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D’ESPAIRSRAY

[ARCHIVE] D’ESPAIRSRAY Band Introduction: Back into Despair!

  • D’ESPAIRSRAY, Gothic, Introduction, Metal, Rock, Sword Records, Universal Music Japan, Visual-kei
We are taking you a few years back to introduce you to one of the disbanded bands that shouldn’t be forgotten. D’ESPAIRSRAY, formed in 1999, were a class on its own. They were highly praised as a strong, individual band, toured outside of Japan for numerous times, and finally left a deep hole in their fans’ worried hearts worldwide when they had to disband under unfortunate circumstances in 2011. All band members are still active in new projects, but nevertheless: The unique sound and spirit of ›Despa‹—how they were called by their devotees—still influences people all over the world down to the present day.

Disclaimer: This is an article from 2018. D’ESPAIRSRAY have recently reunited and we are rooting for them to make a full comeback. Check them out and leave them some love when you are as excited as we are.

If you haven’t heard D’ESPAIRSRAY’s music yet, this article comes with an emphatically recommendation to give it a try! And when you are already hooked on their fabulous songs, let’s take this nostalgic ride together. It all began in the end of the 1990s—the first golden era of Visual-kei—and at the dawn of the new millennium.
Biography
D’ESPAIRSRAY were officially founded on the 9th of September, 1999, by vocalist HIZUMI, guitarist Karyu, Zero on bass, and drummer Tsukasa. From the beginning, their unique music stuck out with a heavy weighting, dark sound that did not offer that much of a ray of hope, yet the whole depth of despair.
It didn’t take them long to gather a quite notable fanb ase in Japan, yet they were still questioning themselves. In order to verify how much listeners loved their music, D’ESPAIRSRAY released the secret single Itanji in January, 2003 without disclosing their names. If the release wouldn’t be successful, the musicians decided, they would disband. Luckily, though, sales went good, the song was re-released as MaVERiCK on the EP with the same name, and D’ESPAIRSRAY continued.

They became known as being intransigent when it came to their art, which was, for example, reflected in their decision to produce the sinister song Gärnet in contrast to the request of their label to produce more melodious material. Gradually, D’ESPAIRSRAY blossomed out as one of the most notable bands connected to the Visual-kei scene, so it came with no surprise that they set the first step onto European ground with their short Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben tour in October, 2004.

Back at that time, where the international J-Rock fan scene was only forming, this move was simply groundbreaking and guaranteed the band a passionate fellowship also in the west. D’ESPAIRSRAY became a band that influenced a whole generation of Visual-kei fans and musicians internationally.

D’ESPAIRSRAY
D’ESPAIRSRAY

While the band grew bigger and bigger, they returned to Europe and went to North America for the first time in 2005. The latest with the release of their first full album, [Coll:set], they became a household name that everybody knew—no matter if this person was a fan of Japanese music or not.

With their distinctive style of music, the band offered a variety of sounds that were rare to hear—even overseas. The dark and heavy guitars, which were mainly known from Gothic Rock bands in western countries, merged with the typical beautiful clean and harsh vocal combination of Visual-kei were something unknown and new to many people. Opening their dark and dim style of music for more lighter and even popish sounds, D’ESPAIRSRAY were able to fill a big gap between different genres very fast and vividly, making their mainly sold out concerts to one hell of a gathering and party.

D’ESPAIRSRAY became a band like no other. Rocking stages all over the world—even at the famous Wacken Open Air festival—, gathering people from different ages, movements, and places all around the globe, and striking down borders, they were held in high esteem for many years. But sadly, the band’s zenith was about to come to an end when HIZUMI’s voice started to sound different and weak.
Over the time span from 2009 to 2011, the problems with his vocals became more severe, so the band was forced to go on hiatus after their World Tour 2010 “Human-clad Monsters” tour final for the album that was about to become their last: MONSTERS. After several attempts to cure the problems with his throat and his voice, HIZUMI and the others announced the disbandment of D’ESPAIRSRAY in June 2011, which set a wave of sadness through the ocean of people for whom the band had been an important part of life.
Gladly, thought, this didn’t mean the end of all activities by the band members. While Zero and Tsukasa formed THE MICRO HEAD 4N’S together with other musicians and Tsukasa finally fulfilled his dream to become an Enka vocalist under the name Mogamigawa Tsukasa, Karyu became a member of another pretty well known band: ANGELO. Even HIZUMI still remains active, not as a musician, though, but with his design brand UMBRELLA.
Recommendations
In order to paint a full picture of D’ESPAIRSRAY, we would recommend you to listen to the early EP BORN, with which the band had settled for their unique sound and introduced themselves to the west, the outstanding first full album [Coll:set] as well as Monsters, which initiated the end of D’ESPAIRSRAY’s career.
BORN from 2004 features five tracks full of eerie and sinister power and became a turning point for the band. It manifested the band’s solid qualities and allowed them to go overseas. Next to the new songs BORN and quarter void, the EP contains three re-recorded tracks from previous releases, of which Marry of the blood is the most surprising since it features a violin intro by no one else than LUNA SEA’s celebrated guitarist and violinist SUGIZO—D’ESPAIRSRAY were knighted.

The last of four studio albums, MONSTERS from 2010, reflects the state of when HIZUMI, Karyu, Zero, and Tsukasa had to bring their beloved D’ESPAIRSRAY to an end, but also gives a hint to what the future could have brought if they would have been able to continue.

While the band had developed a lighter and a less sinister sound with previous releases, MONSTERS turned back to the roots and was filled with a dark atmosphere that connected the modern skills and sounds of D’ESPAIRSRAY with their old, mysterious, and dim spirit. But it also offers the danceable and popish LOVE IS DEAD, that sprung out of partying overseas, where the 80s song You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) from Dead or Alive had found a late revival. So, who knows what else could have happened?

Conclusion
Yet, what if questions don’t lead us anywhere. D’ESPAIRSRAY remains a remarkable and unique band, that connected genres and gathered people from several scenes and places with a sound that has no equal. It is important not to cling to the past, but with a band like this, there is also another option to letting them go: No matter if it’s the first time you hear of them or you just read this article to dive into a river of nostalgia: Listen to D’ESPAIRSRAY as loud and as long as you can and want to keep this band alive, that is still loved by the band members as well as so many fans all over the world. As long as their music is played, this love isn’t dead.

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Disclaimer: This is an old piece from our archive, published in 2018 and co-written by Vincent Meißner and Wanda Proft. The band has reunited since and we are excited to be able to follow their activities as D’ESPAIRSRAY once again.

Picture of Vincent Meißner

Vincent Meißner

Vincent is our library when it comes to most things related to music. He’s always open for new musical input and loves the unconventional as much as he enjoys well-made conventional music. He is writing for EN.CORE ROCKS and recommends fantastic releases through his project VA’s Record Radar!