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(originally ) was a Japanese Visual Kei band, and the brainchild of Yoshiki Hayashi. They started out as a Japanese rock speed metal band, and later gravitated towards an alternative rock sound, but always retained a huge emphasis on ballads.
Contents

Biography

Early Years (1976-1983)

Plans for the band started in 1976 by Yoshiki Hayashi and Toshi (Toshimitsu Deyama) were only children in school. Influenced by western hard rock, the band was to be modelled after the band KISS. Initial names for the band included Dynamite (1978-1980) and Noise(1980-summer 1982) before settling on X, which was supposed to be only a temporary name until they thought of a better one.

Yoshiki, Toshi & Yuji played live shows in the 1982 & 1983 culture festivals of their Chiba secondary school, where they first publicly performed the original X song, I'll Kill You. They also covered the songs Highway Star (Deep Purple), In The Mirror (Loudness), World Anthem (Frank Marino) and Killers (Iron Maiden) at the festival. The band had previously played other covers of western hard rock bands during the East West Japan audition in 1982, where they played Rock and Roll (Led Zepplin) and Burn (Deep Purple).

Indies era (1984-1988)

1984 saw the release of their first official demo tape, "I'll Kill You." The title song, We Are X and Stop Bloody Rain were the three songs included which showed the band was moving towards power metal.

X seemed to have been publicly inactive between the their demo tape release and the follow-up 2-track EP I'll Kill You, released in June 1985 (Break The Darkness was on side B). The members at that time were: Yoshiki (Drums, Piano), Toshimitsu (Vocal), Yuji (Guitar), Tomoyuki (Guitar), Tokuo (Bass). No record labels would sign the band because of their their form of dressing and performing, which would later become a popular trend in J-Rock music, known as Visual Kei. Not to be stopped, Yoshiki formed his own record label, Extasy Records, with money he and his mother helped provide by selling their family's business. In April 1986. the Orgasm EP was released on Extasy Records, with the title song, and B sides Time Trip Loving (written by Jun) and X. After the release of this started touring. As a side note, the 2nd release on Extasy Records was actually Poison's "Mystery Temptation." Better known as the punk band Poison Arts.

Of course before this they were quite active. The end of June 1985 saw the release of two demo tapes, "X Live" (also known as "Live") and "Endless Dream." They each featured the same 4 songs (Kurenai, Stop Bloody Rain [updated], Lady In Tears, Endless Dream) but with a different track order and alternate versions of Endless Dream.

In July 1985 they contributed a much faster version of Break The Darkness to the Heavy Metal Force III album. This version is very often mistaken for the EP original which is incomparably different.

In early 1986 the "Kurenai" demo tape was released, containing an updated version of Kurenai (in English for the first time), as well as Time Trip Loving and X.

It is often debated whether the infamous "Feel Me Tonight" demo tape was released in 1985 or 1986. The song Feel Me Tonight seems to have been first publicly played at the 1985.11.20 Yoshiki Birthday GIG live, while Stab Me In The Back, the other song on the tape, was never publicly (or at all?) played until 1986. Both songs feature Yoshiki on vocals and we can guess Toshi on drums, as the two switched those very same parts during a famous '86 live part switch performace of 20th Century Boy (a Tyrannosaurus cover). This same year they also covered God Save The Queen.

The summer of that year, believed to be June, was the time of the "Jun Tape" also called the "(Jun) Studio Rehearsal Tape." It had the four songs Right Now, Only Way, Tune Up Baby (aka Junon Baby) and the 4th track was untitled. Only Way in particular was a mainstay at live shows for the year.

On 27 July that year Toshi, Yoshiki & Jun appeared on an NTV show in a segment called 天才たけしの元気が出るテレビ. In August their song Kurenai was the subject of a flexi disc in the "Rockin' f" magazine.

In March 1987 they contributed two songs -Stab Me In The Back & No Connexion- to the V/A album "Skull Thrash Zone vol. 1." The official line-up of the time was Toshi, Yoshiki & Taiji. Their guitarist Isao broke his arm in a car crash so Pata played support guitar but was not yet an official member. In March Hide joined and in April Pata officially jumped aboard, forming the 5-year line-up for which they are most famous. In August that year they released at two Xclamation Haifu GIG live shows, their famous "Xclamation" video tape. It featured the songs Xclamation, Stab Me In The Back and Kurenai (English). 26 December 1987 saw the band perform at the CBS Sony audition, where they played Xclamation, Piano Solo~Kurenai (English) and Orgasm.

First albums (1988-1992)

In 1988 they released their indies album "Vanishing Vision" (April 14, 1988) At that time the members were Yoshiki (Drums, Piano), Toshi (Vocal), hide (Guitar), Pata(Guitar), Taiji (Bass). The album sold out and was repressed in October as a picture disc with a first-press bonus flexi of Stab Me In The Back; sold out. It was repressed again as a CD in October 1989, again in 1991, appeared in some box sets in the 1990's and was once more available on store shelves as a CD in 2001.

Street Rock Video Magazine VOS featured Toshi on the cover of its Nov. '88 tape, which contained live clips of X playing Vanishing Vision & Orgasm along with an interview with Yoshiki, who had already signed the band to Sony by that point. Prior to this Toshi & Yoshiki participated in the L.O.X Shake Hand "compilation album." Instead of gathering unique bands to contribute their songs, various members of bands were amalgamted to make a sort of "dream band." Toshi was one of the vocalists on hand, and Yoshiki, uncredited, played drums. Other stars were Butaman (Tetsu Array), Ishiya (Death Side), Ranko (The Continental Kids), Naoki (Lip Cream), Koh-Itoh (Fools). Interesting to note that besides Toshi & Yoshiki the whole the lot were punk/hardcore bands. This is commonly mistaken as a 1990 release when in fact that is merely the year of the CD-repress as it was originally on 12" vinyl.

In 1988 the band also took part in the movie Tokyo Pop in the role of the band mates of Diamond Yukai.

Early on in 1989 came the ThanX 愛をこめて video, another promo tape with clips of the making of the Xclamation video (the later one, not the 1987 one). On April 21, 1989 X released their most succesful album, Blue Blood.

Getting succes

X Japan era (1992-1997)

By 1992, X was widely known in Japan, and they intended to start focusing on America. In the US there was already a band called X, so they decided to change their name to X Japan. During this period, a feud between Yoshiki and Taiji led to Taiji's departure from the band replaced was replaced by Heath (Hiroshi Morie). Taiji went on to work with Loudness ('92 - '95) and Cloud 9.

X's music, under the caring and determined supervision of Yoshiki, never stopped evolving. Their music ranges from harsh but very emotive speed metal tracks like Sadistic Desire, Phantom of Guilt and Vanishing Love, to moving piano ballads such as Tears and Say Anything, to alternative and somewhat more popish tracks from their last period like "Dahlia" and "Rusty Nail". Arguably their most notable song, Art of Life is a carefully crafted progressive rock/metal piece nearly twenty nine minutes in length. Art of Life was performed live only twice, in the Tokyo Dome on December 30th and 31st, 1993 (This live version lasting over thirty four minutes).

The majority of X Japan tracks were composed by Yoshiki with a handful of pieces composed by hide as well as some early ones by Taiji.

Yoshiki loved classical music, and this influence is apparent in tracks like "Rose of Pain", "Art of Life" and the symphonic composition "Amethyst". He led a project called Eternal Melody which consisted of X's songs rearranged by George Martin and other arrangers for classical performance. The double album, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, was released in 1993. Yoshiki also selected some classical pieces for two compilations called Yoshiki Selection and Yoshiki Selection II. He remade the song "Black Diamond" by KISS into a classical piece listed in 1994's Kiss My Ass album, a tribute to the aforementioned band.

Dissolution of the band (1997)

In May 1997 Toshi announced he was leaving the band, which led to its dissolution in September 1997. Toshi joined a cult, related to nature and music therapy, led by a man named Masaya. Many say that this cult influenced Toshi's departure from the band. He later continued his solo career, saying that his friend Masaya was an inspiration for his new compositions. There are many rumours surrounding the cult and Toshi's involvement in it. Some even say Toshi was brainwashed. It is said that Toshi sued his brother for libel because he tried to convince Toshi not to spend money on Masaya's cult. It should also be said that in 2004, Toshi announced his retirement in singing, after assumptions that the cult brainwashed children as well as child abuse.

After the dissolution of the band, hide continued his very successful solo career with his band hide with Spread Beaver, Pata performed with him on occasion.

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hide's death (1998)

Yoshiki and hide were believed to have been secretly planning to resurrect X in 2000, sans Toshi, and were looking for a replacement singer. Tragedy rendered these plans impossible when hide died in the hospital on May 2, 1998 after a night of hard drinking. He was found hung to a doorknob by a towel. This news stunned Japan's youth; four fans around the country attempted suicide, two of whom died. Much speculation about hide's death has taken place, but no definitive explanation has been found. An apparent suicide, it is thought by some to be an accidental death, but there is not a clear motive for either suicide or murder. Some speculate that the lyrics to the song "Pink Spider" by hide, which was set to be released the day after his death, is a suicide note of sorts. Following hide's demise, Yoshiki entered a state of depression for almost three years, being unable to compose or play.

In late 2000, Yoshiki recovered, and announced the creation of his new project Violet UK, a project involving music, visuals and art. He also collaborated with Roger Taylor in several songs. In 2002 he produced and starred in three commercials for the chain of 24-hour stores 7-Eleven, using some Violet UK music and concepts for those. Unfortunately, as of present, not much else from Violet UK has been shown or released. In the same year, Yoshiki announced he was joining the J-Pop band Globe, to help his long time friend Tetsuya Komuro (in 1991 Yoshiki, on drums, and Komuro, on keyboards and singing, did a musical collaboration under the name of V2, releasing some singles and performing live).

As a side note, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said that he is a big fan of X Japan, which has helped create his image as a different type of politician more in touch with average Japanese citizens.
X Japan line-up
(1983-1983)
(1984)
(1985)
(1985)
(1985)
(1985-1986)
(1986)
(1986)
(1986)
(1987)
(1987)
(1987-1992)
(1992-1997)

Members

Final line-up

Former members

Former members (preceding Extasy Records and professional releases)

Discography

Studio albums

Album Cover Album Date of Release Label
Vanishing Vision April 4, 1988 Extasy Records
Blue Blood April 21, 1989 CBS Sony
Jealousy July 1, 1991 Sony Records
Art of Life August 28, 1993 Atlantic Records
Dahlia November 4, 1996 Atlantic East West Japan

Multimedia

Video games

Videos

DVDs

External links

X Japan
Yoshiki (drums and piano) - Toshi (vocals) - hide (guitar) - Pata (guitar) - Heath (bass) - Taiji (bass)
Albums
Vanishing Vision - Blue Blood - Jealousy - Art of Life - Dahlia
Singles
I'll Kill You (1985) | オルガスム (Orgasm) (1986) | 紅 (Kurenai) (1989) | Week End (1990) | Silent Jealousy (1991) | Standing Sex / Joker (1991) | Say Anything (1991) | Tears (1993) | Rusty Nail (1994) | Longing ～跡切れた Melody～ (1995) | Longing ～切望の夜～ (1995) | Forever Love (1996) | Crucify My Love (1996) | Dahlia (1996) | Scars (1996) | Forever Love (Last Mix) (1997) | The Last Song (1998) | Forever Love (hide Tribute) (1998) | Scars (hide Tribute) (1998) | Forever Love (All Versions) (2001) |
Compilations
X Singles (1993) | B.O.X ～Best of X～ (1996) | Ballad Collection (1997) | Singles ～Atlantic Years～ (1997) | Star Box (1999) | Perfect Best (1999) | X Japan Best ～Fan's Selection～ (2001) | Trance X (2002) | X Japan Complete II (2005)
Other related articles
Luna Sea - Glay - globe - Violet UK - Visual Kei - J-Rock

 

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