The story behind Kaizen starts in 1994 after Johann Porcher and Sebastien Dijoux played in several bands and met drummer Laurent Caradec and bassist Luc Baghadoust in high school. The band is then called Disturber until 1997 (the name is changed for Kaizen which stands for "Supporting continual improvement" in Japanese), mainly working on covers of artists such as Metallica, Sepultura, Pantera or Strapping Young Lad. The band begins to play on stage in some small venues near Paris and starts to write songs that will be recorded at a later stage.

In 1999, guitar player Julien Maurel joins the band to replace Johann who decides to commit himself to the vocals only. With a strong repertoire building up and the birth of their crossover genre between recent bands, death metal and a futuristic approach, Kaizen enters the Phantom Studio in 2000 to record its first demo entitled "Leadersheep" which starts to buzz a bit in the underground scene. This demo is produced by Alexis Phelipot (drummer for Misanthrope and Droys, producer of bands such as No Return, Kristendom, Your Shapeless Beauty). The band plays a lot more shows thanks to this first release and begins to have some good reviews about what they're doing.

In 2001, the band records a second demo called "Supporting continual improvement", with Phelipot again, containing 5 brilliant tracks that will be a blast over the scene and opens them music labels doors. Great reviews thanks good songs and a important promotion work. The band claims its influences by the side of 90 US power as Pantera or bands such as Sepultura, Fear factory or Meshuggah plus the grind and death metal scene. This is the kind of band who goes straight to the point.

Their first album "Clear the path" is released in 2003 and has a great impact in french metal medias with several pages of interviews, great reviews. Kaizen then played throughout its career with reference bands as Slayer, Machine Head, Hatebreed, Mastodon, Chimaira, Lamb Of God, Cannibal Corpse, Children Of Bodom, Napalm Death, Neurosis, Atheist, Meshuggah, Obituary, Gojira, Aborted, Scarve, Dagoba... and many more, in France and abroad. Produced by Alexis Phelipot (Misanthrope / No Return / Drowning / Kristendom), Clear the path is a pure blast of modern metal and the proof Kaizen is a band on which youll have to count on by now. 2003 is definetely the revelation year for Kaizen. The band is voted as one of the 100 best album released in 2003 by french main metal magazine Hard N Heavy. Clear the path reaches several thousands copies sold in France.

After a lot of work in their own rehearsal space, Kaizen flies in January 2005 to England to record a brand new album called "Sink" under the helm of Mark Mynett (Kill II This, Lamb Of God) near Manchester, UK, met on tour the year before. A new step for the band is reached with a more mature and skillful songwriting. The feedback for this album is really impressive.

In February 2005, first line up change in eleven years, skinsman Fabien Rault replaces Laurent Caradec for musical divergences. The band then toured around France and has been invited by several festivals including the famous Hellfest (with Slayer or Megadeth on the bill among 80 leading bands of the metal industry).

Following a period of rest for the band, while members did a lot of things for themselves, guitarist Julien Maurel parted ways with the band on a personal decision in late october 2009 after 10 years of Rock n' roll.

The band is currently working and pre-producing a great third album and should raise a level higher (with songs tentatively called "Hindsight", "Godseed", "Time bomb" or "My own shit republic"). At first, they said they won't integrate a new guitarist during the song writing of this new album, but a replacement should announced soon.

Source : http://www.myspace.com/kaizen