The band is composed by: HIZUMI (vocals), Karyu (guitar), ZERO (bass) and TSUKASA (drums). All of them had already been in a group before: HIZUMI and TSUKASA were together in Le’veil, while Karyu played in DieurMind. It's not known whether ZERO was in a band before D’espairsRay, but it seems this is his first group.
D’espairsRay’s sound is always changing: from the gothic beginnings of their first visual period, to the hard rock of Coll:set, until their latest work: Mirror. They like to experiment new sounds, and what comes out of this is always a good result. The thing that makes these four guys a great band, is the fact they can mix elements of the hardest rock with sweet melodies. Lately, the visual image they used to have in the beginnings seems to be left behind, but nonetheless they keep looking “dark”, sometimes even with changes into something “brighter” (like the booklet of the single “Kogoeru yoru ni saita hana”, in which they are all dressed in white).
The group formed on September 9^th, 1999 and their first performance was on September 24^th at the Takadanobaba AREA. On December 26^th of the same year they released a demo tape, “[ao]”, limited to 60 copies, distributed for free.
The first single of D’espairsRay was released on October 2000: it was called “Kumo” and was limited to 300 copies. The fan began to increase and, on July 2001, the band released an EP, “Terrors”, and started to perform in bigger places. In 2002 an other demo tape was out: “Ura Mania Theater”, followed by a tour “Tour Mania Theater”, and by a single “Sexual Beast” again in limited edition (like many of their following releases). Another single came out in January 2003: “Itanji” contained only one song of the same title that later changed into “MaVERICK” once inserted in the homonym maxi-single released on February 12^th of the same year.The band continued publishing singles and, at the end of 2003 “Garnet” came out. It was their first work that succeded in reaching the top of the Oricon indies charts. The same single was then re-released in 2005, once the group signed with the label Universal.
The big success of “Garnet” brought the band to playing in important events like “Stylish Wave 03 Mega Force Gig” and “Beauti-Fools Festival ‘03”, organized by the popular magazine “Fools Mate”, and in which there were performances also by Merry, MUCC, Miyavi, Girugamesh and The Gazette.
2004 was a year full of events: as well as the realease of a mini-album “Born” and a single “Gemini”, they also embarked in their first European tour called “Wollust Ward dem Wurd gegeben” that saw dates in Paris and Berlin. In an interview, HIZUMI said that the name of this tour was chosen by Karyu who, not having any idea, decided to open a literature book randomly. He found that sentence written by a German poet, Fredrich Schiller (and that sentence is part of the lyrics to the “Hymn to the joy” by Beethoven).
On April 1^st, 2005 their first DVD “Murder Day” came out. It contained the third and last concert of a live trilogy: Bloody Marry Day, Furachi na toiki Day and Murder day. The show was held on September 23^rd 2004 at Tokyo LIQUIDROOM ebisu.
Finally, on June 29^th 2005, “Coll:set”, their first full length album was released. With this release, the band went to tour USA many times, performing in comic fair and in a sold out show in NYC on Halloween.
They came back in Europe, this time with a coupling tour with now disbanded Kagerou, and again they performed in Germany and France, places where their fame was always rising.
In 2006 they went back to America for the third time, for the “Global Infection Tour”, that took brought them again in NYC and in Florida “Megacon”. On March 8^th, was released their second DVD “The World Outside The Cage” which contains footage from their staying in USA. After a month their 13^th single came out, “Kogoeru yoru ni saita hana”, while on July was released their first photobook “Liquidize”: initially only sold in Japan at their lives, later on it was sold on internet and then in Europe at their lives.It contains a new song, “Closer to ideal”.
On August they were the second Japanese band performing at one of the most important metal festival, Wacken Open Air: it was a big chance for the group whose performance was really appreciated by the audience.
At the beginning of September they announced a real European tour made of 14 dates.
D’espairsRay cannot be reproached of not having many releases: at the end of 2006, like a real Christmas present, their third DVD came out: “Live Tour 2006 [LIQUIDIZE] – Yuugousuru Taion”, featuring the live held on September 9^th in which they celebrated the seventh year of the group.
Neither 2007 is a calm year for D’espairsRay. On February they were busy with 2 events: “Zy. ILLUSION’07 vol.1”, sharing the stage with DuelJewel, doremidan, R*A*P and lolita 23q, and “Indipendence METAL SHOCK ROCK DAY”, together with Merry, Girugamesh, 12012, Balzac and other non Japanese group. On March their single”Squall” is out, followed by their much anticipated second album “Mirror” and by a promotional tour throughout Japan. On May they flew to America for the "Jrock Revolution" sharing the stage with Merry, alice nine.,Vidoll, Duel Jewel, Kagrra, Miyavi, Girugamesh and MUCC. In summer they did some appearances in Europe performing in a Finnish festival and then in two oneman events: one in Spain and one in Sweden. August is the time of an almost surprise event: the band will perform with Moi dix Mois in the event “Dark Sanctuary”. September and October they kept touring in Japan but non Japanes fans were not disappointed when they knew a new DVD was to be released. Indeed, on September 5^th, just nine months after the release of their previous live DVD, “Spiral Staircase #15 Final” was out. It contains the performance at their tour final in Shibuya AX on May 13^th plus various backstage footage. 2007 ends with the "Spiral Staircase: Outflies" tour: 7 lives throughout Japan with the final held on December 30th; and 2008 begins with the annoucement of the participation of the group at the "Taste of Chaos 2008", together with MUCC and The Underneath from the Japanese music scene, and also some big acts from the Western scene: Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu and Bullet for my valentine among the others.