Nightmare is a visual kei rock band from 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.

Pre-major era

Nightmare started on January 1, 2000 by Sakito and Hitsugi while most of the members were still in high school. 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 in some form or other.[4] They first started out as a cover band, singing mostly X and LUNA SEA songs before they began writing 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 apart 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.

Major Debut with Nippon Crown/VAP

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." 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, titled "Leaf" 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 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. On December 3, 2008, they released another single titled "NAKED LOVE." This song was the ending theme 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 PARADE 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 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 FINAL "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.

Nightmare's 10th Anniversary

To begin celebrating their 10th anniversary, Nightmare held a New Years' 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 also included all of the song on the Special Album "GIANIZM", which had been released on January 1st. 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 will be performing at Makuhari Messe for the very first time on December 25th, 2010 to finish up Vol. 3.

Music style

Nightmare's band concept is Gianizm and this word occurs in many of their song titles. Gianizm is derived from Doraemon's character Gian. 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.") Incidentally, this is also the name of the two 'best of' albums they had re-released their indies' songs on. 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.

Flipside Band: Sendai Kamotsu

Sendai Kamotsu is a side project of the visual rock band Nightmare formed in September 2001. It consists of entirely the same members, but they are so different compared to their usual image 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 Nighmare'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 band had their final shows at the end of October in Sendai and at Nippon Budokan on November 5th, 2009 titled "Fukyou no Kaze~Sendai Kamotsu ~FOREVER~." They released their 3rd album, "Deko" on October 28th, 2009.

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 6th, 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." Their last Budokan live DVD and CD was released October 6th, 2010 alongside "Gira Gira Boys.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_(band)