KIZU Celebrates the New Year with the Return of HANGEKI

Fans of visual kei band KIZU will likely be acquainted with "ICHIGEKI," a series of special session videos from the group's vocalist LiME. Originally started to celebrate KIZU's fourth anniversary back in 2020, "ICHIGEKI" sees LiME perform covers of KIZU's songs as duets with other vocalists, with each session filmed in only one take. "HANGEKI," on the other hand, is a spin-off of the original format where the songs are selected from the other artist's discography instead. The spin-off project was first launched to ring in the New Year in 2023, and this will mark its third "season."

This season of "HANGEKI" will feature three videos, with each premiering on KIZU's YouTube channel at 21:00 (JST). The first video was just unveiled today, and the other two will be released on January 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The first video sees LiME joined by MUCC vocalist Tatsuro, who was also the guest for the very first "ICHIGEKI" video, a cover of KIZU's Jyuusei. The new video features LiME and Tatsuro covering MUCC's 2005 single Kokoro no nai machi.

The guest vocalist for January 2nd's video has already been announced to be Aki from visual kei band ΛrlequiΩ, but the song they will be singing has not been revealed just yet. Aki is another returning guest, as he first took part in the second season of "ICHIGEKI," performing a cover of KIZU's Heisei.

The performance of Kokoro no nai machi can be viewed below, followed by the "ICHIGEKI" video featuring Tatsuro and LiME covering Jyuusei. A playlist featuring all of the "ICHIGEKI" and "HANGEKI" videos is available here.