UVERworld is an influential Japanese rock band known for their mixture of musical genres such as hard rock, electronic, and post-punk. 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 second 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 WORD～), which was used for the film soundtrack "The songs for DEATH NOTE the movie 〜the Last name TRIBUTE〜."
The band's third album, titled PROGLUTION, was released on January 16, 2008 and contained a full 18 tracks which included their recent singles Ukiyo Crossing (浮世CROSSING), endscape, and Shaka Beach ~Laka Laka La~ (シャカビーチ~Laka Laka La~) . It came in two forms, a CD-only version and a Limited Edition CD+DVD. PROGLUTION sold over 150,000 copies.
June 11, 2008 saw the release of the single Gekidou(激動)/Just break the limit!. Gekidou was used as the fourth opening theme of the anime series, D.Gray-man, while the song Just break the limit! was used as a support song for POCARI SWEAT's CM. Two more singles were released in 2008, Koishikute (恋いしくて) and Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi (儚クモ永久のカナシ). Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi was used as the opening for the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 anime. The single became the bands first number 1 single on Oricon [1] with approximately 177,290 copies sold. The single has since gone on to become the highest selling single from the band.
On February 18, 2009 the band released their 4th album titled AwakEVE. [2] The album sold over 115,000 copies on its first week and ranked #2 on the Oricon album chart.
