is a three-piece Japanese

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band formed in

Kyōtango is a city located in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 52,683 in 22,886 households and a population density of 110 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kyōtango is located on the coast o ...

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, in 1996. Initially known for their unique alternative rock style, they later developed a

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...

neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contempo ...

style, including

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

and dance elements. The band has scored two top-40 hit singles in Japan and their latest original album ''N.E.W.S.'' reached No. 1 on alternative rock chart of

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

, which is equivalent of the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

in the United States.

History

Formed in 1996, Unchain initially consisted of junior high classmates Masanori Tanigawa, Hiroaki Tani, and Shogo Yoshida. Masafumi Sato would later join a year later as their junior a year below. The band would later move to Osaka and were able to steadily get gigs to play at. In 2005, the band made their indie debut with the mini-album ''the space of the sense''. On October of the same year, Unchain made their first appearance on ''MINAMI WHEEL 2005''. The band made their major debut with the album ''departure''. Masafumi Sato departed from the band on June 18, 2020 following a livestream that was aired in place of the planned ''24years "BEST" Tour.'' The tour was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Sato announced plans to depart from the band on November 18, 2019 however.

Members

;Current members *Masanori Tanigawa (谷川正憲) – lead vocals, guitar *Hiroaki Tani (谷浩彰) – bass guitar, backing vocals *Shogo Yoshida (吉田昇吾) – drums ;Former members *Masafumi Sato (佐藤将文) – lead guitar, backing vocals (1997-2020) Yoshida is also an active member for the band Ivory7 Chord.

References

{{Authority control 1996 establishments in Japan Musical groups from Kyoto Prefecture Japanese alternative rock groups Musical groups established in 1996