Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Number 76 / Dir en grey

	Top 100 Japanese Music Artists: Number 76 09/16 - 76. Kyosuke Himuro He's got a dark look to him. Looks like he was a member of Boowy then went solo. Ealy-mid 90s music. I dunno much about him. Guess what came in the mail today? Thats right, Dir en grey's new album, VULGAR! As well as move's new mini album, DECANDANCE, and their best of album, super tune. But the big thing is the Dir en grey album. Why you ask? It's ranked numebr 2 on the Oricon charts, which is the highest any album of theirs has ever gone I think, but it has somethign special in it. I was excited as I first opened it, cause I like to see what the design is inside... I got the special edition so it has the DVD inside the case with the regular CD. But then I opened up the booklet and after looking at the beautiful, yet disturbing pictures in the back (Shinya has a picture of him holding his own head lol) I turned to the middle and about 4 things fell out. One was a t-shirt add, the next was an order form for their maxi single and new concert DVD coming out later this year, another was something about the DVD, and the last thing... thats what got my attention. It was a mini booklet that had the album cover art on it. So I was like... this is odd. So I open it up and what, to my most pleasant surprise, do I find? It's a booklet that has english translations to ALL of their songs on this album. I was like WOOT! But thats not the best part. I couldn't figure out why they would do this, then I read the intro to the mini booklet. It went into how the economy in Japan has been really bad, therefor having a negative energy affecting all, including the music industry. This is why the top 5 artists on the charts are all foriegn, at least at the time this was written... probably all American... most likely Linkin Park and some other bands. Then the guy who wrote it goes into Dir's history as a band, their albums, and then at the end it says this: They carry a massive weapon. The weapon is not their musical technique. Their weapon is the cry from their souls. The songs they make hit everyone's heart so forcefully, that the lyrics they shout burn inside our hearts, and the melody deepens. The sourse of all this comes from their souls trembling with pain, making them cry out. Right now, they aim to hit the world from Japan. I have much faith and expectation in them that I would like to say to them, "The manguage barrier doesn't exist in great music" This is what Jimmy and i have been saying for so long... well the last part at least. But this oculd mean some big things... Dir has been seriously contemplating a US tour, and this booklet was obviously aimed at the American and Australian fans, and the small number int he UK. So this means even better things. Or maybe an album in full english, though Kyo's english is horrible. He'd have to let Kaoru sing lol. But yeah, I was really excited about this and it could mean some more exposure in America for Dir. They already had a feature in some magazine here a while back. I really honestly hope they can at least get a bit, if not some exposure in the American limelight. Although I have to admit, they are fairly popular here but it's usually amung Japanese music fans or really hard rock fans who found them through something. But I can't go up to my friends and ask anything about Dir without getting a "are you on drugs" look from them. Hopefully some type of American exposure can come soon. As for the album, I personally have no listened to it yet, not much in a rock mood right now, plus I just got off work an hour or so ago. I will listen tomorrow and put up a review I guess. I would like to scan the pictures and post them but if my server was being a bitch like it was earlier then who knows... I honestly couldn't figure out what was wrong... anyway. Maybe even make a new Dir en grey layout for this MyOtaku thingy. While writing this I was listening to DECANDANCE by move. It's a little mini album composed of 7 songs, but 7 new ones. I honestly wasn't too impressed. They went away from the trance sound they had on their last album, and now it's almost more like the old move, but more rock influenced. I heard at least 4 songs on the album with prominant guitar sounds in them. Not that it didn't sound bad, they were actually pretty good, but just not what I was expecting from move. Seemed motsu was lacking again, and Yuri's voice isn't so prominant in themusic much... t-kimura grw a little beard thingy and he looks like some old chinese martial arts master now lol. Yuri is sexier though, you'd like the pictures Jimmy. :p Oh yeah, no new Strong Bad e-mail today. He made a new issue of Teen Girl Squad which was rather funny. lol, So go check that out!

Comments (1)