Okay I haven't done any big massive rant posts for at least a year because people were getting a little annoyed by it and X weren't really doing anything to annoy me too much, but now I'm just too annoyed, so yeah, rant ahead.
If yoshiki needs a break because of tireing himself out from things that aren't the album, then fuck you! fuck that, its your own fault, make the damn album! "Oh dear I've been to so many parties and twilight openings recently I can't do it anymore, my body is week!, I'm fading into the distant scarlet void or some shit, so the hopes for an album or tour are over, I'm going to barbados, yes I've fucked up our bands thirtieth anniversary year, but, I am so tired......TWITTER ME!"
Seriously, fuck.That. If he doesn't finish the album this year (and soon) then I might seriously consider stop listening to the band, I don't really like the direction they've gone with the new songs (they're okay in a few areas, but its just the fact that "everything has to be ballads" now), and how they replace the only remaining ones that aren't from the dahlia album except for Kurenai and X (silent jelousy, well done, another half ballad, and art of life is overplayed now), I don't know any band who does this. Unlike every other band in their forties who do twenty songs a night, X do about seven with some solo stuff inbetween because poor (half faking) yoshiki can't handle the pain. You look at Soundgarden who's songs are way harder to play and they're doing 20+ songs every night on their world tours. Ozzy Osbourne peforms more songs per night on a tour than yoshiki does, and he's a 60+ year old man who's done so many drugs he can barely walk half the time he's up there. I thought a year ago "Ozzy is basically the only heavy metal band live that plays less songs than X which in a way is fair because he's an old man messed up physically by drugs, but if X aren't careful they're going to be playing even less songs than him", and oh look now they are!
Except for Kurenai and X they have removed any part of themselves that really felt like heavy metal, every song now is big and emotional in some way and they come out dressed in big white/pink poultry dresses, Toshi doesn't seem to want to sing with his raw aggresive voice anymore everything has to be clean, the whole approach to anything in X now is to not do anything aggressive at all and be clean and emotional, and I bet that attitude is going to destroy the old songs they're gonna rerecord, Kurenai english version a lot of the time sounds crap. Even when they sing the ballads Toshi can't sing them right anymore, Forever Love seems to be a cursed song because its the only song that makes Toshi's vocals go HUUAAGHIGBLAARIUGRAAAJGFG before his vocal part even begins so they have to cut the song into less than half and he still can't sing the choruses near the end.
If Yoshiki releases the album at the very end of the year I don't know if I should care at that point, because that doesn't really show any improvement or effort on yoshiki's part, it wouldn't show any change to his attitude, the setlists certainly aren't gonna improve, and he's just going to fuck us over again with any future world tour dates, new song releases, or statements that "these new songs will be really heavy" and then we'll get another Jade.
Did I enjoy the London show a year ago? Yes, even with the setlist, I loved the show, but I'm still going to look at this from an outside perspective, and compared to other bands X-Japan fucking sucks right now. If they do make it big in America they're only going to get fangirls like every crap modern band today, because right now they're too flamboyant for essentially anyone else to like them. I'm almost ashamed to be a fan of them as they are now, I wouldn't tell anyone I know about them, because outside of a couple of songs they're too embarrassing, including how Yoshiki acts (and sugizo a little bit) and talks on stage.
And the rest of the members piss me off for not getting on his case either, Pata and Heath can't be completely okay with the direction the setlist and the new songs have gone, Heath and Pata's styles are so different, especially Pata's. Taiji was the only one to do the right thing and critisise Yoshiki for something, Pata and Heath just stand there like "well Yoshiki said he'd leave us and do the band on his own (in other words, I am the band, not you lot) if we're afraid of the world tour, so I guess that applies for everything else too, so imma be quiet".
All of them should be at least on his case about the album, its like they don't fucking care. I'd rather stand up to him even if I got fired and it broke the band up again than put up with this shit.
Them keeping "Psychodelic violence and crime of visual shock" and Kurenai and X in the lives is just a massive masquerade to hide the fact that there is nothing aggressive or heavy metal about them anymore.
