Biography
2002: Conception and early work
In March 2002, Ruki, Uruha, Reita, Aoi, and Yune (former band mate) formed a band under the name Gazette. Originally signed to Matina, they released their first single, "Wakaremichi", and a video release in April. By September, they had released two more singles and another video, headlining a show for the first time in October. In March, they held the Kanto short tour "Shonen giralizum ~ijimekko, ijimerarekko~". In June, they gave the free one-man tour "gokuraku shonen no jikkenbo", kagurazaka Dimension.
2003: New drummer and Cockayne Soup
In early 2003, Yune decided to leave the band, and he was replaced by Kai. Shortly after, they signed with the PS Company label and in May, released their first EP, Cockayne Soup. They started their first tour, with the band Hanamuke, and along with the tour, the bands collaborated on two songs. A second tour followed with the band Vidoll, and the bands were featured together on the November issue of Cure, a magazine focusing on Visual Kei bands.
In early December they played a co-headlining show with Deadman. On December 28 they performed at Fool's Mate magazine's Beauti-fool's Fest which was later released on DVD.
2004: Disorder
On January 16, 2004 they recorded a solo performance at the Shibuya-AX, which was released on DVD as Tokyo Saihan -Judgment Day-. On March 30, 2004 they released their Madara mini-album, which reached #2 on the Oricon Indie Charts. Madara was followed in May by a companion DVD, which included six music videos and an in-the-studio documentary. The same month, the GazettE was featured in Shoxx magazine's Expect Rush III, a catalogue of independent Visual Kei artists. A second live DVD, Heisei Banka, was released in August. During September and October they toured with fellow PS Company bands Kra and BIS. Their debut album, Disorder, was released in October and made it to the top 5 of the indies Oricon Daily Charts.
The band spent the remainder of 2004 and 2005 touring extensively, releasing Gama, another mini-album, in August.
2005-2006: Nil and Nameless Liberty Six Guns
In 2005, the band released their first major label single, Cassis, in December.
Starting 2006 with a name change—from Japanese characters to a romanized script—they released Nil, their second full-length album, on February 8, 2006, and embarked on another Japanese tour, ending at the venue Nippon Budokan. That July, the GazettE performed at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Germany, their first show outside of Asia. The concerts were arranged in conjunction with the AnimagiC anime and manga convention.
2007- Present: Stacked Rubbish and Dim
Three more singles were released followed by another studio album, Stacked Rubbish on July 4, 2007. It reached #2 on the Oricon charts within a day from the release. The album debut was followed by a promotional tour from July through September. In October, the GazettE embarked on their first European tour, performing in England, Finland, France, and Germany.
A single named "Guren" was released on February 13, 2008, which landed a #1 spot on the Oricon Charts. It was announced that a new DVD would be released in August, and a new single "Leech" in Autumn 2008, which also landed a #1 spot on the Oricon daily charts.
the GazettE accomplished a one man tour through all of October called "From the Distorted City," referencing to the song "Distorted Daytime" in their single "Leech," which portrays Tokyo as a "distorted city," in terms of the society and political crisis sweeping over Japan.
On November 15, 2008, the GazettE hosted their first secret show in Shinjuku Station. Originally, around two-hundred fifty people were to be anticipated, but instead, over seven thousand attended, the most in the band's history. Due to the amount of people on the streets, the police were forced to shut it down after two songs.
On January 3, 2009, the GazettE performed alongside their fellow bands signed to the PS Company label to celebrate the record label's tenth anniversary, where they announced they would release a new single called "Distress and Coma", which was preceded by a seventh-anniversary performance on March 10 at Makuhari Messe Convention Hall.The show was nostalgic in some ways, but new in others. Everyone would have agreed that the set list was amazing, and the GazettE had succeeded in shaking up a huge venue and the whole music scene.
The band released their next full-length studio album, Dim in the summer, followed by another Japan-wide summer tour starting in July, for which the tour's final show was held at Saitama Super Arena. 'the GazettE TOUR 2009 -DIM SCENE-' started on July 18 at Toda City Culture Hall. The two month long tour came to an end with a final concert at Saitama Super Arena. The concert marked the culmination of their new album 'DIM', and the following is a detailed account of what took place that night in Saitama.
On October 7, 2009, they released their new single called "BEFORE I DECAY". It is the soundtrack for the Japanese version of "Fast & Furious".
The band then played at V-ROCK FESTIVAL'09 on October 25, 2009 with other Visual Kei bands. They were featured on the main website, and performed the finale of the whole festival, though their performance was not broadcast live on the internet.
On December 24, the GazettE have been holding their concert "A HYMN OF THE CRUCIFIXION" at Tokyo Big Sight, which was also their last live of 2009. Including their older and newer releases such as "Cassis" and "HEADACHE MAN", they played a total of 22 songs over a span of 3 hours.
At the end of the set it has been announced that they will be holding a fan club only tour, named "THE END OF STILLNESS" which would be starting on March 5 next year at ZEPP FUKUOKA.
Musical Style
the GazettE's musical style varies greatly, but it is generally thought of to be a form of rock music while delving into the genres of heavy metal like "Ogre" and alternative metal like "Taion" and "The Invisible Wall". Songs like "Silly God Disco" and "Swallowtail on the Death Valley" feature a funk rock sound, while songs like "LEECH", "BEFORE I DECAY", and "Hyena" feature a hard rock sound. Other songs like "Maggots", "Discharge" and "Headache Man" dwell into heavier forms of music, in particular, metalcore. the GazettE also uses a wide range of synthesized sounds during their songs, including female voices, shown in songs such as "Filth in the Beauty," and "Leech". the GazettE tends to use dropped B tuning for heavier songs and one step down tuning for their ballads.[citation needed]
Within all their heavy work, the GazettE has also produced a number of ballads, including "Nakigahara," "Guren", and "Cassis".
