.07.30

 

Tetsu performing live in a cow suit during the ‘Cher de memoire II ONEMAN Tour 1994’