deadman was founded in 2000 by Mako, aie, and Yukino, all formerly of kein, along with Toki, formerly of Lamiel
deadman's first concert took place on January 6, 2001, and on March 20th, they played their first one-man show. Their first single, entitled Subliminal Effect, came out on April 25th. This period also marked Yukino's exit to join Gullet, his position filled by Takamasa, formerly of Lady.
In May, deadman toured with MUCC and, in November, their first album, Site of Scaffold, went on sale. In February 2002, during the <<: Deadman tell no tales :>> tour, Takamasa became an official member of the band.
From April to May, deadman toured with Blast, promoting their collaboration single, Hirusagari no Jekyll to Hyde. They also shared the stage with Jinkaku Radio and Fatima.
From June to September, they played four separate shows with four decidedly different bands: Merry, Nightmare, D'espairsRay, and Nookicky. As the leader of deadman, aie cited his reasons for wanting to perform with each of these bands. Aie had friendly ties to Nightmare, and Nookicky was a band completely unlike deadman. He thought that the pairing of deadman with Merry would be interesting for the fans, and wanted to perform with D'espairsRay since they had already played together at a larger event.
In March 2003, deadman released a second album, no alternative, and on December 28th, the band performed at Beauti Fool's fest '03. Then Mako, along with several other participating vocalist, made the cover of Fool's Mate magazine.
Their next single, Kafuka, was sold at shows in January and February 2004, and in February they once again performed with D'espairsRay.
In the early part of the year they also organized a fan club only show and released another mini-album, 701125. Deadman toured throughout April and May, and in October they released °C, a maxi-single which marked the release of the band's very first promotional video.
March 2005 witnessed the release of another single, and later, a DVD with videos for both of the songs contained on the release was sold during their concerts. In April, Takamasa suddenly decided to leave deadman, his reason being that he was moving in a new direction, possibly away from the music industry. It didn't take long for the band to find a new bassist, Kazuya joining the group in July. Before the end of the year they'd produced their second full-length album, In the direction of sunrise and night light.
deadman started 2006 by performing in Europe, their first shows outside of Japan. Unfortunately, these shows in Germany and France were some of their very last concerts. Announcing a break in activity in March, deadman went on their last tour, endroll, in May. A DVD, released in two different versions and containing performances and other footage from their last shows, was released at the end of December.
The members of deadman have remained rather quiet since, Mako making an occasional appearance as a model in Gothic & Lolita Bible and aie becoming part of a new band, the studs.
Perhaps the future will see the return of the rest of deadman's talented members to the scene or a return of deadman. Until then, fans can look forward to music from the studs and will always have the music of deadman to remind them of what an amazing group of performers it is that made up this phenomenal band.
