Guitar Vader had two lead vocalists and songwriters, guitarist Miki Tanabe and bassist Ujuan Shozo.
[5] Tanabe's childlike voice and Shozo's tenor are often used in harmony and call and response, but many songs are sung exclusively by one or the other.
Their music generally features pop-oriented melodies, often coupled with aggressive power chords and hard rock influences, and sometimes playfully shifts between genres in mid-song.
Empowered by their success, the two volumes were compiled along with new material and one remix onto the two tape set, Die Happy!.
The album gained distribution in Tower Records and HMV stores, but was never released officially on CD.
Following Die Happy!, Guitar Vader was asked to contribute original music to the Dreamcast game RoomMania No.
Video game composer Hideki Naganuma was among the many who discovered Guitar Vader through the Die Happy!
The game was widely praised for its soundtrack, which prominently featured Guitar Vader's song "Magical Girl" in the opening tutorial, and "Super Brothers" (another Die Happy!
Joined by Suzuki Yoshifumi on drums, the album marked a major evolution for the band, particularly for its prominent use of keyboards, played by producer Taichi Ohira, as well as its more polished, melodic sound.
In 2006, the band began work on another album, and had nearly completed it, when Shozo suffered a vital heart infection that left him hospitalized for months, with continuing health issues long after.