Kill=slayd - Alest (1993)

"Death 13", 1993.


Kill=slayd formed in 1991. In December of 1992, the group released its first demo, "Artistic+Suicide", which fell into obscurity. In February of 1993, Kill=slayd released their second demo, "Fragmentry Clues", which also failed to really sell that well. Around this time, original drummer Akira left, and was soon replaced by Tsutomu. Despite their lackluster success at his point, Kill=slayd continued onward, and that July, the group appeared on the "Latent Subliminal Drive (LSD)" omnibus. In October of 1993, Kill=slayd released their first mini-album, "Death 13", which was their first groundbreaking moment in the visual underground, and it nearly sold out its 2000 copy pressing. Kill=slayd continued to tour throughout most of 1994, but didn't release anything that year, except for appearing on the "An Optic" omnibus that February. In March of 1995, Kill=slayd returned with the release of their second mini-album, "Peripheral", which sold extremely well for the band. 1996 would be perhaps the group's most silent year, as Tsutomo left the lineup, and was eventually replaced by Kazushi. Kill=slayd's visual image was also extremely toned down by the end of the year. In June of 1997, the reborn Kill=slayd returned with the release of their first full length album, "Heat", which also signified a major change in their sound, as it had a more new wave/pop rock style to it, versus their original gothic post-punk sound. Because of their various changes, the new Kill=slayd heavily divided their original following, but the group maintained one of the strongest followings in the late 90's indies visual scene. That July, Kill=slayd released their third mini-album, "Undertaker", and also released their first single, "Hageshiku Tsuyoku Kowareru Hodo ni (激しく強く壊れるほどに)", later that month as well. In November of 1997, Kill=slayd released their fourth mini-album, "Krank", and by the end of the year, increased their already decent-sized following immensely. In January of 1998, the group released their second single, "Krank ~Jet the Phantom Mix~", and later released their third single, "Masquerade", that March. In July of 1998, Kill=slayd released their second full length album, "Higher", and were indeed riding on top of the visual underground during this period. Despite their huge underground visual popularity, Kill=slayd sadly decided to split later in 1998. Bassist Jun≒Na went on to form the legendary visual duo, Quasar, for which Kazushi and Kill=slayd frontman Toki were both support members of, with Toki playing support guitar. When Quasar also split by 1999, Kazushi retired from the visual scene. Toki and Jun≒Na remained active in the visual underground, however, with Toki forming the indies band Stealth. Jun≒Na joined the legendary indies band AlteMissioN, which were active until 2002. After AlteMissioN split, Jun≒Na joined one last indies band, Denial, which also disintegrated by 2005. After Denial split, Jun≒Na retired from the visual scene. As for Toki, Stealth remained active until 2005, and Toki then joined the well known visual band C4, which formed in 2007. In 2010, Toki also revived Stealth, and is currently fronting both Stealth and C4.