Dir en grey profile

Dir en grey
Members:
Vocals: Kyo (Nishimura Tooru)
Guitar: Kaoru (Niikura Kaoru)
Guitar: Die (Ando Daisuke)
Bass: Toshiya (Hara Toshimasa)
Drums: Shinya (Terachi Shinya)
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Composer/Lyricist: Dir en
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Label: Free Will Records,
Firewall Div, Warcon Enterprises
Albums:
MISSA - 25 Jul 1997
Gauze - 28 Jul 1999
Macabre - 20 Sep 2000
Kisou - 30 Jan 2002
Six Ugly - 31 Jul 2002
Vulgar - 10 Sep 2003
Withering to death - 9 Mar
2005
BACKGROUND
Dir en grey is
a Japanese
rock band
that is widely
recognized,
both in Japan
and
worldwide,
for their
unique and
raw rock
sound as well
as their tragic
and pain-filled lyrics. In their early
years, they were firmly visual kei,
which is a term that is used for a
band with a flashy - sometimes
even downright crazy - fashion
sense that is meant to shock the
audience and enhance live
performances. Over the years, their
visual kei style morphed into a more
standard-looking, but harder, rock
style. Throughout the years and
visual transitions, though, the focus
of their songs has always been
upon the ugly side of life, with
topics of songs ranging from
depression and suicide to abortion
and rape. The lyricist himself
declared that he would never write a
happy song, and for nine years
hope has not been present in their
lyrics. But fans of Dir en grey aren’t
looking for hope; in fact, it is the
group’s ability to exquisitely express
pain through raw melodies and
passionate vocals that has led to
their success.
Dir en grey formed
in February of 1997
out of the ashes of
the indie band
La:Sadie’s, which
had the current Dir
en grey lineup
except for the
bassist Toshiya. With the addition of
Toshiya to the group, Dir en grey
was born. Their first mini-album,
MISSA, was released only seven
months later. The flashy visual kei
stylings they adopted at that time,
as well as their unique music
potential, quickly caught the eye of
talent-spotter and former X Japan
member Hayashi Yoshiki. Yoshiki
took over production of their music,
and almost overnight, Dir en grey
became a success.
Under Yoshiki’s
musical guidance,
they released Gauze
and a number of
singles. With dark
lyrics and impressive
complexity to their
music, they rose to a
high position on Japanese music
charts. Macabre, their second
album, was released only shortly
afterwards, and built off of the style
they had developed in Gauze. By
their third album Kisou, though,
their sound had begun its evolution
into one that was harder and more
raw. By Vulgar, Dir en grey had
completed the transformation from
visual kei band into metal/hard rock,
and they continued the trend with
Withering to death. This constant
re-invention of their style allows
them to stay fresh and unique, with
each album clearly different from
the one before it.
Throughout all the
stylistic changes,
however, their focus
has always remained
the same. The lyrics
to songs from any of
their albums are
always shocking and
moving, and the imagery can be
gut-wrenching. They discuss
abortion from a fetus’s point of view
(”Mazohyst of Decadence”), and
child abuse from the eyes of a girl
who, carrying the child from her
father’s assaults, cracks and kills him
(”Embryo”). They don’t shy from
talking about suicide (”The Final”);
they passionately sing of the
tragedy of losing people who can
never be replaced (”ain’t afraid to
die”). Dir en grey doesn’t linger
merely on gruesome ideas, nor do
they play such songs merely to
entice the morbid. Instead, as they
run the gamut of negative human
emotion, it is a catharsis of sorts for
them as well as for their audience. It
is a way for them to express
emotions that are normally hidden
from our attention, emotions that
are ignored because they can hurt
too much to contemplate.
While they have yet
to achieve
mainstream success
in Japan, Dir en grey
are definitely a major
cult phenomenon
and their fanbase
continues to grow.
Since 2001, Dir en grey has
expanded beyond Japan. They’ve
played concerts across Asia, in
places like Shanghai, Hong Kong,
and Korea, as well as in Europe at
the renowned German music
festival Rock Am Ring. In 2006, they
moved into the US, performing
showcase concerts across the
country and selling out halls with
seating in the thousands in mere
hours, a major achievement for a
band with absolutely no US radio
airtime or advertisement. Their
performances caught the eyes of
other US bands, and they were
quickly scheduled to perform on the
main stage with KoRn on the Family
Values Tour 2006. Their official
website declares that they intend to
take the world by storm, and they
seem poised to do just that. With an
upcoming release of a new single,
they show no signs of slacking any
time soon.