Even though you might not know who these guys are, DIR EN GREY are HUGE
in Japan! Yeah, sure. How many times has a band said that with a
straight face? Well, they might be able to get away with it though,
because they ARE Japanese. Withering To Death is their fifth
album, but the first aimed at the U.S. market. No Japanese artist has
ever cracked the American popular music market, but the guys in Dir En
Grey are optimistic.
There are some catchy moments on this disc; "C" has some hummable
harmonies, and "Saku" has a hook-ish break in it before singer Kyo rips
into a death metal growl. Speaking of Kyo, you can't help but
acknowlege his huge vocal range. From gutteral growling to
nut-squeezing falsetto, Kyo keeps the songs schizo.
This band might stand a chance at Ozzfest
second stage, if they were singing in English... but the songs are
entirely in Japanese, which makes me wonder how exactly they plan on
breaking through to the cotton-candy soaked mainstream of the U.S.
music-consuming public. If they put out some singles that really grab
you (as they did on their home turf by simultaneously releasing three
singles), then they might just make some noise. Some of these songs
(track 5 for instance: "Itoshisa Ha Fuhai Ni Tsuki") because they're
quite melodic, and somber in tone... only thing is, they're in
JAPANESE. Good luck getting through to the spoon-fed U.S. with that one.
In addition to vocalist Kyo, Dir en grey is made up of guitarists Kaoru
and Die, bassist Toshiya and drummer Shinya, and the lineup hasn't
changed since the band's inception in 1997. Now that they've
established that they can stay together, I am going to be interested to
see if they can write some songs that will generate a response from the
American market.
