Dir en grey is a rock band from Japan that truly defies any genre classification. Their music ranges from Hardcore to heavy rock, techno and sometimes hip-hop beats. Giving this band a truly original sound.
Each song is unique whether it’s a ballad like ‘The Final’ or a death metal single such as ‘Greif’ Dir en grey’s music will always have an impact.
In fact they have already flooded this area. The buzz grew when they packed a show in Texas and sold out shows in both New York and Los Angeles without the help of advertisement or releasing an album in America. The tickets in minutes. It was just their devoted fans patiently waiting to finally see them within the states.
Since the three-city-showcase tour in 2006, they’ve released 2 albums in the U.S. ‘Withering to Death’ and ‘The Marrow of a Bone’.
‘Withering to Death’ was named one of the Top 10 hard Rock and Metal albums of 2006 by Amazon.com and the CDs album track ‘Saku’ was named the #1 video of 2006 by MTV and was featured in MTV2s Headbanger’s Ball.
Dir en grey has also participated in the event ‘The Family Values Tour’ along with American artists such as Korn and Flyleaf.
Then they headlined their American Tour ‘Inward Scream’ and also opened for ‘Deftones’ last month right here at the Save Mart Center.
Many have already seen the band perform. However, lack of advertisement you may not really know who they are. Dir en grey started their career in 1997. They released three singles at once, Something very uncommon. All three singles reached the Top Ten. Dir en grey now has seven albums.
They also began their career as a “Visual Kei” band . It is a movement in Japanese popular culture that used unusual, sometimes flamboyant looks. This usually involves striking make-up, unusual hair styles and elaborate costumes. That image later changed.
They’ve kept their band’s lineup for ten years, which is very rare for bands to say in the U.S. The band’s vocalist is named Kyo. The guitarists are Kaoru and Die. Toshiya is on bass and Shinya is on drums.
Kyo has a voice that has truly broken the language barrier. ‘Deftones’ fans were blown away when they saw the large group of Dir en grey’s fans singing along with the music regardless if Kyo was singing completely in Japanese.
“Kyo is a staggering vocalist.” Stated in a February article written by the Los Angeles Times. They added “he has stockpiled an extreme range of vocal inflections, from a guttural mutter to a tonsil-ripping scream where no effects are needed.”
Dir en grey isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Harsh lyrics, vivid and often graphic music videos, aggressive and bloody self-mutilation displays onstage might turn a few heads in the other direction.
However, they’ve been successful regardless. Stated in an interview by The British Broadcasting Corporation, (BBC) Dir en grey actually “strive to shock with gory images and lyrics.” And the bands lyricist Kyo “Stretches for the most extreme imagery.”
But they have won over countless fans throughout the world, are currently touring Europe and were chosen by Linkin Park to open for them in Linkin park’s Japan Tour. The ‘DOZING GREEN’ Europe tour has begun and the new ‘DOZING GREEN’ single will be released October 24th.
In the BBC interview Dir en grey left a message for “Lovers of eardrum splitting, headache inducing, filth fetish, death metal rockers everywhere.” And the message is “If you don’t mind getting eggs thrown at you, or covered in my blood, we’d love you to come and see us play.”
