Church of Misery
Japanese band
Church of Misery (チャーチ・オブ・ミザリー, Chāchi obu Mizarī) is a Japanese doom metal band from Tokyo, formed in 1995. Church of Misery's musical style melds early Black Sabbath–style doom with psychedelic rock; most of the band's songs are about serial killers and mass murderers.
The band has gone through many lineup changes, with bassist Tatsu Mikami being the sole constant member throughout the years.
History
Beginnings and lineup changes (1995–2008)
Church of Misery formed in 1995 with a lineup of Mikami, vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda, guitarist Tomohiro Nishimura and drummer Hideki Shimizu. This lineup recorded the Vol. 1 album, released in 1997 by Doom Records without the band's consent (it was later officially reissued in 2007 by Japan's Leaf Hound Records). In 1996, vocalist Nobukazu Chow replaced Asaeda. The band's first EP, Taste the Pain, was released in 1998 by Bad Acid Records, followed by the Murder Company EP in 1999 on Man's Ruin Records. Singer Yoshiaki Negishi and drummer Junji Narita replaced Chow and Shimizu, respectively, in 2000.
In 2001, Southern Lord Records issued the band's official debut full-length album, Master of Brutality.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Church of Misery” is japanese band. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Church, Misery and Japanese, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2525554. VIAF identifies the subject as 129331965. The Library of Congress control number is no2001001341. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1995, 2008, 1997 and 2007.
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This entry incorporates text from “Church of Misery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.