D'espairsRay

D'espairsRay was formed in 1999 with its present line up. They are a visual kei band, and have their roots in an earlier group, Le’Veil. Their music is often considered as heavy rock or industrial goth, and they are heavily influenced by Marilyn Manson.

In 1999, D’espairsRay put together a demo tape, and made a limited of run of sixty, which they gave away to fans. Their first single Kumo was released in October 2000, although only 300 were pressed. They continued to release limited edition items although the numbers pressed rose steadily. In 2001, they released Terrors, and started touring more widely.

Their first album Itanji was released in 2003, and they continued releasing singles, with Garnet being their first number one single. This brought the band a still bigger audience, and resulted in their playing at the Stylish Wave 03 Mega Force Gig.

The single MaVERiCK in 2003 saw a change of direction as well as an increase of popularity for the band. Many of their songs are about death and the negative state of the world, the lyrics often being screamed out by HIZUMI.

In 2004, D’espairsRay played their first international shows in Paris and Berlin. They continued to tour internationally, visiting the US several times mainly performing at anime conventions.

In 2006, D’espairsRay made their third visit to America and released the documentary DVD The World Outside The Cage. They followed this with a new single Kogoeru Yoru Ni Saita Hana. Later in the year, the band made another trip to Germany and when upcoming shows in Finland were announced, they sold out in less than a day.

D’espairsRay are known for their dark and heavy sound, intertwining fast guitar riffs with bass and drum lines. Frequently, Hizumi gives death screams or gaspings to enhance the darkness of their music. The band is becoming one of the biggest names in the visual-kei world today.

Members

• Vocals: HIZUMI
• Guitar: Karyu
• Bass: ZERO
• Drums: TSUKASA

Discography

Singles

• Kumo (2000)
• Genwaku (2001)
• SEXUAL BEAST (2002)
• MaVERiCK (2003)
• Gärnet (2003)
• -GEMINI- (2004)
• Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana (2006)
• SQUALL (2007)

Albums

• -Terrors- (2001)
• BORN (2004)
• Coll:set (2005)
• MIRROR (2007)

DVDs

• Murder Day (2004)
• Live Tour 06 (Liquidize) (2006)

External Links

• http://www.despairsray.jp/ Official Website] (Japanese)