~HISTORY~
Nightmare began in January 2000 by Sakito and Hitsugi while most of the members were still in high school. Soon, Yomi was invited by Sakito, Ni~ya by Hitsugi, and Zannin joined after they heard their classmates were forming a band. They were all influenced by either X/X Japan or LUNA SEA in some form.
Just as the band began getting much 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. Their line-up hasn't changed since.
They debuted in 2003 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, it was Nightmare's busiest year. Releasing three singles (Varuna, Tokyo Shounen, and Shian) and another full album (Libido), the band once more toured around Japan. It was called TOUR CPU 2004. Their most well known live, "Tenka Daiboso" at Hibiya Yaon showed the best of Nightmare's charismatic performance to fans everywhere. From 2005-2006, Nightmare continued working hard, releasing more singles and their third full length album in 2006, anima. It was well received by fans and is still the most well known album by Nightmare to date. Their 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 " best of" album, "Gianism- Nightmare no Kuse ni Namaikidazo" on May 2006. They also released "Gianism - Omae no Mono wa Ore no Mono" and "Gianism - Ore no Mono wa Ore no Mono," a re-release of the songs they performed during their indies era in two albums a month later. 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 for the anime Death Note spanning episodes 1-19. In February 27, 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.
On 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 「このは」Leaf on October 3rd, 2007; the other titled "DIRTY," which will be out on November 7th. DIRTY will be another opening theme song to the anime Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, "Private Evil-Eye Nougami Neuro," when the series airs in October.
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 極東シンフォニー〜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 will be releasing their fifth original studio album titled "KILLER SHOW." Beginning in June, they will have a live house tour all around Japan titled after latest album.
Ni~ya was guest performing for Penicillin's new single to be released August 20th, 2008, titled, ⌈RAINBOW / SCREAMM⌋.
On September 17th, 2008, they will also be releasing another single titled "Lost in Blue". This single comes in 3 types, Type A with two tracks and a Lost in Blue PV, type B with two tracks and the Kaikou Carthasis PV. Type C is just the regular CD containing the two tracks. "Lost in Blue" will be the opening theme song to the anime adaptation of 魍魎の匣 (Mōryō no Hako) by CLAMP.
Because of the recent Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku earthquake that happened this past summer, Nightmare held a charity concert on September 26, 2008 at ZEPP Sendai. Proceeds of the concert will be donated to the victims. During their livehouse tour and arena tour ("Nightmare LIVE HOUSE TOUR 2008 killer show" and "Nightmare TOUR 2008 Grand killer show"), they set up a donation box for proceeds to the earthquake and made a quick appearance on『24時間テレビ』 ("24 Hour Television"). The proceeds totaled up to 304,048 yen. They also invited victims of the earthquake to their show in ZEPP Sendai as their guests.
On December 3, 2008, they will be releasing another single titled "NAKED LOVE." This song will be the ending theme to 魍魎の匣 (Mōryō 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 will then have another long live house 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 will be topped off by the band's second appearance at Nippon Budokan on August 29, 2009, in the PARADE TOUR FINAL "MAJESTIC".
Aside from appearing on TV shows, magazine covers, and concerts, they also have a radio program with NACK 5 called "Jack in the Box!". Yomi and Hitsugi usually host the show. However, Sakito, Ni~ya, and Ruka do pop in from time to time with the two. They also have another radio show on CBC Radio called "Hyper Nightmare," where they feature tongue twisters sent in by listeners, adult stories that can be sent in anonymously, and phone-in sessions with listeners who can make interesting sound effects.
Along with that, all the members have a monthly column in different music magazines.
- Hitsugi has his in SHOXX magazine titled 猫ふんじゃった (A Cat's Minute). It used to be called "ZOZZY" in the beginning. Its last article was in December 2008.
- Sakito's is in B-PASS magazine titled 鈍行いくの？~五十音の旅~ ("Where Will the Local Train Go? The Sound of 50 Travels") and had a free paper column called ディスクガレージ発行フリーペーパー「DI:GA」 ヴィジュアル系だって人間だもの (DISC GARAGE Issue Free Paper "DI:GA" Those Who Are Human in Visual Kei). He was a DJ for InterFM's show, UP's BEAT, every Monday night as the show has various DJs hosting every night early January 2008. Sakito will be releasing a compilation of his travel articles that are published in BPASS into a book. Pre-orders on the book started on May 13th, the same day Majestical Parade went on sale. The book goes on sale June 29, 2009.
- Ni~ya's is in Zy magazine titled "JUST FREAK OUT LET IT GO"
- Ruka's is featured in duet magazine titled 出てる！出てる！ (Coming out! Coming out!).
- Yomi's article can be found in Pati Pati titled「必殺 !! 遊び人]-> お便り募集. It debuted on September 9, 2008.
