A famous Japanese musician, entertainer, journalist and sumo commentator. Born on the 10th of November, B.D.100036 (98038 B.C.E.), made his debut on Earth in 1985 as a Seikima-II vocalist, completed his conquest of the Earth in D.C.1 (1999), now works as solo artist... Thus starts almost any profile, and these common facts could be figured out even from a Google-translated Japanese pages. It doesn't tell much to those who don't know the whole story, and any fan already knows this by heart. So let's start somewhere else.

If you want a one-word description of His Excellency, the word would be 'brilliant,' in all its meanings. Many people who tend to judge by appearance don't take Demon-sama seriously because of his make-up and fantastic outfits. But in addition to his undeniable actor, singer and leader skills, he's a very keen observer and thinker, but unfortunately to notice this you'll need to know Japanese or at least to get a few good translations, which isn't much easier. He is also known for his deep interest in traditional Japanese culture and arts, especially in Kabuki and Noh theatres, and of course for his love and knowledge of sumo.

Among other things, he graduated with honors from the Waseda University with a degree in social science, succesfully led the legendary Seikima-II to all their demonic glory, won the Godzilla roar-alike contest, had his own news commentary show on Asahi Newstar Television (aired every Friday during prime time for 2 years), is regularly featured as a musical advisor, sociological commentator and/or columnist for many magazines... not to mention his astonishing 邦楽維新Collaboration events and VIVA逢フェスタNEXT-ONE fest... And that's just to name a few, the complete list of his achievements is way longer.

The demonic music started with Seikima-II (聖飢魔II [seikimatsu]), a heavy-metal band consisting of high-ranked demons that were going to conquer the world with their music by the end of the century, and then disband. Founded in B.D.17 (1982) by the Crown Prince of Hell His Majesty Damian Hamada, it included His Excellency Demon Kogure, Zod Hoshijima and Ace Shimizu. Damian-sama soon left the band, and there were many other comings and goings, until the final line-up was formed in B.D.12 (1987), with Demon Kogure on vocals, Ace Shimizu and Sgt. Luke Takamura III on guitar, Xenon Ishikawa on bass and Raiden Yuzawa on drums.

All the members (except Damian-sama) wore make-up (that's an official human explanation of their strange appearance, though any shinja would tell you those were their real demonic faces), mostly kumadori-like one, and were never seen on public without it. They were known only by their stage names (because real names of the demons are unpronounceable for humans). Being very lively and humorous, they weren't following the 'dark, scary and gloomy' cliche too much, nor did they confine themselves to heavy-metal only, constantly experimenting with other styles and themes. They even released a short anime with themselves as main heroes, and a video game.

Seikima-II had become one of the legends of Japanese rock-scene. Most of their albums were sold in more than 100 000 copies, and no less than 2000 fans attended each of their live shows (they called them 'black masses'). And they did disband just as promised, on December 31, D.C.1 (1999) at 23:59:59. At the 20th anniversary of their debut on the Earth in D.C.7 (2005), they held a few special reunion lives, and all tickets were sold out in a matter of minutes. There are rumors that they're going to come together again at the 30th anniversary...

But the 25th anniversary is upon us, as well as the 10th anniversary of Earth conquest - and, lo and behold, Seikima-II are coming back again, and make our wildest dreams come true!

His Excellency started his solo career in B.D.9 (1991), and continued it after Seikima-II disbanded. Unlike other members of the band, he didn't reveal his human face to the public, just changed the color of his make-up from blue to red with tinge of purple on the outer ends (in kumadori blue color represents magical creatures and also evil or negative emotions, while red symbolises power, passion and virtue, and purple usually means nobility).

So far he released 7 albums, and participated in numerous projects, from movie dubbing to musicals. Just to name a few: the 'Bleach Beat Collection' series vol.1 (as a sound producer/composer/lyricist), rock-opera 'Hamlet', and of course the ongoing デーモン小暮の邦楽維新Collaboration [deemon kogure no hougaku ishin Collaboration] events, not to mention numerous TV and radio shows.

Being a long-time fan of sumo, His Excellency often appears as a guest commentator on various TV and radio shows related to this ancient sport. In D.C.10 (2008) he appeared as the main color commentator for NHK English live broadcast of the 14th day of Natsu basho (Summer Grand Sumo tournament, held in Tokyo), and according to the official site, he was 'the first non-native English speaker to accomplish this'. During that broadcast His Excellency literally predicted the whole flow and outcome of one of the bouts.

Demon Kogure is also known as 小暮伝衛門 [kogure denemon], the name he used to release his first solo album, and as ! [exclamation], which was a short-lived non-metal side-project of his.