| Nightmare | |
|---|---|
Nightmare: Sakito, Ni~ya, Yomi, Ruka and Hitsugi |
|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Sendai, Japan |
| Genres | Alternative rock, hard rock, heavy metal |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels | Speed-disk/XXX RECORDS 2001–2003 Nippon Crown 2003–2006 VAP 2006–2011 Avex Entertainment 2011–present |
| Website | Official website |
| Members | |
| Yomi Sakito (咲人) Hitsugi (柩) Ni~ya Ruka |
|
Nightmare (ナイトメア Naitomea) is a visual kei rock band from Sendai, Japan. They enjoyed mainstream success with the inclusion of "The World" and "Alumina" in the anime series Death Note and are considered a major act in the ongoing visual kei scene.[1]
Contents |
Nightmare started on January 1, 2000[2] by Sakito and Hitsugi while most of the members were still in high school.[3] The band name was suggested by Hitsugi, saying he wanted a band name that would scare people to match their visual styles. Soon, Ni~ya was invited by Sakito, Yomi 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,[4] therefore they started out as a cover band, before they began to write their own material.
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. After RUKA officially became a part of Nightmare, the band began leaving Sendai and had short tours around the region with other supporting bands. 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, Livid. 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," the first single to be released under VAP. 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, "Konoha" 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 Kyokuto Symphony ~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.
On September 17, 2008, they released another single titled "Lost in Blue". It was the opening theme song to the anime adaptation of Mouryou no Hako (魍魎の匣). On December 3, 2008, they released another single titled "Naked Love", which became the ending song to Mouryou 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 Paraode 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 Best Ofs 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 Finale "Majestic"". They released their 20th single, "Rem", on the 22nd of September, with the B-side track "Love Addict". To finish up 2009, they did a six-show fan club only live house tour in December 2009.
To begin celebrating their 10th anniversary, Nightmare held a New Year's Eve Countdown show at Zepp Sendai on December 31, 2009, along with their very first performance at Saitama Super Arena on January 9, 2010. The show was called "Nightmare 10th Anniversary Special Act. Vol.1 [Gianizm]", to which they played an overall of 27 Songs total.
The set list[7] also included all of the song on the Special Album "Gianizm", which had been released on January 1. The band began their tour, "Request of Gianizm the Tour" in April 2010. On June 23, 2010, they released their 21st single, "a:Fantasia," which took #5 in the Weekly Oricon.
The band continued with their 2nd long tour titled "Nightmare 10th Anniversary Special Act. Vol.2: Re:Start of Tell(All)ism" in the beginning of July 2010. It began in Saitama and ended in Sendai. The final show of the tour was announced to be held at Nippon Budokan once more, marking this their 3rd time at the prestigious venue. Before the start of their Vol. 3 tour, they released another best-of album titled Historical ~The Highest Nightmare, with several re-recorded tracks and one new song on October 20, 2010. Toward the end of October 2010, they started their last tour of the year titled "Nightmare 10th Anniversary Special Act. Vol.3 Historical ~The Highest Nightmare~." They performed at Makuhari Messe for the very first time on December 25, 2010 and finished up Vol. 3.
After a countdown clock had appeared on their website, Nightmare announced an unexpected live called "publish!" at Shinkiba STUDIO COAST. However, because of the Sendai earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011, the show had been postponed until March 30 and renamed to "publish & recover!". Along with that, their website had announced a new single release on May 18, 2011 titled "Vermilion" under Avex Entertainment.
They started their "Time Rewind to ZERO" tour on April 15, 2011, but had to change two of their tour dates. Their last show of the tour was on June 27th at Tokyo Kokusai Forum Hall A. In mid-June, the band had also announced that they would be performing with Kishidan on August 1st as guests in celebrating Kishidan's 10th anniversary with a Battle of the Bands show.
Around early July 2011, the band announced the release of a new single on September 7, 2011, titled "SLEEPER." This song was a tie-up collaboration with luxury jewelry brand GemCerey. Following the release of the single was a new tour called "ZEPPELIN." where the band toured through ZEPP live houses nationwide in Japan.
Their new self-titled album, "NIGHTMARE," released on November 23rd. Following the release will be a three-month tour titled "NIGHTMARE TOUR 2011-2012 Nightmarish reality", which will start on December 2, 2011 and will last until March 2, 2012, where they will be performing at Nippon Budokan for the 4th time.
Aside from appearing on TV shows, magazine covers, and concerts, they 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.
All the members have done monthly columns in different music magazines.
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 electronica, or "Masquerade and Konoha" where they experiment with ska and reggae.
Sendai Kamotsu (仙台貨物) is a side project of the visual kei rock band Nightmare formed in September 2001. It consists of entirely the same members, but they are different compared to their usual image, so much so that one may think them a different assemblage of musicians altogether. Sendai Kamotsu was formed in 2001 before Nightmare became successful. They started their activities in 2002. Sendai Kamotsu took part in the first Cannonball omnibus and toured with Doremidan and Shulla. Their rallying cry is that they love "Gay People". The story goes that Chiba is actually the "younger brother" of Nightmare's vocalist, Yomi. They were first featured in Nightmare's "Jishou -Shounen Terrorist-" PV, minus Chiba.
Their first two demo tapes, "Kimchi" and "Saipan" were released in April and July 2002, respectively. Their first album, Okuru Kotoba came out in April 2004. After that was a yearly single and an album release, starting with "N.M.N-No More Nayamimuyo-" in February 2006, "Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake" and their popular album, Jinsei Game in July 2006, "Gei School Otokogumi" in October 2007 and Umanamide in October 2008.
On September 5, 2009, they announced that the band will be going on a break due to the company going bankrupt from the recession of the economy. The story of their bankruptcy was played out in their "Fukyou no Kaze" PV. The band had their final shows at the end of October in Sendai and at Nippon Budokan on November 5, 2009 titled "Fukyou no Kaze~Sendai Kamotsu ~Forever~." They released their 3rd album, Deko on October 28, 2009.[8][9][10][11]
Since the band's hiatus, Chiba has recently come out with his solo debut under the name Igaguri Chiba, with Kurihara joined up with him again as sound manipulator. His solo single, "Gira Gira Boys," translating to "Glitter Boys" released on October 6, 2010. He embarked on a short solo tour in 3 live houses: Nagoya Diamond Hall, Osaka Big Cat, and Shibuya O-East. The short tour is called "On the Road Until Sendai Kamotsu's Revival" (仙台貨物 復活までの道のり). Their last Budokan live DVD and CD was released October 6, 2010 alongside "Gira Gira Boys."
They have recently announced the revival of Sendai Kamotsu on their homepage. Chiba stated the reason for their revival is because Japan is in crisis now and need a hero during this time. The sextet will be touring this summer with 4 shows. The new tour is called "「HERO」~帰ってきた癒しの宅配便~" ("HERO ~The Comforting Express Home Delivery Service, Returned~"). They will be releasing two new songs via dwango for download; "HERO~ Return of the Red Justice~" and "Okuru Kotoba 2."
In the summer of 2008, there was an earthquake that hit around Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku, which is their hometown. When they heard about the tragedy, 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", respectfully), they set up a donation box for proceeds to the earthquake and made a quick appearance on 24 Hour Television. The proceeds totaled up to 304,048 yen. They also invited victims of the earthquake to their show in Zepp Sendai as their guests of honor.
In light of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Nightmare made their "publish and recover!" show at Shinkiba Studio Coast on March 30, 2011 a fund-raising event for the victims.
| Release Date | Title | Other Information | |
| 1st | 2001/11/11 | Hankouki | |
| 2nd | 2002/02/21 | Jiyuu Honpo Tenshin Ranman | |
| 3rd | 2002/06/05 | Gaia -Zenith side- | |
| 4th | 2002/6/21 | Gaia -Nadir side |
| Release Date | Title | Other Information | |
| 1st | 2003/8/21 | -Believe- | 24th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 2nd | 2003/11/21 | Akane (茜)/Hate/Over | 25th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 3rd | 2004/4/21 | Varuna | 29th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 4th | 2004/7/22 | Tokyo Shounen (東京傷年) | 21st on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 5th | 2004/10/21 | Shian (シアン) | 22nd on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 6th | 2005/4/1 | Jibun no Hana (時分ノ花) | 21st on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 7th | 2005/8/10 | Яaven Loud Speeeaker | 23rd on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 8th | 2005/12/7 | LivEvil | 29th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 9th | 2006/10/18 | The World/Alumina (アルミナ) | Death Note OP theme/ED theme // 5th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 10th | 2007/6/6 | Raison D'etre (レゾンデートル) | Claymore OP Theme // 3rd on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 11th | 2007/10/3 | Konoha (このは) | 4th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 12th | 2007/11/7 | Dirty | Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro OP theme // 8th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 13th | 2008/9/17 | Lost in Blue | Mouryou no Hako OP theme // 2nd on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 14th | 2008/12/3 | Naked Love | Mouryou no Hako ED theme // 4th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 15th | 2009/9/22 | Rem_ | 3rd on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 16th | 2010/6/23 | A:Fantasia | 5th on the Weekly Oricon Charts |
| 17th | 2011/5/18 | Vermilion | 6th on the Weekly Oricon Charts. 1st single release under avex. |
| 18th | 2011/9/7 | Sleeper | 7th on the Weekly Oricon Charts. Tie-in CM song with GemCerey |