KIZU Rings in the New Year with the Return of HANGEKI

Fans of visual kei band KIZU are likely familiar with their YouTube video series "ICHIGEKI", where vocalist LiME performs one take only covers of various KIZU songs live in a studio with guest vocalists. In 2023, to celebrate the New Year, the project unveiled a “spin-off” series called "HANGEKI" where the two vocalists perform a song from the guest's catalogue instead.

This year, "HANGEKI" returned with three new guests. The videos were released over three days, beginning on January 2nd, as the first was postponed due to the earthquake that hit Japan on New Year’s Day.

The first guest was Royz vocalist Subaru. He and LiME performed Kuro ageha, a song featured on Royz’s second maxi single AREA, which was released back in 2010. The song was also re-recorded for their best-of album Royz THE BEST 2009-2019.


The second was MERRY frontman Gara, who also took part in the first season of "ICHIGEKI", covering KIZU’s Juukyuu. This time, he and LiME covered Chiyoda-sen Democracy, a song from MERRY’s 2014 album NOnsenSe MARkeT.


The final guest was Sadie vocalist Mao. Celebrating the fact that Sadie will be resuming activities with a show at Toyosu PIT on March 17th this year after an eight-year hiatus, they performed Meisai, a song originally featured on Sadie’s 2005 single Dekiai. Sadie also recently re-recorded the song for a self-cover album titled THE REVIVAL OF SADNESS, which is due out on February 28th.



If the project has piqued your interest, you can watch the rest of the videos from "ICHIGEKI" and "HANGEKI" here.