The four-piece Ken Yokoyama, led by guitarist and vocalist 横山健 (Ken Yokoyama), will suspend band activities after SATANIC CARNIVAL 2027, scheduled for June next year.
Yokoyama announced the decision from the stage at Osaka’s LIVE HOUSE Pangea on September 25, during the sold-out opening night of The Rags To Riches Tour VII. PIZZA OF DEATH RECORDS subsequently confirmed that the band had reached a point where it could no longer ignore what it described as a decline in its “motivation and physical stamina.”
The timing gives the announcement an unusual perspective: Ken Yokoyama has entered its final stretch before the suspension while still fully active. The Rags To Riches Tour VII — the first edition of the concept in roughly a decade — has only just begun, with five more shows scheduled in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo through October 14, joined by ENTH and KUZIRA.
The band has also released new music this year. The four-track single The Ballad was released physically on March 25, with the full release arriving on streaming services on April 23. Its title track, written as the ending theme for the final season of 『ゴールデンカムイ』 (Golden Kamuy), became Ken Yokoyama’s first tie-in song.
Before Ken Yokoyama became a band name, Yokoyama had already spent more than a decade as the guitarist of Hi-STANDARD, which he co-founded in 1991, and had established PIZZA OF DEATH RECORDS in 1999. In 2004, he released The Cost Of My Freedom under his own name, beginning the project that gradually developed into the four-piece now known as Ken Yokoyama.
That distinction makes the announcement particularly important. Ken Yokoyama is suspending the band, not announcing Yokoyama’s retirement from music. No date for a return has been given, and nothing has been said about what may follow SATANIC CARNIVAL 2027.
For now, there are still stages left to play before the pause begins.