Layarch, as they were called in the beginning, entered the scene in September 2001. The band was founded by vocalist Ren and guitarist Chikage, who both had been part of Laypua before, a band that had parted only a few months before Layarch’s start. The two musicians were soon joined by guitarist yuki, bassist Kagachi and drummer Syuna. Barely a month after their start, they released their first and only demo-tape. Falling into the usual pattern of nascent bands, they worked on spreading their name and getting more recognition. The band seemed to be succeeding in the endeavor to build up their fan base, but in July 2002 the usual indie visual kei growing-pains befell them: band member changes.
For a short while, a second vocalist named Megumiro was part of the band, but he only stayed with them for a short while and was not featured in any recordings. In only a matter of months, not only did Megumiro leave the band, but also Kagachi and yuki parted ways. By then they had three singles to their name. While a complete line-up was missing, the remaining members decided to change the spelling of their band name in early 2003; Layarch changed to Rayarch, only a small change in the spelling as the Japanese language does not differentiate the R and L sounds and the pronunciation remained the same. Also Syuna took the opportunity to change his name, and became known as nayu.
The two free positions were quickly filled by guitarist kasumi and bassist kaya. Their background shows what a tight-knit scene they were from: both were former members of Luberie, but kaya had already worked with a number of the band members when he was in Laypua. kasumi on the other hand, had incidentally been part of nayu’s former band Ro§se. However, the musical chairs game did not end there; A month later after a show in Sendai’s MA.CA.NA live house, both kasumi and nayu said their goodbyes.
Again, the band members looked for replacements in their acquaintances and friend circles. In the same month, they recruited nagisa, Luberie’s former drummer. After some months, guitarist yuki, not to be confused with the first yuki that was part of the band in 2002, also joined. Even though their line-up was finally complete again, for the latter part of 2003 it grew silent around the band except for a handful of concerts.
In 2004 they seemed ready for a break-through, and the period of minimal live activity led to the release of two mini-albums in March and April. They performed in well-known Tokyo live houses such as the Meguro Rock May Kan and the CYBER in Ikebukuro, and their fan base grew steadily. Despite this lift in their career, it started to turn quiet around the quintet again as the year went by. In November 2004 they released their third mini-album, which would become the last mention-worthy activity of the group. In April 2005, they disbanded.
A number of the band members stayed active in the visual kei music scene. Most notably, kasumi went on to play with bis under the name Tsukasa, while Chikage and kaya re-appeared in the music-scene several years later as members of the successful band 9GOATS BLACK OUT.
