I don't see how that sentance makes sence, you can't just say "they're still X" and expect that to suddenly mean they're still the same X, and Toshi can't just shout out "We are X" and "psychadelic violence crime of visual shock" when they're clearly not the same at all anymore, and the "psychadelic violence crime of visual shock" doesn't apply to them anymore either imo.
The change they've gone through is bigger than any other band, the band to change their style of music the 2nd most is probably Black Sabbath, but at least they still continued to make quality metal tunes. This change X-Japan has taken is just a kick in the face to the old fans, Yoshiki's completely leaving us behind, and I will never understand the people that can't see that and continue to try and make excuses for everything X-Japan does all the time as if they're perfect and can do no wrong, and don't comment back saying you don't think X is perfect, because that's exactly what you're acting like, the comments in many of the world tour threads are staggering with how many ass kissers there are, and those people are boring, not the people who want to rightfully discuss when the band isn't going in the right direction and actually want to help make the band good again.
The truth is They wouldn't have been able to get away with the changes they've made even for a second if they had originally become famous in the U.K/U.S and always performed there, because in 1989-1993 they were a proper heavy metal band, and people in the U.K/U.S respect metal a LOT more it seems. And incase you havn't noticed how metal fans react when bands change for the worse like Metallica, we don't like it when bands we like suddenly start creating songs that show a lack of song writing ability from songs previous, also we consider metal to be one of the top creative genres of music in the world, which is why we don't like it when a style that we feel is completely different, doesn't have anywhere near the same feeling, and requires less talent, is suddenly taking up too much of the setlist, or becomes the direction of new songs for the band.
Can you imagine how the fans would react if Priest, Dio, Sabbath and Maiden for example suddenly stopped playing their metal songs and took up 80% of the setlist with ballads and dancing ballet's to advertise solo projects? People would go insane, and I wish X-Japan had that fanbase, people who actually properly cared for the metal genre of music and realise when they're being left in the dark and stand up to that. It also doesn't help that Yoshiki doesn't allow anybody to have any input into anything, not new songs or musical direction, not anything, and if you anyone tried, well, you know what'd happen. Did Yoshiki actually check, if X-Japan fans liked Violet UK, before he brought them out onto ther stage in the middle of an X concert for the first time? No. Did he check after that if we liked the Violet UK appearence? No, he's brought them out like four more times since then, and did Yoshiki check wether the fans would like the new songs to sound like Violet UK, or the untalented generic metal songs of today? No, clearly he doesn't listen to anything anyone says.
That's what I think and I don't care if anyone gets fed up of my talk about how they're metal, and my comparisons with other bands, because that's what X are, X/X-Japan, is and will always be a metal band, and from there, the less metal songs they make, the more of the setlist is taken up by songs that aren't metal, the worse they become, that's like an unwritten/unspoken rule for the entire genre and all metal bands because I've never seen a single metal band ever do what X-Japan has, and it seems only Yoshiki hasn't learnt and understood that. You can't for example have a metal band that suddenly starts making 80% rap songs, 20% metal and still call them a good band just because some people like rap, because they will always be a metal band, a crap metal band that for some reason makes rap 80% of the time.