When the maggots scream

Japanese gore-metal merchants Dir En Grey are one of the most successful non-English-speaking bands to make it on the global hardcore circuit since Rammstein.

The band is fronted by Kyo (real name: Nimura Tooru), a wild-eyed obsessive prone to simulating acts of self-mutilation and regurgitating fake vomit onstage. He makes Marilyn Manson look like a pussycat.

Emerging from the ashes of La:Sadie, the Osaka-based five-piece has always been cautious not to fall into the trap of being labeled a typical Japanese rock band. Language barriers have never been a problem, due mostly to the band's sheer energy and the fact that a scream is a scream in any language.

Responsible for disturbingly crude ditties like "Agitated Screams of Maggots," "Garbage" and "Clever Sleazoid," to name but a few, there's no lack of venomous bile in Kyo's wrath.

"Time is over, ladies and gentlemen. Please die!" he psychotically barks on "Garbage," and the pleasantries don't stop there. On a song called "Beautiful Dirt," he spurts, "He looks down on me, so I will love him until I die. His face is his number-one pride ... Stupid motherfucker - die!"

Initially a byproduct of Japanese visual kei, a movement where dressing up in flamboyant costumes and makeup was seen as cool and trendy, Dir En Grey was on a bandwagon that included the likes of Sugar Trip, Lolita 23q, Death Rabbits and Girugamesh. All the flash and color was basically an excuse to hide the fact that when it came down to the real business of making music, none of them was particularly good.

But then, Dir En Grey have always been a bit different. Making all the right noises and making sure they were heard by all the right people in the business, their colors were firmly tied to the mast from an early stage.

The band caught fire with Yoshiku Hagashi, a much-respected musician/producer from the cult metal band X-Japan and the leading light behind the Exstasy label. He encouraged Dir En Grey to launch a blitz on the Japanese charts with five singles released in quick succession. It was like nothing Japan had ever heard before, and it wasn't long before the band was snapped up by a major label.

Fast and ferocious, but still with enough control to include some half-decent tunes, albums like Withering to Death (2005), a lacerating piece of barbed rock if ever there was one, The Marrow of A Bone (2007) and last year's Uroboros, the band's most diverse effort to date, all showed that Dir En Grey can stay true to their Japanese roots yet still expand their global reach.

Support slots with Metallica and Slipknot, and the honor of being part of Korn's Family Values tour, helped consolidate the issue. Indeed, as the band continues to grow even darker, so too do Kyo's desperate lyrics about sexual abuse and everything else that's nasty about human life.

No doubt one day he will end up burning in the devil's own private furnace. But, for now, it looks as though nobody will be able to stop him ranting about spilling his guts all over you.

"We put a lot of effort into building a universe that is unique and owned by ourselves," Kyo says. Whatever else one may think about their music, that characterization is absolutely true.

James Scanlon can be reached at
features@praguepost.com