The single most successful and influential rock band in Japanese history, X formed in 1982, adopting the name X Japan in 1992 to avoid confusion with the American punk band X. With their flamboyant glam rock look, they are largely credited with pioneering the visual kei movement, though in later years the band's image toned down considerably.
Their sound is best described as a mix of power metal (among their harder rock singles include "Easy Fight Rambling", "Standing Sex", and band anthem "X") combined with orchestrated, heartfelt ballads (such as singles "Crucify My Love" and "Endless Rain"), with many songs falling somewhere in between (such as "Silent Jealousy" and 「紅」["Kurenai" - translates to "crimson"]), and a clear influence from classical music as much as from rock. One of their most notable releases is "Art of Life", a 29-minute song of varying speeds released as the sole track of their fourth album, which bore the same name. The album "A Music Box for Fantasy" consists of music box versions of some of their most popular songs. Since the band's recent reformation, they have released one single, "I.V.", which topped iTunes charts on its release day and was the theme to Saw IV.
The band dissolved in 1997 when vocalist Toshi quit; however, they reunited in 2007 and are currently active today. Legendary lead guitarist Hideto "hide" Matsumoto died in May 1998 of an apparently accidental self hanging; although Sugizo of Luna Sea, also one of Japan's top rock bands, joined the band in 2009, he is not a replacement member - the band frequently uses unreleased previous recordings of hide's work in addition to several touring support guitarists, including Richard Fortus of Guns N' Roses and Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit and Black Light Burns.
Many members have worked on side projects, most notably drummer/pianist Yoshiki (who also composed and produced the vast majority of the band's works), who in addition to producing the soundtrack to Repo! The Genetic Opera, spending a short time in the pop group Globe, and recording a single with Queen drummer Roger Taylor, is also a member of supergroup S.K.I.N. alongside Gackt, Miyavi, and Sugizo. hide also released several solo projects from 1994 until his death, alongside the bands Zilch, and Spread Beaver, which had a more alternative rock sound.
I wish I could make a minor copy edit, but I keep getting errors. D:
Oh? What's wrong? D:
Ahh, Buzznet always gives me errors when posting or editing journals. I was able to post this on only my 3rd try, but couldn't get the edit to save. I just wanted to bold Yoshiki and remove an extra comma near the end.
zela: 07/29/2009 10:20 AM
fuck yeah!! about time someone is talking about X JAPAN!!!
They're awesome!!!
X Japan. I love them. Thank you for this.
I wish I could make a minor copy edit, but I keep getting errors. D:
They're awesome!!!