Nightmare

A visually-striking rock band from Sendai, Japan, Nightmare earned a long string of Top 40 hits throughout the 2000s and 2010s. The group was formed in January 2000 by guitarists Sakito and Hitsugi, both of whom were still attending high school. Influenced heavily by the visual kei aesthetics of X Japan, Nightmare made its musical debut with 2001's "Hankouki," followed by the singles "Jiyuu Honpo Tenshin Ranman" and "Gaia" in 2002. The full-length album Ultimate Circus was released in 2003 and was a minor hit in Japan, where it peaked at Number 115. The record's lead single, "Believe," proved to be more successful, climbing to Number 24 and paving the way for the band's follow-up album, Livid, to reach Number 29 in 2004. Nightmare later moved into the Top 10 with 2007's The World Ruler, which peaked at Number 6, and charted even higher with 2008's Killer Show (Number 5) and 2009's Majestical Parade (Number 3). The band's singles were similarly successful, with eight songs cracking the Top 10 during the latter half of the 2000s. Maintaining their success during the 2010s, the musicians reached Number 10 with 2011's Nightmare, Number 8 with 2013's Scums, Number 10 with 2014's To Be Or Not To Be (which featured the band's highest-charting single to date, the Number 2 smash "Rewrite"), and Number 7 with 2015's Carpe Diem, The band's frontman, Yomi, began to struggle with dysphonia as the decade progressed, and Nightmare announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016. Four years later, the group reunited for a series of tour dates and single releases, then returned to the Oricon Albums chart with Nox:Lux, which reached Number 15 in 2022.