UVERworld
UVERworld (ウーバーワールド, Ūbāwārudo) is a Japanese rock band known for their mixture of musical genres such as hard rock, electronic, and beat-boxing. UVERchan, the band's mascot, is a fictional bear-bat like character, which appears on several of their covers.The five-member band known as UVERworld first formed in 2003, and were known as Sound Goku Road or, more popularly, "Sangoku Road." The band originally consisted of seven members, and released a demo CD which ended up selling 3,000 copies. Unfortunately, one of the band members, the saxophonist Seika, left the group (the other was Hiko, who left after he married). After his departure, Ace∞trigger renamed himself TAKUYA∞ and the band renamed itself to UVERworld.
According to an interview with the band there was another vocalist who left, however this vocalist hasn't yet been identified. Though it appears that that person may have left some time before Seika did, as Seika is the only one of the two credited on the demo CD and pictured with very early live photos of the band pre-UVERworld.
2005 was the year that the band signed with the label gr8! records, which is under Sony Music Records. The band made their debut with the single "D-tecnoLife", which served as the 2nd opening theme song for the anime BLEACH. After three months UVERworld's second single, "CHANCE!" was used as the theme for the PSP game Bleach: Heat the Soul 2 and was the last single released in 2005.
On January 25, 2006 "just Melody", the band's third single, ended up at #17 on the Oricon charts. Three weeks later UVERworld's 1st album Timeless was released, breaking the top 10 at #5 and selling 60,000 copies. Seika made a brief return during this album, playing saxophone for track 5, Yasashisa no Shizuku. After a three month break, UVERworld released "Colors of the Heart" as the third opening theme for BLOOD+, an anime series based on the animated movie, Blood: The Last Vampire. The single debuted at #3 and was the highest position any of UVERworld's singles had reached up to that time. Their 5th single, entitled SHAMROCK, was released on August 2, 2006, and was used as the ending theme for the J-Drama Dance☆Drill, a show about a group of girls who aspire to become cheerleaders. UVERworld's 6th Single was released on November 15, 2006, entitled "Kimi No Suki na Uta", the song was used as the theme song for the TBS TV show Koi Suru Hanikami! or Honey Coming! from October until December. It was the first ballad UVERworld released as a single, and it reached number two on the Oricon charts (the highest place for an UVERworld single thus far) until it fell off of the charts three and a half weeks later. It sold around 70,000 copies according to the Oricon sales charts. On February 21, 2007, UVERworld released their second album titled BUGRIGHT. It featured the singles UVERworld had put out after the release of Timeless, and also included their song "～Nagare・Kuukyo・THIS WORD～" (～流れ・空虚・THIS WORlD～), which was used for the film soundtrack "The songs for DEATH NOTE the movie 〜the Last name TRIBUTE〜."
After another three month break UVERworld released "endscape," which was featured as the first opening theme for the anime Toward the Terra (based on a 1977 manga by Keiko Takemiya). They released another single named "Shaka Beach ~Laka Laka La~" on August 8, 2007. Shaka Beach tied with another of UVERworld's singles for highest place on the Oricon weekly charts. Ukiyo Crossing, the band's 9th single since their debut was released on November 14, 2007. It is their 5th highest selling single to date, and reached number 3 in the Oricon charts. Based on numbers alone, Ukiyo Crossing was the band's most commercially successful release in almost a year.
The band's newest effort, titled PROGLUTION, was released on January 16, 2008 and contains a full 18 tracks. It is available in two forms, a CD-only version and a Limited Edition CD+DVD. Another song, called "Gekidou," and also have the "Gekidou radio" version was used as the fourth opening theme of the anime series, D.Gray-man.
