The Japanese market is very different from the European and the US ones. Many bands that don't mean much in the last two scenes prove to have a great impact in the land of the rising sun and most of the times schedule full scale tours in venues filled with crazy metalheads. In this separate Metal 'league' are born bands that also become very popular but cross Japan's borders in extremely rare circumstances.
For the above reasons I greatly respect the Japanese Metal brothers and I am always curious about albums coming from their country. One of these cases is the band named DIR EN GREY. Actually their name is not strange in the Metal community outside Japan especially after the Withering To Death release in 2006.
Western and Eastern civilizations have many differences in philosophy and life style that come to life through all the artistic activities like film movies and of course music. Uroboros is the perfect example of the aforementioned differences that make an impressive 'appearance' after the strange and kind of dark covered intro Sa Bin. Vinushka clocks almost ten minutes and will separate the wheat from the chaff, the lovers and the haters of DIR EN GREY. Kyo's mainly nasal vocals are -at least I believe- original and have a multi-personality travelling at ease from clean Gothic to Black Metal territories. The song's structure follows a mid tempo with sudden bursts that in my surprise don't sound irrelevant but follow an emotional pattern. In fact this tempo and sound changes are the main element of DIR EN GREY's music; the slow parts give their place to fast drums, screaming vocals and -yes- headbaning riffs. Personally, I enjoyed this song structure that is there to shock you just like the Japanese thriller movies do. In an attempt to note down some of their influences I could mention TOOL with the strange sounds and the heavy bass guitar in Toguro, Dozing Green or Stuck Man. Some Metalcore additions surface up in the groovy and heavy staccato breaks in Bugaboo and Reiketsu Nariseba; these tracks also feature some really bizarre and 'sick' vocals that made me think of Marilyn Manson at least for a while. Of course significant role to their success play the Gothic backbone served with heart bleeding vocals, clean guitar arpeggios and moody melodies that actually fit to the band's image.
DIR EN GREY convinced me to search more the Japanese Metal scene because this album is interesting in a special way that I find hard to explain. For sure the Japs have some very good ideas not only for movie scripts but also for music. Check below the video clip for the track The Final from the Withering To Death album.

The Final