Until their disbandment in August 2011, D'espairsRay was one of the first visual kei bands to greet their overseas fans, and returned to both Europe and North America multiple times, much to the delight of their international audience.
Formed in September of 1999, with HIZUMI on vocals, Karyu on guitar, ZERO on bass, and TSUKASA on drums, D'espairsRay made an immediate impression on the visual kei scene. After a slew of demo tapes and multiband events, including their first live at the Takadanobaba AREA, the group released their first maxi-single, Kumo, at the tail end of 2000. The new year then brought fans a second maxi-single as well as the band's first mini-album, TERRORS. Roughly a month after its release, the band traveled back to the live hall where they'd had their start for their first one-man.
D'espairsRay spent much of the next two years touring, which included a special, free show at the Meguro Live Station in Tokyo. The year 2003 also brought fans two new maxi-singles: MaVERiCK and Garnet, both fan favorites and now thought of as some of their best work to date. At the end of the year, they took part in the event Beauti-Fool's Fest '03 alongside other bands such as Merry and MUCC.
Like the years before it, 2004 found D'espairsRay mostly on the road or on the stage. Surprisingly, and to the great pleasure of their international fans, not all of those stages were located in Japan as the band set their sights on Europe with D'espairsRay Europe Tour 2004 -Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben- that took place near the end of the year.
Nearly six years after they had started, D'espairsRay released their first full album, Coll:set, in 2005. That year, they returned to Europe for a coupling tour with Kagerou, but not before dropping in on their American fans with performances at a handful of conventions. All of these lives were very successful and so the band returned to the USA once more for a short tour in 2006, in addition to releasing their second live DVD, LIQUIDIZE.
The year 2007 brought with it the maxi-single Squall and their second full album, the highly anticipated MIRROR, which was also released in the USA, as well as news of more tour dates. American fans of the band were delighted to see a stop on their shores included among them, as D'espairsRay performed on the second day of the J-Rock Revolution Festival held in Los Angeles.
In 2008, D'espairsRay had the opportunity to perform throughout the USA with the Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour, alongside fellow Japanese artists MUCC and the Underneath. Just over a year after their second album, they released their single BRILLANT, which was followed by the maxi-singles KAMIKAZE and HORIZON. On the 4th of May, they played beside many fellow indie bands at the hide Memorial Summit in Tokyo for the memorial of the late guitarist of X JAPAN.
With a fan base that stretches across the globe, D'espairsRay was set to make 2009 a remarkable year with the release of REDEEMER at the beginning of March, and their PSYCHEDELIC PARADE IN EUROPE tour running a circuit through Spain, France, the UK, Germany, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Poland and ending once again in Germany. The extra date in Berlin on the 28th was added to thank fans for the two sold out concerts in Germany.
Immediately after touring Europe, they flew back to Japan to begin their Japan wide tour, D'espairsRay Summer Tour 2009, which kept them busy until the end of August. To top off their year, D’espairsRay released their first major maxi-single, FINAL CALL, which was produced by abingdon boys school’s keyboardist and programmer Toshiyuki Kishi, and released on the 9th of September in celebration of their 10th anniversary. They also held a special anniversary concert in Tokyo at the beginning of October, which was recorded and would later be released on DVD. Until the end of the year, they participated in V ROCK FESTIVAL and held several more one-man lives. Then, in the midst of December, their first best-of album was released along with the live recording of their anniversary concert in October.
D'espairsRay kicked off the year 2010 with new maxi-single and album recordings. These were only interrupted by a few lives: MEGA PORT MUSIC FESTIVAL alongside MUCC in Taiwan in March, and their two day live LIVE SHOW CASE "LOVE IS DEAD" in April. By the end of August, they had launched their first large world tour, Human-clad Monsters, which led them through Japan, the US, Europe and Taiwan. Their album MONSTERS was released just in time for the start of the tour. However, the band went on hiatus after the conclusion of the tour on the 30th of December, due to vocalist HIZUMI's medical treatment.
Despite the hiatus, D'espairsRay released another best-of album titled antique in April 2011, as well as their last live DVD of the tour final of their world tour. However, all plans of a comeback were totally destroyed on the 15th of June when D'espairsRay announced they would be disbanding. They explained HIZUMI's recovering process was going to take far longer than expected, and so had decided to disband. Since there was no chance of a musical farewell tour, the four musicians held the meet and greet tour Sen wo souru ari no gyouretsu Tour ~THE FINAL~ for their [un]Beautiful fan club members on the 9th and 10th of August instead.
Soon after, Karyu joined Angelo, HIZUMI fully focused on his design project UMBRELLA, and ZERO and TSUKASA became members of the 2011 formed visual kei band THE MICRO HEAD 4N'S.
After three years of calm, a very unexpected announcement was made in May 2014. D'espairsRay confirmed their participation at -Angelo Presents- THE INTERSECTION OF DOGMA on July 29th. The quartet performed alongside Angelo, lynch., FAKE? and RIZE. Furthermore, D'espairsRay used this event to commemorate their 15th anniversary. Currently it is unknown whether this reunion was a one-off event, or the beginning of a possible comeback.
