Kuroyume is a band that is hard to define. The best way to label them would be as an alternative rock band. Over the years they have reinvented themselves time and time again. From a gothic visual band, to moody visual pop-rock, to punk rock and a lot in between. From album to album they undergo a drastic change in sound as well as their look. Kuroyume is not a band that is easily pigeonholed into any specific genre of rock as they have always been going through one evolution after another. However the result is always awesome no matter which stage of their career you take a look at.

Kuroyume started off as an indie band called GARNET which included Kiyoharu and Hitoki. Later when the two joined with a rival band member Shin as guitarist, Kuroyume was formed. Early on Kuroyume lived up to their name (which means "black dream") playing a dark and spooky type of rock music and wearing lots of black. Kind of gothic. Early on most of the music was written by Shin who was essentially the band leader and driving force behind their sound. From the get-go the trio was a hit on the independent rock scene topping the indie charts.

After being picked up by Toshiba EMI in 1994 and becoming a major band, Kuroyume were also well recieved by a more mainstream audience. But only a year after their major debut Shin left the band and Kuroyume decided to carry on as duo (with a couple of backup musicians). With Shin out of the picture the songwriting duties shifted around and the band's style had to be rethought. Kuroyume became less and less a visual band and began gaining more pop influence. Their look also started to change from a dark visual image to one that was more light glam. And the changes worked to their advantage. The band soon became much more popular than before. Having become more a pop-rock band, their songs were less dark, but still increasingly catchy. Not to say that it didn't rock, because it still did. Some of the songs were downright heavy but most songs still focused on catchy melody which is why it's considered pop-rock. You could also detect quite a few songs with grunge and punk influences which foreshadowed their later style.

It was not long after that the visual style started to wane and they adopted a more retro look with 70's wear and hardly used makeup anymore. They had a greater use of synthesizers and the heavy punk side of their music was starting to become more pronounced too. Still their overall musical style remained pop-rock. It's around this time that I feel Kuroyume stopped being a visual band even though many fans still refer to them as one.

By the following album, the band went the other way and focused more on grungy acoustic sound and featured more aggressive punk songs. Now it was obvious that the band had become a total hard core punk band, although they never lost that Kuroyume flair for eclectic sound and catchy melody. No longer a visual group, their fashion style was now more grunge influenced slacker style.

Ever since, Kuroyume has been going all-out with their heavy punk image but play all forms of alternative rock such as ska and thrash as well as folk-rock. The look for the band has evolved somewhat into the "nasty rock star" image, but they've still kept going in the punk direction and targeting the "skater" crowd. To match that image, their lyrics have gotten increasingly graphic and sexual which has made them a bit contreversal.

The two members of Kuroyume are just awesome. Vocalist Kiyoharu's voice is so cool and he's become one of my personal favorite male singers. Kiyoharu's singing voice is among the most unique in Japanese music and is easily identified by anyone who's heard him at least once. At first listen his voice is wild and raw bringing to mind the angst and untamed rebellion of youth (cheezy way of putting it I know, but its true). However the more you listen, the more you can hear an excellent range of vocal skill and mastery of his voice. It may not be the most soothing voice, but it does sound pretty cool. He often does this quivering effect with his voice that I thought was kind of odd at first, but now I like it.

While Kiyoharu is the extroverted wild man, Hitoki is usually more sedate and quiet. Also Kiyoharu's look has changed consistently as I mentioned, but Hitoki's has always been relatively the same. The two seem like such a huge contrast but I find it only makes the band mesh better. Kuroyume is a band where the bass player is much more important than any of the others and it shows in the music. I have always loved the electric bass personally and feel that most bands don't use it to its full potential. However with Kuroyume, many of the songs are written with the bass in mind which I love to hear.

Perhaps it's just me, but I find Kuroyume is an acquired taste. I did not become much of a fan when I started to discover them. But perhaps it took me a while to warm up to them since I had preconcieved ideas of what kind of band they were supposed to be. I didn't realize that they were not a band you could label. Now I can't get enough of their music. Too bad it didn't last forever. After 8 years together, starting early 1999, Hitoki and Kiyoharu decided to split up Kuroyume. The rumors that had been circulating for a while had finally come to pass. There seemed to be no negativity about the whole thing though. They just felt it was time to move on to other things.

But the fans didn't have to morn too long though. Now Kiyoharu has a new band called SADS which will hopefully continue the tradition of great music we've all come to expect from him. From what I've heard, it still bears a very similar sound to late Kuroyume but moving away just a bit from the punk scene and going towards standard hard rock. But that's only my first impression. I'll have to wait and hear SADS' next full album to make the call.

 

Mason's Favorite Album Drug Treatment (1997/5/27) I had a hard time narrowing down which album I liked best. I've been swaying back and forth between all of their albums trying to decide which deserved my highest reccomendation. First I said I liked their pop-influenced transional album Feminism best since mood-wise I found it the most interesting (kind of reminded me of L'Arc~en~Ciel in '95). But after rethinking my decision, I changed my mind to Drug Treatment. Why? Simply because of the volume of cool songs you get. Some of my favorites like Dear Blue, Like @ Angel, Nite & Day, Spray, Mind Breaker and Let's Dance are all here. A few melodic moments like with Dear Blue and Nite & Day that harks back to their previous styles, but for the most part they've totally reinvented their style which is loads of punk rock, usually stripped down to guitars and drums only. Some hard stuff like with Bad Speed Play, Distraction and Drug People, but not as punky as their next album Corkscrew. It's more on the fun side, albeit kind of nasty. You will notice the Parental Advisory label now on the album as this is a pretty explicit album lyrically. Especially the contraversial Drive. But great, great music nevertheless. This is the Kuroyume I remember most when I look back on their career.

Kuroyume Links

Rock n' Roll Utopia
Rockin' Heaven: Kuroyume
The J-Zone: Kuroyume


Kuroyume images were taken from the Japanese Channel. A great place to find pictures, information, MIDI and MP3s of various Japanese artists. I reccomend that you check it out (after you finish reading through my site of course).