Band of the Week: SCREW

Manabu (Gt.), Rui (Ba.), Byo (Vo.), Jin (Dr.) & Kazuki (Gt.)

SCREW is a 5 member Visual Kei band. Originally there were only 4 members, but a second guitar player followed later. Their concept? “Everybody has darkness inside - the poisonous chemicals of darkness have to be screwed out of the body.” SCREW is known for their heavy songs and energetic live performances. Similar bands are BORN and Sadie.

Vocalist Byou and bassist Yuuto were the ones who formed SCREW a little before March 2006. Before teaming up for SCREW, both of them had been members of he disbanded group “Joker”. Kazuki (ex-Clover) would join as the guitarist and Jin (ex-LiViNg DEAD) would become the drummer. The newly formed band then signed with indies label “SPEED DISK”. Their very first concert was held on March 4 at “Takadanobaba AREA”, but their was a twist to their performance. It was a secret live. There would be 7 more secret lives before their first one-man concert on April 23, also at “Takadanobaba AREA”.

In May there were three events hosted at “Shibuya O-WEST”. The events were named “SCREW vs WEST” and had three different stages: preliminary, semifinals and finals. The preliminary stage was the "Shinrabanshow Kakuritsu Hendou" event presented by “SPEED DISK” on May 16. May 24 was the release of their debut single. It reached #192 on the Oricon charts. A day later, the semifinals stage followed. This event was sponsored by “Kazoku” on the 25th. The finales stage was the "Boys Evolution" event presented by “LOOP ASH RECORDS” and “Kamikaze Boyz” on May 29.

June was also a busy month. SCREW participated 4 times in the event tour “Kyuukoku Shikakutei ~Ultimate Square~”, which was sponsored by visual kei band “Ruvie”. SCREW joined the tour at “Takadanobaba AREA” on June 4 and ended at Shibuya O-WEST on the 19th. The second pressing of debut single “Nejireta Shisou” was released on June 21. The first pressing had been limited to 1000 copies and were sold-out. June ended with live performance at “ESAKA MUSE” on the 24^th.

SCREW's first sponsored live, “Chikichiki Muramura Shichaeba Iijanai?”, was held on July 2. After that, they played 3 lives at the “SPEED DISK” organized tour “Shinrabanshow TOUR '06 #2”. The band released their first mini-album “Nanairo no Reienka” on July 12 and also performed a live that day at “Takadanobaba AREA”. The album reached #299 on the Oricon charts.

On August 2, SCREW participated in the mega-event “SCUBER DIVE ~Shibuya ga Taihen~”. Their second one-man live followed on August 17 at “Shibuya O-WEST”. During the period from August 21 to October 8, they played 4 lives. They started at “Nagoya E.L.L” and finished at “Takadanobaba AREA”.

In October there was a three-man TouNaKa (東名阪; Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka) based tour titled “THE SCREAMING GROUND” with bands Sadie and lynch. On the 25^th, a live performance was held and their second single “Sakuran SCREAM” was released. The single is the first in a 3 consecutive month single release plan called the "Maxi Single Liberation" series. It claimed the #140 on the Oricon charts. October ended with their participation in the “LOVE&PEACE&ROCK'N ROLL Vol.1” event at “OSAKA MUSE” on the 29^th.

Near the end of November, SCREW joined the “RENTRER EN SOI” sponsored events “MIDNIGHT CELEBRATION”. They participated 3 times in total at “HOLIDAY OSAKA”, “HOLIDAY NAGOYA” and “Takadanobaba AREA”.

Even more concerts followed in 2007. They joined “SectMa”'s first sponorsed event “Akai Orchestra -sect.1-” on January 9 at “Shibuya O-WEST”. On the 12^th and 13^th, SCREW held their first overseas performance in South Korea at Seoul's “Rolling Hall” for SPEED DISK's "Shinrabanshow in Korea" event. On the 25th, to celebrate the release of the Liberation singles, SCREW held the event “-Violet junkie movie show-” at Shibuya O-WEST. After that they participated in half of E.L.L SPEED DISK's “Shinrabanshow in MID SIDE 4days” events on February 5 and 6 at Nagoya E.L.L. The band had a special live called “SCREW-BYO209BD” at “Meguro Rockmaykan” on February 9. It was a solo performance by Byo and was limited to 209 fans.

To promote the release of debut album “Fusion of the core”, they held a live on March 3. The album got released on March 14 and came in two versions. It was the first release to have more than one version and also the first to have a DVD. The album peaked at #160. SCREW continued to promote their latest album and went on the “LIMITED FUSION” tour. When the tour was over, the band left SPEED DISK and joined “PS COMPANY” independent division “Indie-PSC”.

With the label switch there was a little break, but activities started again in May with 3 performances. The first one was yet another “Shinrabanshow” event. The second performance was at a “h'evn no Omatsuri★Tenmade Tobou!!” live, organized by the magazine “h'evn”. The third and last event was the “Visual binary vol.13 'Perfectly fine tomorrow'” event presented by “Visualive”. On June 1 they held their last live as a 4 member band. Manabu joined on the 23^rd as the second guitarist. June ended with a SCREW sponsored event, “Unknown shudder”, at Takadanobaba AREA on the 29th.

SCREW's first release with “Indie-PSC”, and also as a 5 member band, was the second mini-album “VENOM”. The album went on sale on September 12 and claimed the #113 spot on the Oricon charts. The one-man concert “OUTFLOW OF VENOM” on September 17 was used to promote and support the new album. September finished with a live at Shibuya O-EAST on the 28^th.

The third mini-album, “VIRUS”, was released on October 3. It peaked at #139 on the Oricon charts. This mini-album didn't get a one-man concert, unlike the previous release. For the rest of October SCREW was one of the band's on the “h'evn Soukan 5-shuunen Kinen Zenkoku TOUR ~Dai2dan~” tour.

During November and December the band participated in 5 lives/events. The first activity was the “Absolute Domain vol.1” event at Nagoya E.L.L on November 2.The second event was their own “Unknown shudder... vol.2” sponsored event at Takadanobaba AREA on the 25^th. In December SCREW performed two dates in the “Shinrabanshow TOUR '07 #3” tour at “Osaka BIG CAT” on the 8th and Shibuya O-EAST on the 22nd. The last activity of 2007 was their part in the “J-ROCK INVATION -EPISODE I-” event at Palladium in Cologne, Germany on December 29.

2008 was yet another busy year for SCREW. They started touring during the second week of January and released maxi-single “RAGING BLOOD” on February 27. In April, SCREW celebrated their 2 year anniversary by holding a one-man at the place where it all began, Takadanobaba AREA. The remaining months of the year were also busy. Two more singles were released and live performances were given regularly.

SCREW started 2009 with a winter tour called “Double Suicide in Five Cities”. After the winter tour was wrapped up, they continued touring in February. On April 8 they released their new mini-album “RACIAL MIXTURE”. Near the end of the month, on April 26, SCREW celebrated their 3 year anniversary at “Liquid Room Ebisu”. During their 6 month tour, “Homura he no Kakusei”, overwhelmed Japan and gained popularity. They didn't have a lot of time before starting the “X-RAYS OF SCREW” tour in October. When 2009 had ended they took a break from to heavy live schedule to catch up on recording in 2010.

The year 2010 began with a member switch. Yuuto left the band and was replaced by Rui as the bassist. Touring started again in February. Single “Cursed Hurricane” was released on May 12 and single “ANCIENT RAIN” followed on June 9. The touring stopped again in mid-June and didn't resume until November, when new album “DUALITY” was released.

In March 2011, SCREW would be touring again. This time for their 5^th anniversary. The tour was titled “GO INTO HIGH GEAR”. On March 23 the single “DEEP SIX” hit the shelves. Single “BRAINSTORM” followed on September 21. SCREW joined the line-up of the “V-ROCK FESTIVAL ’11”. They got to play on the Rainbow stage and got a warm welcome when they appeared.

2012 started with the release of the album “BIRAN” on February 15. A European tour was also announced that year. They started on May 30 in the UK and ended on June 17 in Russia. SCREW gave concerts in the following countries: UK, France, Spain, Hungary, Austria, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Single “XANADU” was released on October 17. This single would be their Major Debut Single. “XANADU” was available as 2 limited editions and as a regular edition.

The year 2013 also started in February with the release of single “Teardrop”. It was also announced that on July 10 the band will release their first major album titled “SCREW”. For this album there will also be 2 limited editions and a regular one.

Official Website

Official Facebook

Official MySpace