X Japan

The X Japan group (formerly simply called X) was founded around Toshi and Yoshiki, two young Japanese, in 1982 and became the forerunner of the visual key (rock especially marked by the outrageous look of musicians very inspired by Kiss). At the beginning, Yoshiki insists with his hesitant friend and eager to pursue a career in medicine. Finally, Toshi will give in and the duo will soon try to recruit musicians. In 1985 the band released its first demo, a thousand copies of which the band struggled to find a label and for that Yoshiki founded his own label (Extasy Records) helped financially by his parents. The totally unstable line-up finds a semblance of tranquillity around Toshi (chant), Yoshiki (battery and piano), Hide (guitar), Pata (guitar) and Heath (bass), and allows the release of Vanishing Vision (1988) (always called X), the first album, laying the bases of a genre between rock and heavy metal and sold at about ten thousand copies. Ettasy Records also signed its first bands, other than X, with Ladies Room and Zi:Kill. With Blue Blood in 1991, the band found its way to success by placing several singles in the equivalent of the Japanese top 50, the band also began its first tour. The band will receive the Best New Artist of the Year Award at the Japan Music Awards. In 1992 Taji was fired from the group in a somewhat unexplained manner. Yoshiki virtuoso known (but also imbu of himself), will set up a 35 minute long title that will be released under the name Art of Life (1993). Long title interspersed with a piano solo of about fifteen minutes often considered as the master piece of the band. The drummer/pianist shows that he is really in the middle of everything for this music, until the artwork where he alone is represented. Despite its conceptual side the album will be a success. At the end of 1995 in order to avoid legal problems the group was called X Japan , an American group already known as X . After that, X Japan envisages a turning point in his music, and it is with Dahlia (1996) that he will operate it, almost all the songs become walks. We will remember above all Forever Love , used in the movie X-1999, the adaptation in film of the famous series X (studios Clamp). At the end of 1997 the band announced its next separation, the band will give its last concert on December 31, 1997 (The Last Live). After that Hide (one of the guitarists) will be found dead (accident or suicide the doubt remains) 5 months later (May 2, 1998), his death will cause a wave of suicide forcing the group to ask fans to stop this. The band will play Forever Love for the final time at Hide's funeral, where 80,000 fans attend. Some members can be found in different groups like Dopeheadz with Pata, Heath and Ina (which splits in 2003), Ra:in, Rats, D.T.R, Otokaze, ...
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