Watch Dir En Grey play live in Germany, and you'll find a very odd phenomenon in full flow: a vast gothed-up tribe of fans far beyond the point of hysteria, singing along passionately to every word in Japanese - as five skinny musicians mix Maiden-esque breaks, metalcore-ballpark riffing and an unabashed sense of native melodrama, along with rhythms and intonation that don't quite conform to standard Western pacing.

Originally having come from Japan's glammed up 'visual kei' movement, DEG's more standard rock'n'roll attire has been aligned with a movement called 'J-Rock' which is sweeping the continent. Scandinavia has fallen, and now the band are set to make a splash in the UK, getting their first proper release on these shores with latest and sixth album, 'The Marrow Of A Bone', backed by an utterly fucked up video for 'Obscure' (www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG4L3_rrqjo). [yes, there's actually a YouTube LINK in that article ~ Tsukiyo] Its diverse, sometimes progressive sound may need slight adjustments to acclimatise to, but what is it that induces such devotion, with fans over here willing for out 28 quid for a ticket at the Underworld? Turns out the band are wondering the same thing.

"We're getting used to the situation in Germany now," says frontman Kyo through an interpreter, "but we still don't know why we're getting the reaction we do. Maybe we must be the ones to find that reason why. And then we'll tell you!"

The band are determined to make clear that, all their former gaudiness, and the theatricality of their blood-spattered live shows, the purpose of the band has only been derieved from within.

"Our songs come from pain and anger, but our sound has become much deeper and wider in emotional expression," Kyo explains. "So maybe for new people not familiar with our music it might be hard to understand what we're trying to express, because what we do isn't simple. There's no obvious, rational form for sadness, and this album wasn't made with the purpose of appealing to Western audiences. We created the sound for ourselves. Otherwise we'd make an attempt to sing in English. We're not trying to 'invent' a new style of music bringing Western and Eastern elements together, but maybe if we tried to sound American, for instance, we would never succeed. It would always sound different because of who we are."

JONATHAN SELZER