Album two of Japanese Artist Month goes under the category of metal. Whether it's progressive, symphonic, heavy, melodic, power, speed, or glam, X Japan has it all. Starting as a power metal band, influenced by American and British glam metal of the 80s, X Japan evolved into more of a progressive sound through the band’s career by incorporating many different styles of metal into their compositions. Aside from the great amount of metal inspiration, the band is responsible for composing some of the best and most emotional ballads in the genre. With historical songs such as “Orgasm;” an adrenaline rushing, three minute speed/power metal piece, and “Art of Life;” a thirty minute progressive, high octane, experimental ballad, simply put, X Japan has gone down in history as being one of the most diverse and influential metal bands in the world.
X Japan’s 1991 studio album Jealousy, is an amazing composition of songs that encompasses every element of the band, beautifully in one package. This being the first album I ever heard of the group’s, I can personally say that it pulled me in instantly. Between its deep innovativeness and experimental uses of the genres, Jealousy is a hard album to put away.
The album starts off with a beautiful piano piece entitled “Piano String En Es Dur.” The song is an emotional journey through minor chords lifting into a more major tonality, but about one and a half minutes through, the calming song is abruptly interrupted by a slew of disgustingly hammered piano blurbs. This is a great way of saying “don’t take this album at face value.” The numbers of hidden aspects underneath each composition are immense.
The album then progresses with “Silent Jealousy;” a seven minute symphonic metal piece consisting of a heart rendering piano introduction, piercing guitar lines, and beautiful classical interludes. This song is a great definition of the band itself. This song feeds into the more late 80s heavy metal influenced “Miscast.” The heavily chugged guitar riffs and powerfully presented vocalizations play against each other really well, creating a great metal experience. The next track, “Desperate Angel,” is as 80s glam as you can get, but damn is it good. Between its well constructed vocal harmonies, driving snare/bass kicks, and fast but muddy guitar solos, this song is 80s metal at its finest.
The album takes a complete U-turn, catching the listener off guard with a one minute acoustic interlude, “White Wind from Mr. Martin,” introducing the album’s first ballad, “Voiceless Screaming.” This track is very interesting in that it is completely acoustic, composed of only piano, acoustic guitar and violin. This makes for a very peaceful calm to a powerfully driven first half of the album.
The album switches back into the pure metal type of sound with the song “Stab Me in the Back.” Influenced more by heavy metal, this song also brings a hint of black metal to the mix, by letting the guitars rule the show and incorporating true metal drumming behind them. The following track, “Love Replica,” is definitely the most experimental on the album with its carnival-esque, ballad type sound. With the piano absent in this song, the guitar act more like they have keys, giving a more defining sound in front of the ambient voices in the background. The band hits the listener with one more glam metal track called “Joker.” This song always sounds like Poison to me, with its travelling vocals and brass section like guitar hits. Whether this song should have been placed this close to the end of the album is debatable in my opinion, because it just feels a bit out of place, but it’s a great chart nonetheless.
Jealousy closes with, in my opinion, the best song on the album, behind “Silent Jealousy,” “Say Anything.” This powerful, nine minute, symphonic ballad is full of many passionate guitar solos and piano lines that can really touch the listener. The strings in the song are always lifting and it builds even when you don’t think the song could build any more. The amount of heart put into this song really makes for a great close to the whole album.
It was tough for me to review this album mainly because X Japan is one of those bands you need to take in all at once. To pick and choose pieces of each album that stick out is really tough, because you really need to hear it all to truly appreciate it. If you are looking to find out more about this band then I encourage you to begin with this album, but please don’t stop here. Over the years, X Japan has become one of my favorite bands of all time, and there are so many good reasons for this. Do yourself a favor and check these guys out.
Here is a link to a free stream of the album on Napster:
http://free.napster.com/view/album/index.html?id=12939538
[If you are into progressive metal, then listen to this album and then listen to their thirty minute “Art of Life” - true appreciation for the art that X Japan produces, starts with this song.]
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