La'cryma Christi (Latin for "The Tears of Christ") was a Japanese visual keirock band originally active from 1991 to 2007. At their peak, they were considered one of "the big four of visual kei" alongside Fanatic Crisis, Malice Mizer and Shazna.[1] They reunited for a concert in 2009 at the V-Rock Festival, for their short reunion tour in 2010, and for a 15th anniversary tour in 2012.
The band was originally formed in 1991 under the name of Strippe-D Lady by vocalist and leader Taka with his college friend and neighbor, Hiro. The two friends held a small audition in Kansai to find new talent for the band. They recruited bassist Kita-J and drummer Sima-Chan, although Sima-Chan was later replaced by Levin, who invited his high school friend, Koji, to join the band as the second guitarist. This Osaka based band played hard rock and heavy metal during this time period. In October 1994, Kita-J decided to leave the band and was replaced by Jun and later Shuse, who had played in the same band as Taka in the past.
After this the band changed their name to La'cryma Christi before releasing their first single, "Siam's Eye", on a local indies label in 1994. The band moved to Tokyo in 1996, releasing their first mini album, Warm Snow, which sold 15,000 copies. In 1997 they signed with a major label and debuted with "Ivory Trees". The album Dwellers of Sand Castle was named one of the top albums from 1989-1998 in a 2004 issue of the music magazine Band Yarouze.[2] Their single『Mirai Kōro』was used as the ending for the animeNightwalker: The Midnight Detective and reached No. 3 on the Oricon singles chart.[3]
They founded their own label, Majestic Ring, in 2003. Koji left the band after a gig on March 21, 2005, and in September 2006 the band announced that they would officially disband in January 2007.
Koji formed ALvino in 2006, with former Pierrot member Jun. Taka and Hiro formed the band Libraian in 2007. In 2009, Hiro became a support guitarist for Creature Creature, the solo project of Morrie from Dead End. He also contributes compositions to the band, including "Dream Caller", the lead track of their 2009 album Inferno. Levin played with several artists including Toshi with T-Earth, while Shuse played with acts such as Acid Black Cherry and 44Magnum, and in 2010 formed †яi¢к.
La'cryma Christi, including Koji, reunited for one night at the V-Rock Festival on October 21, 2009.[4] There they announced their reunion tour, La'cryma Christi Resurrection ~Final Prayer~, which started on January 12, 2010 and ended on February 1.[5]
La'cryma Christi's song "With-You" was covered by Daizystripper on the compilation Crush! -90's V-Rock Best Hit Cover Songs-, which was released on January 26, 2011 and features current visual kei bands covering songs from bands that were important to the '90s visual kei movement.[6] Their song『Mirai Kōro』was covered by Blu-Billion on its sequel, Crush! 2 -90's V-Rock Best Hit Cover Songs-, that released on November 23, 2011.[7]
In 2012, La'cryma Christi performed a 15th anniversary tour from May 8 to July 29.[8] At the final show, another concert was announced for September 30 at Shibuya-AX.[9]
