The Angry Men of Osaka have come a long way from the point of view of their international fans. Their native Japan has had them all to itself for a decade now, although the’ve made some noteworthy appearances in the US recently. It’s all the more significant, then, when their first visit to the UK is not one but two sold-out shows on consecutive nights.
Flushed with success after a tour that included sell-out shows in the USA as well as their native Japan, Osaka’s Dir en Grey released The Marrow of a Bone, their sixth full-length studio effort. Although some of the song titles and lyrics are in English, they still insist on performing many of the songs in their own native language - not that it’s very obvious given the in extremis screaming that is Kyo’s vocal trademark. The nu-metal influence is a little more obvious this time around but nevertheless they deliver a record that is characteristically original and difficult to pigeonhole.
J-rock has a reputation for producing some very unusual sounding bands to put it mildly. The likes of the Boredoms and more recently Melt-Banana have shown how raw noise can also be (usually) musical, while the Mad Capsule Markets and L’Arc en Ciel have taken the concept of heavy rock and fused it with other influences that work together in remarkably improbable combinations. Another name that often crops up is that of the Osaka outfit Dir en Grey, who have been recording together as a band with no change in line-up since 1997.
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