Do YOU know Dir En Grey???

 
      It was bound to happen. To all of you who know me, and who know who my favorite band is... ya'll knew this was coming. >:3 Alrighty soooo, Dir en Grey is an AWESOME Band from Japan! I would say what type of music they play but they have been known to just be under the genre of Dir en Grey because they are so unique. But if you want more, for now lets just say something along the lines of metal. They started out as a visual kei band but progressed their look and their music to a whole other level.
     {FYI: Visual Kei is a style created by Japanese bands where they would dress up in extravagant outfits and throw on some awesome looking make-up and hit the stage just like that, well these looks would basically be their whole thing and some were just for show. Dir en Grey stopped all that because they wanted to step outside the distraction and focus wholly on their music.}So for example, here is a picture of Dir en Grey a loong time ago, when this "over the top" look was the norm for Japanese rock artists:


Wasn't expecting that were you? Well yes, this was one of the MANY looks D.e.g. as well as other bands portrayed when visual kei was all the buzz. Now, do you HATE the way they look and think they look like a bunch of panzy's/ cross-dressers? Don't worry I have more recent things to add from them so just scroll down and move on. However, do you LOVE the way they look  and want to find out more about this visual kei stuff (like I did when I discovered it)? Well then go on! I encourage you! While there are plenty of bands that are all about their look. There are actually a majority of REALLY talented rock musicians under all this makeup. Here I'll start you off, one of the pioneer visual kei bands that created a unique sound that incorporated classical music and a dark rock sound was Malice Mizer. Look them up! If you here just ONE of their songs, you may become hooked to all Japanese music (like I ended up doing teheehee.)

 

     Now, I can't just put up a picture without a video around the same period! Because I'm for damn sure going to give you stuff from their recent albums so I'll humor you. Here is a music video for the song YOKAN from one of their earliest albums (before that picture as well.) This song really portrays D.e.g.'s earlier sound so you can really see the difference from today later on.
 

Before they changed their look they stepped outside of the J-rock (Japanese rock) persona all together and started to create music that made them get a reputation in Japan as an extremely vulgar band. So their aptly-named album VULGAR fit quite well actually. One of the songs' PV's are, till this day, a highly viewed/ controversial video on Youtube based on the lyrics and its disturbing images. Granted their are MANY videos on Youtube that fall under that catagory. OBSCURE is quite the video to behold.

   



     Following shortly after their album Vulgar, came the album WITHERING TO DEATH. And here is where they truly shone, gaining a stronger fan base in Japan and beginning a real exposure in Europe and North America. Withering to Death holds one of their most famous singles THE FINAL. A song that they continue to perform live now and again. This album also holds ONE of my PERSONAL favorites, DEAD TREE. The video isn't special but the song, my goodness... I love that friggin song... *clears throat* OK, moving on.
     After Dir en Grey changed their outfits and wiped their faces, now outside of visual kei altogether, they came out with their next album THE MARROW OF THE BONE. Here is where they really began their touring outside of Japan. They played more in Europe around this time and briefly in the states, but later on progressed to where they would play in all the major cities, more than any band Japan has ever produced.

(A venturing thought: One of the contributors to my group blog http://anbmjjgroup.blogspot.com/, Ena is a huge Gazette fan. Gazette is another famous band in Japan now and tours outside as well. However when they come to the states they play California.... and that's about it. I know it sucks cause I would totally see them if they came to Georgia, but I rub it in her face that MY fav band Diru goes ALL OVER the place yet HER fav, Gazette goes to one, if two places tops. But yeah it sort of shows how famous Dir en Grey has become in comparison to their competitors at home.)

Now to keep this thing moving along, cause I really want to show you MY Dir en grey/ the D.e.g. of today, I'll just go ahead and mention their second latest album UROBOROS. (Even the title is epic.) Uroboros really put Dir en Grey on the map! They become in high demand (among the people who have actually heard of them) and were being recognized by people who've never heard of them. Here is where they began THE ROSE TRIM AGAIN tour to promote the album. This was my first concert. First rock concert, first live concert (besides the ones I did in orchestra at school), first dir en grey concert, and first time I truly recognized my calling (corny but true.) I saw them; by myself, camera-less, and friend-less; this severe from connectivity to the outside world made me experience an experience that is just one of THOSE experienced that just HAS to be experienced and if not experienced, then you never experience life. I will stop the repetitive sentence their to apologize for my obvious passion about this band. But I must appose to you how utterly necessary it truly is. That concert was the best day of my life... including my birth I think.

Here's is the video for the song VINUSHKA, which is the 2nd track off the Uroboros album.

This song... I can't choose favorite songs by Diru because there are just.. sooo many good ones. But... this song *starts tearing up* this song is amazing. T_T *sniff, wipes tears away.* This song was actually a song about the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.. You MUST know what I refer to. Yeah the lyrics are one of those things where you don't understand it immediately and have to use your process of interpretation and even then so might not understand it. But all the same, his voice is so heart-breakingly, breathtakingly wondrous that even if you don't read the lyrics and do not understand a word of what he sings, you still have some sort of emotion pulled out of you.
   I'm gonna add a few tracks off this album so you can listen to them. If you have time, I suggests you actually press play and hear the song all the way to the end. This is quality stuff people.

Here's Ware, Yami Tote:
Dir En Grey- Ware, Yami Tote by anbmjj

And Now Red Soil:
Dir en Grey- Red Soil by anbmjj

Now this post is getting quite long so I'll go ahead to their newest, and by far, their heaviest album to date. DUM SPIRO SPERO. I bought this album recently and boy am I a happy camper. ONE of my favorite songs off the album is Ruten No Tou: 

Dir en Grey- Ruten No Tou by anbmjj

Here is "dreambox"
Dir en Grey- 'Yokusou Ni Dreambox' Aruiwa Seijuku No Rinen To Tsumentai Ame by anbmjj

And now for Akatsuki
Dir en Grey- Akatsuki by anbmjj

Now for some more Pics! :D 


Kyo

  

Die

   

  




Kaoru

 

 

Toshiya

Shinya

 

  

And now for some random photos! i.e. Group shots, singles, humorous.

 

   

  

 

  

 

 

  

So there you have it. THIS is DIR EN GREY!!! *0*