Malice Mizer is a visual kei rock band from Japan. They were active from January 1992 to December 2001. Formed by Mana and Közi, the band's name stands for "malice and misery", extracted from "nothing but a being of malice and misery" — their reply to the question "what is human?". Their earlier music and themes were characterized by their strong French and classical influences, later moving away from deliberate French romanticism and incorporating Gothic-Victorian aspects after several tragedies befell the band.

Malice Mizer is as famous for their music as for their live shows, featuring lavish historical costumes and stage sets, short silent theatre pieces preluding various songs, whimsical dance routines, and even a particularly notable instance of the vocalist descending to Earth (the stage) as a fallen angel, only to ascend again at the end of the concert. Throughout their history, the band has gone through several different lineups and three drastic image changes.

On December 11, 2001, it was announced that Malice Mizer would go on an indefinite hiatus. However, as Mana recently wrote on his homepage, three of the four members (Mana, Közi and Yu~ki) have regained frequent contact with each other from the middle of 2008. Then on December 27, seven years after the hiatus started, Közi played on stage with Mana's Moi dix Mois for a session gig at their "Dis Inferno Vol.VI ~Last Year Party~" event. In 2009 Közi went on a short 2 gig coupling tour with Moi dix Mois called "Deep Sanctuary". A year later, in July of 2010, Közi went on another tour with Moi dix Mois, titled "Deep Sanctuary II", with Yu~ki as a special guest at Akasaka Blitz on the 17th.This was the first time in 9 years that the 3 remaining original members were on stage together.

1992–1994: Tetsu era; Indie

After leaving Matenrou, Mana and Közi formed Malice Mizer in 1992 with Tetsu Takano on vocals, both Mana and Közi on guitars/synthesizers, Yu~ki on bass and Gaz on drums. From the outset, the band established their trademark "twin guitar"' sound, whereby two guitars play different melodies creating polyphony. Malice Mizer's sound during the Tetsu era was a mixture of rock, early 1980s goth, and strong classical influences. Their first official release was the song "Speed of Desperate" on the 1993 compilation Brain Trash. Before this, they had released a demo tape called Sans Logique which contained no vocals. Shortly after the release of Brain Trash, Gaz left the band to join Kneuklid Romance, while Kneuklid Romance's drummer Ukyō "Kami" Kamimura in turn joined Malice Mizer. In 1994, the band released their first album, Memoire, on Mana's newly founded independent record label Midi:Nette, and shortly after re-released it with an additional bonus track, "Baroque" under the title Memoire DX. Only days later, singer Tetsu left the band. While the exact reasons are unknown, Tetsu went on to take a different direction in his work and some say it was because he disliked the flamboyant image of the band. The band's continued use of his lyrics in songs they continued to perform with later vocalists suggest an amicable split.

1995–1999: Gackt era; Voyage and Merveilles

In 1995, after a year of inactivity, Malice Mizer recruited Gackt as their new vocalist. With a new concept created by Mana, the band's music became more progressive rock, incorporating even stronger classical and electronic elements. Visually, the band abandoned their 1980s goth look for colourful historical costumes with a gothic feel. In 1996, Malice Mizer released their second album, Voyage ~Sans Retour~. The band became increasingly popular and in 1997 signed with Nippon Columbia, where they released a number of successful singles, a short film (Bel Air ~Kuuhaku no Shunkan no Naka De~ de L'image), and, in 1998, their third album, Merveilles. The band even had their own radio show around this time and played a two day live at the Nippon Budokan which involved a large building as a stage prop and amazing theatrics; each member performing a skit with another member on their own (including [on "Le Ciel"] the aforementioned skit in which Gackt fell to the stage [to sing the song] and returned to "Heaven" by song's end). It was a massive success and was released on video as Merveilles l'espace. In January 1999, at the height of Malice Mizer's success, Gackt suddenly left the band, and after just four months he released his first solo album. There are many rumors circulating as to why he left, but none of them have yet been confirmed. Malice Mizer left Columbia shortly after and returned to Midi:Nette.

A few months after Gackt's departure, drummer Kami died of a subarachnoid hemorrhage on June 21, 1999, leaving behind a handful of songs, which the band eventually released as part of the EP/video boxset Shinwa, which consisted of 2 songs composed by him and the short track "Saikai" written by the band. Kami was never replaced; from that point on, Malice Mizer would only use support drummers (namely Shu, who is not shown in the band's later and final music videos, nor credited) and Kami would be credited as "eternal blood relative" on all their future releases. Because of Kami's untimely death and other factors, the band decided to shift their image and music.

2000–2001: Klaha era; Bara no Seidō

In the second half of 1999 and the beginning of 2000, Malice Mizer — still without an official vocalist — released a number of singles and began to work on a new album. Eventually, they recruited Masaki "Klaha" Haruna, vocalist of darkwave band Pride of Mind. By then the band had abandoned the lighter pop music sound of the Gackt era for a dramatic mixture of classical music, gothic/goth and heavy metal music, and adopted an elaborate funeral Goth look. In the summer of 2000, they released what would be their last album, Bara no Seidou, followed by a very spectacular and theatrical live show, featuring pyrotechnics, a choir of veiled nuns and a scaled-down cathedral as stage prop. In 2001, Malice Mizer starred in a feature length vampire movie (Bara no Konrei ~Mayonaka ni Kawashita Yakusoku~), and released three more singles: "Gardenia", "Beast of Blood", and "Garnet ~Kindan no Sono E~"; "Gardenia" and "Garnet" being of a considerably lighter tone than their previous album, signifying the start of a new era for the band. However, the band members decided to go their own separate ways in 2001, leaving a messages on their official website, which can still be viewed today. The split was spoken of as a "hiatus", however, so as not to exclude the possibility of a future reformation.

Post Projects, Unofficial Reunion

After his departure in 1994, Tetsu Takano released one solo album, and has subsequently taken part in a series of bands such as Zigzo and Mega 8 Ball; his most recent being the band Nil.

After his departure in early 1999, Gackt Camui started a solo career a year later which has been enormously successful; he is now one of Japan's top musicians and TV personalities.

Masaki "Klaha" Haruna started a solo career as well in December 2002, but in the middle of 2004 it was announced that his fan club would be closing down, and after that there have been long periods with silence, only broken by rare updates on his site. Due to health problems he has been taking a break from creating music, but last year he stated on his site that he would resume musical activity in 2007. Further details haven't been announced.

Yu~ki has not been active on the music scene since 2004 when he wrote a song "Memento", about Kami, for Közi's solo project. In an informal conversation with Klaha, he said he would like to return to the music scene.

Közi joined Haruhiko Ash's industrial band Eve of Destiny and also started a solo career. Eve of Destiny has been inactive since 2006. As of Halloween 2008 he is part of the band Dalle. Around June of 2010, Közi started to perform with a band called My Horror Revue. He has also formed the band XA-VAT, who held their first performance on November 16, 2010 and will release their first single on December 2nd.

Mana has formed his own solo project, Moi dix Mois, performing live concerts across Europe. In addition to the successful solo project, Mana is a fashion designer for his fashion label, Moi-même-Moitié (created in 1999), which focuses on the styles Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA) and Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL). He also continues to run his indie record label, Midi:Nette, and has produced for artists such as Schwarz Stein and Kanon Wakeshima.

On December 27, 2008, Közi played on stage with, Mana's solo project, Moi dix Mois for a session gig at their "Dis Inferno Vol.VI ~Last Year Party~" event. He joined them again in 2009, when they went on a short 2 show tour called "Deep Sanctuary", on July 17th in Osaka and the 19th in Tokyo. A year later in July of 2010, Közi once again went on a tour with Moi dix Mois, titled "Deep Sanctuary II". This tour had six shows, but the gig at Akasaka Blitz on the 17th was special, as former Malice Mizer bassist Yu~ki, was a special guest. This was the first time in 9 years that the 3 remaining original members played together. They played "Saikai no Chi to Bara" and "Beast of Blood".

Malice Mizer's song "Gekka no Yasoukyoku" will be covered by D on the compilation Crush! 90's V-Pop Best Hit Cover Songs. The album will be released on January 26, 2011 and will feature current visual kei bands covering songs from bands that are important to the '90s visual kei movement.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malice_Mizer