Dir En Grey

Dir en grey is a Japanese Visual kei band who went major in 1997. Consisting of Kyo on vocals, Kaoru and Die on guitar, Toshiya on bass and Shinya on drums, the band were to become an overnight sensation. Their band's name was created from a mix of German, French, and English.

Originally their style was Visual Kei, daunting, feminine, yet dangerous. Later, they settled down on a vaguely Visual style, but with much less of the feminism. What keeps them visually interesting is that with each album they appear with a drastically new look. Most of their visual kei outfits are extremely elaborate, and as Kaoru claims in a english interview for Newgrave gothic magazine, he likes his outfits elaborate on purpose to make it more challenging for cosplayers, or a costume player, to imitate the look.

They released their first mini-album Missa (1997), and then went on to release Gauze (1999), Macabre (2000) and Kisou (2002). These albums had a strong visual theme to them, and although it is easy to see the progression of the band's psyche across the tracks, they were still a settled style.

The shockwaves came in 2002, with Dir en grey releasing six UGLY, six 'ugly' tracks of American styled music, but still with the faint undertones of Dir en grey's delightful vocal lines in the choruses and bridges. Dir en grey's next album, Vulgar was to be released in September 2003, with the lead track, Obscure, heading back towards the original style. They released a single album titled The Final in 2004 which included four songs- "The Final", "Increase Blue", "RED...[em]", and "The IID Empire"- in which the last three songs are live covers from DEGs Osaka Kouseinenkin Kaikan concert on October 26, 2003.

Despite no longer being so Visual, Dir en grey enjoys to surprise and shock people with each album - moving from hard tracks like "Pink Killer" and "Filth", to rock ballads such as "Mushi" or "24ko Cylinder", and then onto tracks such as "Mr.NEWSMAN" with profound lyrics, but a heart wrenching vocal bridge, or "Umbrella" with its catchy chorus. And with a large variety of albums and singles produced from this band, it's hard to be let down.

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