Their name stands for "malicious misery", which Mana (guitar & synth) and Gackt (vocal) both define as "human nature." Their music encompasses a wide range of different sounds, from gothic (or vampire music), classical (Baroque style), and pop, to French caf? circus, and techno music. A good friend of mine actually coined the term "Visual Pop" to describe MALICE MIZER's music as a whole, and now I'm inclined to think that the term suits this band rather nicely.

Then the concept of evil (malice) and tragedy (misery) was born. Mana defines "MALICE MIZER" as "human nature", so the meaning of the band's name is probably the answer to MALICE MIZER's question "What is human?" "We have been seeking something which lurks deep inside the human mind." Since Mana formed the band, he was a heavy influence at the start for the type of music MALICE MIZER would play. It started with the fact that he decided his direction in music was not masculine, (like punk, heavy metal), plus he also happened to be listening only to classical music at the time. He was also influenced by the background music of Italian horror movies, and he realised he wanted to play that kind of music because it has slight feelings of heavy metal but has a melody of pathos (like classical music), so it was rather dull and heavy at the same time. He decided he would make a group which played that kind of music.