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X-Japan was a
Japanese rock band, the brainchild of
Yoshiki Hayashi. The band started under the name X in
1976, when its original members - Toshimitsu Deyama and Yoshiki Hayashi-
were only 12.
The band didn't go major until 1987, with the release of their first
single オルガスム ("Orugasumu"). The members at that time were Yoshiki
on
drums and
piano, Toshi on vocals, hide (Always spelled with a lowercase H, real
name Hideto Matsumoto) and Pata (Tomoaki Ishizuka) on
guitar and Taiji (Taiji Sawada) on
bass. No record labels would sign the band. Not to be stopped, Yoshiki
created his own record label -
Extasy Records, with money he and his mother helped provide by selling
the family business.
In 1992, X went global, and this is when they changed their name to
X-Japan, as they moved out to America, to try and make it big. It was
around this time that an argument occurred between Yoshiki and Taiji,
which had dramatic consequences. Taiji left the band, and was replaced by
Heath (Hiroshi Morie).
X's music went a long way, from
trash metal tracks like "Sadistic Desire" and "Phantom of Guilt", to
moving piano ballads, like "Tears" and "Say Anything", becoming one of
Japan's biggest bands. One particularly notable song was "Art of Life", a
progressive rock/metal piece that was half an hour long that they only
played live once, in 1993.
X released 4 successful albums (Vanishing Vision, Jealousy,
Blue Blood and Dahlia) before their eventual dissolution
in 1997, after a few differences between the members. Each of the members
went off to head on sucessful separate careers; Yoshiki with
Globe and
Violet UK; Hide with
Spread Beaver; Pata and Heath with
DopeHEADz; Toshi solo, and Taiji worked with
Loudness and
Cloud 9 for a while.
Plans were in order to reunite X in 2000, sans Toshi. These were
scrapped when hide was found dead in his apartment on
May 2,
1998 after a typical night out of hard drinking. An apparent suicide,
it's thought to be an accidental death, with no apparent motive for either
suicide or murder. Yoshiki hasn't played the drums since.
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