ISABELLE

ISABELLE was originally formed in the late '90s by AYA, who later joined Psycho le Cému, and who at that time went by the name of Naoya. During the first year of their existece they released a demo CD with the tracks Majestic and Mental Weakness as well as some other demo tapes. In 1999, however, Psycho le Cému was formed and ISABELLE ceased activities.

However, ISABELLE's history didn't remain as short as that and, after Psycho le Cému's going on hiatus, ISABELLE reformed again in June 2005. At that time, the line-up was the following: Shou on vocals, seek (ex.Psycho le Cému) on bass (first as a support bassist, but soon joining as the actual bassist), IRIKAWA KEIJI (ex.Kamikaze Boyz) and AYA (ex.Psycho le Cému) on guitars and shingo (ex.Kamikaze Boyz) on drums.

With this line-up of five members, ISABELLE released its first official release, an album called chain. 1999 in August 2005. chain. 1999 contained 8 tracks and was at that times sold only during their lives. chain. 1999 is quite heavy and a lot of the fans of Psycho le Cému were disappointed with ISABELLE, because their style was very different from that of Psycho le Cému. The band's music turned out to be a lot more straightforward and heavy and the vocalist, Shou, is nearly the opposite of DAISHI; his voice nasal and his growling vocals quite 'extraordinary'. However, even though some people were disappointed with them, ISABELLE gained a great deal of fans with their interesting style and energetic lives.

In October of 2005, ISABELLE came out with a new single called Automatic-Destruction. The single contained three tracks and the style of it was even heavier than chain. 1999's; even Shou's growling vocals had become stronger. The band continued doing lives for the rest of the year, until on the very first day of 2006, it was announced that a new member had joined them; KOUJI from SCISSOR joined as a second vocalist after SCISSOR disbanded in December 2005.

In January, the ISABELLE appeared on the Magical Band - Honmake DVD, a DVD produced by SYNECTICS, the remaining members of Psycho le Cému; seek, YuraSAMA, AYA and Lida. The Honmake DVD contained among other things the live performances of Magical BAND (the live project of the SYNECTICS members), Dacco (Lida's and YuraSAMA's band) and ISABELLE. The DVD was recorded on the 31st of December and released in January, hence the ISABELLE live doesn't yet include KOUJI. On January 29 ISABELLE also held their first oneman at Osaka Muse, which was also when their own DVD Team KZ, planned to be released in May, was recorded.

The first release recorded with KOUJI was their second album Here we go!, released on the 14th of March 2006. The album contained 10 tracks, none of which were released on the previous releases. It was a solid entity that offered music for both entertainment and stress relieving; the band's music was heavy, yet they sang about love and peace, and overall seemed to have a rather relaxed take on life and music. The album also showed that could KOUJI and Shou work together really well and neither of them was left on the background, but both took turns in singing either as the background vocalist or as the main vocalist.

Soon after the release of Here we go!, the band announced that on May 24, they would releace a new single, Shibou Suitei Jikoku, and their first DVD, Team KZ. However, as the name of the single--translated as "the estimated time of death"--indicates, ISABELLE had decided to stop activities. Their last live was a oneman on June 14, 2006.

ISABELLE was a very talented and entertaining band, who unfortunately didn't get quite the attention they deserved. When they announced they'd disband, they left a message saying that they will continue with session bands, but as of January 2007, there has only been rumours about their joining new bands. However, it looks like we'll soon get more definite information about what the members are doing, so keep an eye out for that!