Venomstrip originally formed on April 11, 2007 under the name Cinderella Knight and was made up of a strong five member line up consisting of vocalist Shou Shimizu, former lead singer of CLOUD, guitarist Junya Kume, and former members of Koichi Domoto's support band unit Mackies from 2007, bassist Kenta Komatsuzaki, drummer Kei Yamazaki, and keyboardist Jun Murayama. On June 17, 2007 they played their first one-man live at Harajuku AstroHall.
With the coming of a new year the band thought it was about time to get serious and change their name; it was officially changed to Venomstrip on January 1, 2008. The changing of their band name also triggered the changing of their stage names from their first names to their actual full names. The band was now vocalist and guitarist Shou Shimizu, guitarist Junya Kume, bassist Kenta Komatsuzaki, drummer Kei Yamazaki, and keyboardist Jun Murayama. When questioned about the change, the band replied by saying it was because they were very serious about the band and they believed it would go far.
That coming March they released their first mini-album, Venomstrip, during a special release event and live performance at Harajuku AstroHall. Since their debut album they have performed many times at venues such as Shibuya O-EAST, O-WEST and BOXX to large, sometimes sold-out crowds. As the venues become bigger, their crowds never cease to increase in number.
Along with being members of the Mackies unit, the band members also take part in many other Johnny's Entertainment support activities. Shortly after Mackies, Kei played with NEWS for their Never Ending Wonderful Story tour and, more recently, with Arashi in September of 2008. Also in 2008, Junya and Jun were members of the band that was put together to support KAT-TUN member Tatsuya Ueda's solo performance, MOUSE PEACE. The musicians of Venomstrip also play support for other bands as well. In the spring of 2009 Jun toured with LM.C as their supporting keyboardist during their first world tour.
On January 21, 2009, Venomstrip released their first single, Brand new departure, which debuted as the opening theme for the video game, "Real Rode." On March 18, 2009, they released their second mini-album titled Neverending Story. Following the new album release the band performed a short promotional tour around Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka with their final show being at Shibuya duo MUSIC EXCHANGE. Later on, in April, they released the PV for their hit song, Butterfly from their Neverending Story mini-album.
Venomstrip will be performing alongside the Underneath at Nagoya Heartland Studio on June 16, 2009.
It has only been two years since their formation, but Venomstrip has plans for bigger and better things. They've come a long way from their humble beginnings and they still have a long way to go.
