Moi Dix Mois

Biography and pictures from http://moidixmois.altervista.org/


Mana, one of the most influential artist of the Visual Kei movement founded the cult band Malice Mizer in 1992, with the guitarist Közi. During their ten years-career Malice Mizer make themselves known as a unique and influential band in japanese gothic rock scene, inventing and introducing in the Visual scene original ideas both in the music/composition and in costumes image, melting baroque and neoclassical refined influences with a gothic rock base.
The 11th December 2001, Klaha, Mana, Közi and Yu~ki decided together to suspend the band activities (and put it on hiatus) to focus on their individual projects.


Just after a few months, Mana is ready to reveal the details of his project. On March 19, date of his birthday, he announces the foundation of his new band, Moi dix Mois. For some months the identity of the other unknown members remains secret. In the photo sessions the other two members wears a white mask with the word "dix" carved on the forehead.
On July 31 Mana organizes at Shibuya the event "Dis inferno", in which partecipates Schwarz Stein, an industrial due produced by Mana with his label Midi:Nette.
At last Mana take off the masks from the other two members of Moi dix Mois, introducing the infernal trio: Mana on guitar, Juka on vocals and Kazuno on bass. They have also a support drummer, Tohru, who isn't a official member of the band.

In 2002 Moi dix Mois start their first national tour "forbidden", through Japan, and 19th November release their first single, Dialogue Symphonie, whereas for the first full album we have to wait the birthday of Mana, and on 19th March 2003 the Dix infernal album comes out.

After an awesome opening concert at Akasaka BLITZ, start the national Tour 2003 Dix infernal, whose final gig, at Shibuya AX on September 27, is recorded and released as a gorgeous live DVD Dix infernal ~Scars of Sabbath~.
Last year event is Dis inferno vol.II, an evening full of shows and guests (such as Kamijo and Mayu from Lareine), where finally Moi dix Mois and Schwarz Stein perform together of the same stage.
We have to wait Mana's birthday (19th March) to learn something about Moi dix Mois plans: at his party/concert (Heretic's Assembly I Night), Mana announces the release of a new single followed by a new full-album.

On May 31 the second single Shadows Temple comes out, Tohru becomes ufficiale official drummer, and in CD credits appears the name of Shadow X, on death voice (probably he is no one than Mana himself).
The second Moi dix Mois full album Nocturnal Opera comes out the 20th July 2004.
Moreover, on July 11 Mana comes to an event in Europe for the first time, he partecipate as a special guest at Japan Expo in Parigi.
There's also another good news for western fans of the band: the official fanclub, Mon†amour, opens the division Mon†amour International allowing fans from all over the world to join and receive the special fanclub issues.
Besides Moi-même-Moitié, the gothic fashion label owned by Mana, organizes to sell online its products worldwide, through CD-Japan.

The 6th October 2004 the third Moi dix Mois single, Pageant, is released. Meanwhile on November 8th Moi-même-Moitié publish the fashion catalogue/photobook Magnifique, interely shooted in Francia.

The 15th Dicembre a new concert is held, Dis inferno Vol.III, the setlist of the event is similar to the previous edition, but there are new things about Moi dix Mois: a new member was added to the band, guitarist K, doing also some growling/screaming vocals. For that event the band consisted also of a third support guitarist, Jun, a temporariry presence, in fact he will not partecipate to the future activities of the band.

The 27th of February 2005 there's another concert reserved to Fanclub members, Heretic's Assembly II Night, in which Moi dix Mois announced their Tour 2005, Invite to Immorality, this time including two european dates. The band achieve a great success at the sold out gig in Paris, at La Locomotive, Monday 28th March, while they do very well also in Munich, at the Georg Elser Halle, Saturday 26th.
A third date of the Tour the 24th of April 2005, the last date, is on the other hand a new concert in Japan, at the infamous Shibuya-AX.
Sadly, for the final concert of the Tour, vocalist Juka decides to quit the band, for artistic reason. Mana says that he will continue activities, trying to experiment something new.

The 27th July finally a new live DVD from Moi dix Mois is released, concerning the Europe Tour 2005, Invite to Immorality.
The DVD comes out in two editions, a limited one including 2 DVD and some extra, and a regular one with one disc only.

The 2nd December a special edition / double CD set of the Nocturnal Opera album is released in Europe (contains also the 3 singles and 2 live video from Tour 2005). The album is produced by the german mainstream label Trisol (that produces also a lot of famous western gothic bands).

In December 2005 Mana recruits a new vocalist for Moi dix Mois, but in the meantime former bassist Kazuno and drummer Tohru left the band.

The new album (EP) Beyond the Gate, is released the 1st of March 2006, simultaneously released in Japan (by Midi:Nette) and in Europe (by the german label Gan Shin). It features the new vocalist Seth. The 11th March the reborn Moi dix Mois 2006 perform at LIQUID ROOM in Shibuya with this lineup: Seth on vocals, Mana on guitar, K on guitar&voice, Sugiya on bass and Hayato on drums.
Moi dix Mois start the European Tour for the new album in two dates: March 17th in Paris, France and March 19th in Berlin, Germany. They perform at the tour final gig at Shibuya AX the 2nd of May.

Lacrimosa

Biography and picture from http://www.lacrimosa.ch/

In November 1990 the swiss music scene started to get curious about Tilo Wolff's Projekt LACRIMOSA as his music in form of a tape "Clamor" reached the people of the underground scene. This melancholic music filled with classical elements, surrounding poectic lyrics and topped by a emotional voice was something which fascinated many and quickly a scene was raising up, which was nearly already forgotten.

For his first release, the LP "Angst", Tilo Wolff found his own label HALL OF SERMON for giving LACRIMOSA the entire artistical freedom. The music of LACRIMOSA was already that time developing from album to album without adapting any other music styles or denying it's roots. Through this progressive development, LACRIMOSA was challenging the tolerance of a widespread audience in the diverse facetts of music-lovers around the world.


LACRIMOSA's music had been coloured by several guest musicians, but in the beginning of 1994, Anne Nurmi joined the former soloproject to become a permanent member. Anne Nurmi, who was the keyboarder, singer and one of the grounders of the finnish band TWO WITHCES, was setting new musical accents with her singing and composing.

The following releases were managing to combine the roughness of Metal and Gothic Rock, without loosing the most obvious love for classical music. With this revolutionary sound, LACRIMOSA was pioneer and obstetrician for musicstyles like Gothic Metal and Symphonic Metal, which both became a hugh trend!

After the collaboration with the world-wide known LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, top 20 positions in the German and Polish music-charts, sold-out shows in Europe, Middle- and South America, on May the 2nd 2005, just on time for their 15th anniversay, the new studio album "Lichtgestalt" (luminous figure) got released! With its musical variety, its full expression and its sympathetic production this masterpiece set new standards in the history of Dark Rock Music and highlights a remarkable career up to then!

After the release of this album LACRIMOSA went on an extensive tour that reached from Europe through America to Asia. After returning from their so far biggest tour in 2007 the two-hours double-CD "Lichtjahre" (Lightyears) and the three-hours DVD of the same name got released, which offers deep impressions in the life on tour of a band, that moves and delights the audience of different cultures on different parts of this world in the same way.

Since the beginning of 2008 LACRIMOSA are back in the studio to work on their 10th studio-album.

Cradle of Filth

Biography from http://www.cradleoffilth.com/
Photos downloaded from the Internet


These are heady days for those of us who wear our devotion to metal like a badge of honour. The deafening beast of the dark depths has lived to roar and rampage again and the scene has never been in a happier or healthier state. But don’t be deceived. Metal never really went away. In fact, its current fortitude stems entirely from the bands that never surrendered; those brave, liquor-soaked men whose total disregard for the vagaries of fashion and finance kept them glued to the grindstone through metal’s mainstream wilderness years. Now, as seems wholly fitting, the greatest of these are finally reaping their rewards and hitting new creative peaks as they surge unstoppably onwards and upwards. And, as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in 2006.

Just as the gravel-lined, turd-stained streets of urban England gave heavy metal to the world back in the late ‘60s, so that small country with the big voice continues to be the place where the world’s finest dark metal band rest their weary, alcohol-ravaged heads after another sonic killing spree. Love them, hate them or both, Cradle Of Filth is back again to fondle you while slitting your throat. Thornography has arrived.

Recorded at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, England, with renowned metallic production genius Rob Caggiano (Anthrax, Bleeding Through) and mixed by Andy Sneap (Killswitch Engage, Arch Enemy,Trivium) at Backstage Studios, Derbyshire, Thornography is the band’s seventh full-length studio album and their second for Roadrunner. The follow-up to 2004’s widely acclaimed meisterwerk Nymphetamine it’s a scintillating and terrifying collision between the familiar and the unexpected. It’s the dark, destructive and unsettling sound of a globe-conquering heavy metal band at the height of their sick, twisted powers, and the continuation of a proud, priapic and unhinged legacy that stretches back nigh on 15 years.

When Cradle Of Filth released their now legendary debut album, The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh back in 1994, the notoriety surrounding the Black Metal scene – and its spiritual epicentre in Oslo, Norway, in particular – was reaching fever pitch throughout Europe. These legions of the damned and disgusted took metal further into the abyss than it had ever been before, stripping away its worldly concerns and reducing it to a pure and chilling core of impenetrable black menace. Cradle Of Filth were undoubtedly inspired by this sea-change in metal’s ongoing evolution, they had their own plans for disseminating their own distinct, gothically-erotic propaganda and swiftly defined their own left hand path. Their disdain for playing by the rules was startling in its intensity from the very start.

Throughout the ‘90s, Cradle of Filth – led by vocalist, lyricist and crypt-crawling master of ceremonies Dani Filth – beavered tirelessly away, producing a series of peerless extreme metal classics that drew from an endless, dizzying array of inspirations and influences while always maintaining that instantly recognisable heart of filthy darkness. The brutal and brief Vempire mini-album and the lustrous, lascivious Dusk & Her Embrace (both 1996) began to reveal the band’s great sonic range. Later taking into account the slithering concept piece Cruelty & The Beast (1998) and the Clive Barker-inspired Midian (2000) – not to mention their excursions into the visual realm of film and promo– the Cradle Of Filth sound showed itself to be a many-headed creature. It was one that took delight in confounding both the purists and the critics who continually assailed the band’s motives and creativity even as their fan base expanded and their status soared. With a line-up that seemed to be constantly changing – thanks, perhaps, to the cobweb-encrusted revolving door that rumours suggest marked the entrance to the band’s rehearsal space during this period – the music was never allowed to stagnate; fresh blood and its revitalising effects remained a permanent weapon in the boys’ macabre arsenal.

As the 21st century dawned, Cradle Of Filth unleashed the epic, ambitious Damnation And A Day - a sprawling, theatrical masterpiece that has yet to be truly recognised for either its semantic depth or its thrilling levels of metallic artistry. Quietly walking away from a fractious partnership with their previous label, the band eventually found a logical home with Roadrunner Records. It was a match made in hell that spawned what was, until now, almost certainly the strongest collection of songs in the Cradle canon, the mighty Nymphetamine. Wildly varied and as heavy as anything the band had ever recorded, it was widely hailed as a triumph and led to yet more gruelling treks around the world, where their rabid fan base lurks in every shadowy corner waiting for their latest fix of barbaric drama and blood-soaked belligerence.

And so to 2006, where Cradle Of Filth find themselves in the enviable position of being in a league and class of their own. Having long since outstripped the achievements of their one-time contemporaries, the band are now firmly entrenched in a rich vein of form. The current line-up of Dani Filth, guitarists Paul Allender and Charles Hedger, bassist Dave Pybus and drummer Adrian Erlandsson is the most solid and powerful in the band’s career and Thornography is the resounding, conclusive proof. With songs as brutish, bombastic and diverse as “Libertina Grimm,” “Tonight In Flames,” “Cemetery & Sundown,” “I Am The Thorn,” “The Byronic Man” (featuring HIM’s Ville Valo on guest vocals) and a deranged cover of Heaven 17’s ‘80s pop gem “Temptation,” the world’s biggest and best extreme metal band have never sounded so exhilarating, so vital, so venomous…

“There are a lot of characters on this album,” says Dani Filth of the new opus. “There’s no central concept. It’s more along the lines of Nymphetamine in respect of diversity of content, both lyrically and musically. We spent the whole summer of 2005 working really hard on writing the material and making sure it was the best of songs we’ve ever written. Which undoubtedly it is. It’s obviously our best material thus far. It’s far more rhythmic and catchy and easily the heaviest thing we’ve done, especially on the production side of things. And there’s a real retro feel to the record, in terms of style. It’s slightly experimental for us and a lot of people will be surprised I think at the level of diversity we've managed to achieve with this, especially having worked with other musicians and having our first band instrumental included (Rise Of The Pentagram). We started to write and got into a habit of coming up with tons of stuff. Everyone would be working on ideas and we’d pool it all together in the dank confines of our rehearsal room. We kept stirring the cauldron and adding or subtracting accordingly. Thus each song has its own sound and feel in relation to the concept behind each track. And as per normal, it's all in good taste!
For example, Libertina Grimm, (which concerns itself with a haughty little vivisectrix and her dissonant life of crime) meanders through a succession of twists and turns as if to mimic her dark, labyrinthine obsessions with the dead, before finding foothold with a real primal, sex-laden hook. She might be mad, but before all else she's groovy!"

Louder, harder, faster, heavier, darker, catchier - the unstoppable force that is Cradle Of Filth slithers menacingly forward, crushing the opposition and striking warped, blackened glee into the hearts of misanthropes and malevolents the world over. The nightmare continues…may we never wake up!

Nymphetamine by Cradle of Filth (From OST - Resident Evil: Apocalypse)

Laid to the river
Midsummer, I waved
A "V" of black swans
On with hope to the grave
And though Red September
With skies fire-paved
I begged you appear
Like a thorn for the holy ones

Cold was my soul
Untold was the pain
I faced when you left me
A rose in the rain....
So I swore to the razor
That never, enchained
Would your dark nails of faith
Be pushed through my veins again

Bared on your tomb
I'm a prayer for your loneliness
And would you ever soon
Come above onto me?
For once upon a time
On the binds of your loneliness
I could always find the slot for your sacred key

Six feet deep is the incision
In my heart, that barless prison
Discoulours all with tunnel vision

Sunsetter...
Nymphetamine

Sick and weak from my condition
This lust, this vampyric addiction
To Her alone in full submission

None better...
Nymphetamine

Nymphetamine, Nymphetamine...
Nymphetamine girl.

Nymphetamine, Nymphetamine...
My Nymphetamine girl.

Wicked with your charm
I'm circled like prey
Back in the forest
Were whispers persuade
More sugar trails
More white lady laid
Than pillars of salt...
(keeping Sodom at at bay)

Fold to my arms
Hold their message away
And dance out to the moon
As we did in those golden days

Christening stars
I remember the way
We were needle and spoon
Mislaid in the burning hay

Bared on your tomb
I'm a prayer for your loneliness
And would you ever soon
Come above onto me?
For once upon a time
On the binds of your loneliness
I could always find the right slot for your sacred key

Six feet deep is the incision
In my heart, that barless prison
Discoulours all with tunnel vision

Sunsetter...
Nymphetamine

Sick and weak from my condition
This lust, this vampyric addiction
To Her alone in full submission

None better...
Nymphetamine

Nymphetamine, Nymphetamine...
Nymphetamine girl.

Nymphetamine, Nymphetamine...
My Nymphetamine girl.

The Better Vampire Author

Today there are two vampire authors who seem to touch the youth much: Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer.



Anne Rice was known as the genius behind The Vampire Chronicles, New Tales of a Vampire, among others. Youth admire her because her literature is about the vampires in a point of view of a vampire, though some contradict her because they say that her works are too dark especially to the minds of the young readers. Another big thing which made her vampire books famous are her arguments in those books which are based from facts as she had said. Everything she wrote was based on her life experience, especially the things which happened during the times of darkness in her life.



On the other hand, Stephenie Meyer is the genius behind the bestselling Twilight Saga. Right now, most students read her works and are touched because of a thriller amidst a love affair with a vampire and other dark creatures told about by a human; however, she has now started the vampire version of her novels. Compared to Anne, she writes more about dreams.

Now, fellow goths, it is up for you to decide which of the two is the better vampire author. Anne Rice or Stephenie Meyer?