I had an interesting train of thought recently that I wanted to share. (oh yes, Feudal is sharing something that ISN'T Yoshiki hate, hell must be freezing over!)
Yoshiki often seems to subtly make references to waiting for a "right" time to release the album and it's made me think about their first attempt back in the early 90s through to today and how Yoshiki may be waiting for something that will never come.
In 1992, Yoshiki and "X" held a press conference in NYC announcing not only Heath as bass but their switch from Sony to Atlantic Records; a promising sign for the band....or too late? What happened in the USA less than 1 year before this press conference?
Nirvana's Nevermind.
Kurt Cobain, in less than a year, issued a death sentence to hair metal in the West and what exactly did X Japan look like in the early 90s? Worst. Timing. Ever. Any deal was dead before it even started.
I'm a huge Nirvana fan so it's interesting to think about this as I hold both of these bands in such a high regard. Let's fast forward a bit to today, what's the music landscape like right now on the radio? Drake, Cardi B, Post Malone, Ariana Grande. Where's the rock? Rock is no longer mainstream. Fine, music doesn't have to be mainstream to be good....but tell that to Yoshiki. I truly think he's waiting for some catalyst in the USA for him to light on fire with his new album....it may never come. It goes back to my thoughts about a true artist not caring about what others think. No revolutionary band in history, whether it's The Beatles to Nirvana, cared about appealing to what WAS popular. THEY defined what was to become popular.
Yoshiki needs to decide this for himself and accept that X Japan will either remain a legacy band OR blaze new territory and possibly die trying. The rest is history. On a side note about Nirvana, I would love to ask Yoshiki or see him being asked in an interview what his thoughts are on the band and also Kurt Cobain. He must have some opinion on such a prolific artist who was at his peak when they were trying to enter the US market. In all of the interviews I've read/watched, he's talked about a lot of bands and artists but never once Nirvana. I wonder why? Could there be a bad taste left in his mouth that still lives on today?