Good morning! Today's Bento Box serves up Sambomaster, a Japanese rock band formed in 2000 by Takashi Yamaguchi, Yoichi Kondo, and Yasufumi Kiuchi.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Takashi Yamaguchi first met drummer Yasufumi Kiuchi at a university music club where they were both members, they ran into bassist Yoichi Kondo during February 2000, and the three went on to officially form the band now known as Sambomaster.
Sambomaster made their debut at a live house in Tokyo's Koenji district and soon followed this up with their first, self-produced single "Kick no Oni" (Kicking Demons), which they spent nearly a year working on. For the first time, listeners outside of a live show were presented with vocalist and frontman Yamaguchi's vocals, which shift between a soft, sandpaper-like melodic voice to all-out screaming madness. Sambomaster's musical style is a blend of punk/classic rock, pop, jazz and rock ballads.
2003 saw the release of their very first major-label album, "Atarashiki Nihongo Rock no Michi to Hikari" and a live performance at the Fuji Rock festival's Rookie GO GO.
In 2004 and 2005, Sambomaster released the majority of their hit singles including "Seishun Kyosokyoku" and "Sekai wa Sore wo Ai to Yobundaze."
Many of their music was featured in anime OPs/EDs: "Seishun Kyosokyoku" was used as the fifth opening theme to the hit anime series Naruto, and "Sekai wa sore Ai to Yobunda ze" ended up being the ending theme to the popular Japanese television drama Densha Otoko (and also Nintendo DS game Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2). They were also asked to do the main theme to the movie Koi no Mon, which became the song Tsuki ni Saku Hana no Yō ni Naru no. In March 2009, their song "Kimi wo Mamotte, Kimi wo Aishite" was announced to be the nineteenth ending song in the hit anime series Bleach. In 2010, they performed the ending theme for the Kuragehime anime, "Kimi no Kirei ni Kizuite Okure", and in 2018, their song "Love Song" was used as the ending theme for Tada Never Falls In Love, being covered by the voice actors for the male and female leads. Their last album, YES, was released on March 20, 2018.