9 Goats Black Out ~ Profile & History

9 Goats Black Out is an alternative rock band with a unique and gloomy sound, that formed in late 2007 in Tokyo, Japan. The band is made up of ryo (vocals), uta (guitar), hati (bass), and a support member- akaya (manipulate). Even though relatively new, they are already being recognized as one of the most famous nagoya kei (A subgenre of visual kei) bands, and during their hiatus, they performed in secret lives under the name Baphomet.

Profile

The band started, when at the end of 2007, ryo (ex- GULLET ) decided that it was time to return to the music scene after being away from it for almost four years, and united with hati and utA (both ex-Rayarch) to form a new band- 9GOATS BLACK OUT, and made an independent label dalli.

9GOATS BLACK OUT didn’t take long to release something, and their first album, devils in bedside, was released on January 25. The first press was already completely sold out many weeks before its official release date. As a result, the band announced a second press, which was also available for purchase for international buyers on their official website, unlike the first press. Shortly after the release of the album, 9GOATS BLACK OUT opened their myspace , which assisted in heightening their popularity overseas.

In August, the band launched their first tour, Live In Beauty, which spanned until the end of 2008. September marked the release of their first single, Sleeping Beauty . They then embarked on another tour, and played two two-man performances, with Dummy’s Corporation and with NightingeiL.

Origin of the name

When the singer of the band, Ryo, was asked about the meaning of their band's name he asserted that the name was chosen from the one he usually uses for other bands design works such as D'espairsRay and Lynch. Formed with "9" and "Goats" as an allusion to his birthday (January 19) and his zodiac sign (Capricorn) adding the words "Black" "Out" to complete it.

History

The band was formed in 2007. After the breakup of the band Gullet in 2004, Ryo focused on his design work being away from music activities for three years. Without any expectation of making a new band, guitarist Uta and Bassist Hati asked him to work with them. In the first interview with the band on JaME, Hati explains the beginning of the band as follows:

"We knew that Ryo did jacket designs and art work, and we thought his designs were very cool. So we asked him to design our album jacket, which was really the beginning of our communication with him. We didn't think about working together with him in a band at that time. After that our band disbanded, and we came to Tokyo saying "we'll do a band in Tokyo."

After accepting his proposition, the band began working together in Tokyo. In December 2007 they created the independent record label Dalli and started their official website. They finished recording their first album, Devils in Bedside. Due to the increasing number of orders, they made more copies of the album after its release. In September of that year, the band released their first single "Sleeping Beauty", which reached 161 on the Oricon singles chart. They then played two more individual concerts and begin their tour in Autumn. In 2008 they performed with the band Sugar and released the mini-album Black Rain. 9Goats Black Out made two more nationwide tours performing in Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo under the names of "Howlingbird at the Hell" and "Bright Garden", the last one giving its name to their next release, a DVD. One year later, they began recording their first full album, Tanatos (as an allusion to death); which was later released in March.

Hiatus and band's present

In Spring of 2010, the band officially announced hiatus after the decision of their support member Aki leaving the band. After taking that decision the band continued performing at various concerts with different bands under the name "Baphomet" playing 9Goats Black Out songs with the addition of Hiroshi Sasabuchi (ex-Plastic Tree, Cuckoo) on drums.

January of 2011 marked the return of the band with a new tour titled "Melancholy Pool". They started by the end of April a coupling tour “Inu no Atama to Kuroyagi Suupu” (Dog Head's and Black Goat's Soup) with the hard rock band Inugami Circus-dan. In the middle of the same year, and still on tour, they released a new DVD with one of their performances in January at Shibuya O-West. By that time Takumi was announced as the new support drummer.

9Goats Black Out covered Buck-Tick's song "Speed" for the compilation Crush! 2 -90's V-Rock Best Hit Cover Songs-, which was released on November 23, 2011 and features current visual kei bands covering songs from bands that were important to the '90s visual kei movement..

The band plans to continue on tour through 2012 participating with other musicians. In January doing a coupling tour with Amber Gris, and during February and March with Moran and Dolly.

Next single will release in February 14, 2012 with title “Kartel”.

Members

Ryo – vocals (ex-D'elsquel, ex-Galruda, ex-Gullet)

Uta – guitar (ex-Laypua, ex-Layarch, ex-Rayarch)

Hati – bass (ex-Laypua, ex-Luberie, ex-Rayarch)

Support members

Akaya – keyboard and manipulation

Takumi – drums (2011–present, ex-Virgil)

Former support members

Aki – drums (2007–2010, ex-Sin, ex-Gullet, ex-Clozet)

Discography

Albums

Devils in Bedside (30 April 2008)

Black Rain (14 February 2009)

Tanatos (24 March 2010)

Singles

"Sleeping Beauty" (9 September 2008)

"Rorschach Inkblot" (10 August 2011)

"Draw" (9 November 2011)

“Karte” (14 Februari 2012 )

DVDs

Bright Garden (25 July 2009)

Melancholy Pool (23 April 2011)

*Source: Wikipedia, Last Fm