X (later changed to X JAPAN in 1992 to avoid confusion with the American punk band X) is arguably one of the most influential bands in the history of the Japanese music scene. Formed by childhood friends YOSHIKI and Toshi in 1982 at Chiba, Japan, X was originally founded to play high energy rock music. Besides being one of the first Japanese acts to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label, the group is widely credited for pioneering the visual kei movement. The band consisted of Toshi (vocals), YOSHIKI(drums, piano, composer, lyricist), hide (guitar), Pata (guitar), and Heath (bass), and Taiji (bassist) until 1997 when they disbanded.

This page includes X JAPAN's: biography, official website, pictures, videos from YouTube, related forum topics, shouts, news, tour dates and events, live eBay auctions, online shopping sites, detailled reviews and ratings and the full discography of albums: studios, live, compilations (boxset), EPs on CD, Vinyl / LP or cassette and videos. Jan 23, 2019 - Get the best VPN for torrenting from Ivacy and download torrents securely. Large thumbnails of album covers, make it really easy for any user.

Once Yoshiki and Toshi recruited bassist Taiji and guitarists hide and Pata, the band began moving on the indie circuit. They garnished abundant support and fans across Japan with their outrageous dress style. They used long, dyed hair. Have you ever wondered about what would happen if we all had a soundtrack playing to our daily lives? Songs that represented our pain and sorrows, our triumphs and merriment, or the more complex thoughts in between? Think of the situation as a film; about 90% of the time, a wonderful soundtrack is capable of coloring a scene and making it feel larger than life, but slows down for the personal, intimate moments to balance things out.

X Japan (hailing from, you guessed it, Japan) had always been adept at capturing raw human emotional resonance in their songs, whether heavy or soft. Case in point: 'I'll Kill You' from their first record Vanishing Vision was an exceptionally frenzied and violent affair a la Metallica's 80's thrash heyday, and yet 'Crucify My Love' and 'Tears' from their final (as of this review, but they're working on a new record) album Dahlia are quite possibly two of the most beautiful ballads to come out of their time. However, the crowning achievement in musicianship, lyrics, emotion, and just about everything else they've tapped into, is 1993's Art of Life. First off, despite the record consisting of only the one titular song, that very song is 29 minutes, and goes through everything from speed metal, classical, symphonic music, progressive metal, power metal, pop, the works. The lyrics illustrate the vision of life and what it represents, its trials, love lost, love found, and continuing living even through any circumstance.

The lyrics are impressive on their own, but mixed with Toshi's heartfelt wails, the experience feels downright cathartic. Even more impressive is how the song never loses focus; everything gels so wonderfully and nothing ever feels like extraneous baggage. As the song begins with a longingly flowing piano line from Yoshiki, the symphonic backing grows and becomes grander by the second until Toshi belts out the first lines, and the song really gains momentum from that point on.

What follows is a lightning-fast speed metal riff-fest reminiscent of Helloween's early days, and here the band start to really unfold their skills as musicians. Chaos ensues, with Toshi and everyone else engaging in a musical war; vocals fight against the blazing guitars, while the drums and bass guitar are cutting through the production cleanly and effectively. The more intimate moments come in a few ways. One of these is the chorus, which sees several returns and lets Toshi show off his emotional side, coming close to resembling Journey's Steve Perry in quite a few of those spots. Also, in the middle of the tune, all the instruments fall out for an all-symphonic segment that could almost be expected from a grand fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings.

The instruments come back in for the chorus, going for what you might think would be the end of the piece. But nope, we have a piano solo to listen to.