DIR EN GREY - Darkness And Light

Having shared stages with some of the world's leading rock bands and with a burgeoning UK fan base, Japan's Dir En Grey are finally making an international impact.
Do not stand in their way...

Everything comes to those who wait, but for fans of Dir En Grey, that wait has been agonising. A full 10 years after the Japanese metallers originally formed, their UK fans have finally been given the opportunity to see them play live this August and judging by the reaction, it couldn't have come any sooner. A date at the 800-capacity Islington academy in London miraculously sold out six hours after going on sale despite not being officially announced or advertised and a second gig has been added. Small beans relatively speaking, but for a band with just one official UK album, the recent 'The Marrow Of A Bone', its not too shabby at all. In their homeland, the Osaka outfit have long been established in the mainstream and regularly find themselves positioned in the higher realms of the chart, rubbing shoulders with more lightweight J-pop acts which guitarist Kaoru admits is a little incongruous for a band whose lyrics include "I'll rape your daughter on your grave" and "dear God you're a motherfucker".
"We feel very uncomfortable in the japanese mainstream but I think the reason we are so popular is because there isn't really anyone else doing what we do," explains Kaoru through an interpreter. "I think there are a lot of people in Japan who still have a hunger to hear music like ours and do not enjoy the mainstream pop that is always in the charts. But we are not popular with everyone; the people that like us like us very much, but the people that hate us REALLY hate us!"

THE HARD WAY
The quintet originally began life as exponents of the 'Visual-kei' scene which is characterised (broadly speaking) by an emphasis on aestheic flamboyance. Check out some of Dir en grey's earlier pictures and videos just to compare because more ofter than not, they looked and sounded like ridiculous glam-goth pantomime actors back in the day. Over time, they've put the elaborate wardrobe and gigantic make-up budgets to one side and made gradual strides towards becoming a real band - all of which has culminated in 'The Marrow Of A Bone' clearly being their hardest and most accomplished effort yet. "These songs were written while we were on tour last year so we created them while we were operating as a proper band - that may be why the new album is more aggressive than all the others," Kaoru goes on. "I think some of our old fans may not enjoy the direction we've taken, but it was the mood we were in at the time. Plus, we don't want to be seen as the same old 'Visual-kei' band anymore. That was years ago."
Kaoru's wish is now becoming a reality because Dir En Grey are being recognised and revered across the world for their intense-yet-melodic sound and have held their own in bills next to Korn, Stone sour, and Deftones in recent times. They even had Metallica's booking ageny offer to work for them - a golden ticket to playing with some of the biggest bands in the world - but refused out of loyalty to their long-standing representatives.
Says Kaoru: "We always seem to choose the tougher way to make music and operate the band - I think people respect that."
But as musically adept as they are - both live and in the studio - the band still have the ability to be provocative and shocking in visual terms. Especially indicative of this are Dir En Grey's videos which are frequently on tool levels of grotesqueness and feature Marilyn Manson-style quotas of perversion; look up the track 'Obscure' on You Tube and see if you can get through it without losing your last meal.
"They're not promotional tools like most videos are - they can't be because they don't get shown anyway," continues Kaoru. "We make them as pieces of art and as another part of our music. They expand the song through images; that is why we use them and that is also why I'm proud of them."

CHOOSE LIFE
With lyrics that seem obsessed with death, videos that look like surreal horror films, and a generally dark disposition within the band, it's terribly tempting to view Dir En Grey as a group of tortured souls. Such an evaluation is exacerbated by the persona of singer Kyo who has been known to mutilate himself on stage and spends almost the entirety of the Rock Sound photoshoot staring at the floor as though he were mourning the passing of his dog. But Kaoru (who is amiable at all times during the interview) denies that he, Kyo, guitarist Die, bassist Toshiya, and drummer Shinya are continually suspended in comas of intensity for the sake of artistic effects. "We don't live dark lives or anything like that; in fact, I think we're quite down-to-earth, especially when we are away from the band," the guitarists details. "It's not as though we have any big scares of bad memories from our childhood, but the five of us are deep-thinking people. We cannot be happy-go-lucky-type people. We doubt things more than we believe in things. People might think we're dark people by listening to our album once, but there's more to us than that. For example, one of our songs is called 'Saku' (taken from the 05 album "Withering To Death"), and that's about the experience of being from a broken home and the emotional problems that creates. The guy in the song wants to die but tomorrow always comes and he carries on. We're not saying 'be happy' all the times, but that's the spirit behind a lot of our songs."
And it's that spirit which is propelling Dir En Grey on as they begin to preach their gospel outside of Japan where metal is a much more common commodity than in their homeland. Do while Japanese punters may adore them, does the rest of the world need Dir En Grey as much?
Reasons Kaoru: "Maybe it's not a case of the world needing Dir En Grey, but the world choosing Dir En Grey..."
Whatever your needs, don't think for a minute that these guys will be sheepishly scuttling back to Osaka any time soon.