Uroboros

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Uroboros
Studio album by Dir En Gray

Publication
(s)

November 11, 2008 (US)
November 12, 2008 (JP / EU)

Label (s) The End Records (US)
Firewall Div. (JP)
Gan-Shin (EU)

Format (s)

CD + DVD (Deluxe / Limited Version)

Genre (s)

Heavy Metal
Progressive Metal
Metalcore

Title (number)

13

running time

58:58 (Regular Edition)

occupation

production

Dir en gray

Studio (s)

  • Studio intimate
  • Sony Music Studios
  • Sound Crew Studio
  • Studio Fine
  • Studio Sunshine
  • Prime Sound Studio Form
  • Wang GuangRecLabs
  • Towerside
  • Studio Somewhere
  • Studio Kolkhoz
chronology
The Marrow of a Bone
2007 		Uroboros Dum Spiro Spero
2011

Uroboros is the seventh studio album by the Japanese J-rock band Dir En Gray . It was released on November 11, 2008 in the United States by The End Records, a day later by the independent label Free-Will in Japan and by Gan-Shin in Europe . The album was named after the Ouroboros symbol, a snake biting its tail. It should stand for continuity and the return of the band to the pre- Withering to Death era and take up topics such as guilt and rebirth .

The album cover was designed by Koji Yoda and is inspired by the cover of the album Lizard by the band King Crimson from the 1970s.

Emergence

After the end of the 2007 tour, which also included the Wacken Open Air , a large part of the songwriting was completed in January and February 2008 on an individual basis. According to the guitarist Kaoru, this served to ensure a greater variety of songs and to try something new. The official recordings of the new album were targeted for the beginning of 2008, but postponed to March 2008. The recording of the first songs began in the spring in the Sony Building in Tokyo. New instruments such as the mandolin , congas , e-sitar and biwa were also used for the recordings to create a unique sound. Singer Kyo focused on shouting less to allow for a softer composition. Kaoru and Die tested several guitar models and recording techniques for the album, including some guitars that were recorded directly from the amplifier . The singles Dozing Green and Glass Skin , which were part of the process of creating the album, are also on the album, but were re-recorded in English.

promotion

The Californian radio station Indie 103.1 was allowed to exclusively play songs from the new album on October 19, 26 and November 2. For that were Red Soil , Dozing Green , Glass Skin and Gaika, Chinmoku ga Nemuru Koro chosen. During the promotion of the album, the song Stuck Man was referred to as Third Time Does the Trick , the name has been changed for the final track list.

For the first time in the band's history, an album was first released in the United States. The album came out there as a download, a standard CD, a limited edition and a 12 "LP with a card for downloading the album. In Japan three different versions were released: Standard, Limited and Deluxe. The number of deluxe versions was limited, they could only be purchased by pre-ordering. The release in Europe started on November 12th by Gan-Shin. The Regular Edition contains only the songs from the album, while the Limited Edition contains three bonus tracks.

The Relentless Tour '09 promotional tour was organized by Kerrang and traveled through Ireland and the United Kingdom with bands such as Mindless Self Indulgence , Bring Me the Horizon and Black Tide . In February 2009 the Tour 08 The Rose Trims Again DVD was released, in the summer the 09 Feast of V Senses Tour took place in Japan and other appearances at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park .

style

According to the guitarist Kaoru, the album is even darker and heavier than previous albums and should also contain religious and oriental moods, but the hard and heavy atmosphere of The Marrow of a Bone should give way to more elegant instrumentation. The titles of the first two songs on the album, Sa Bir and Vinushka, come from the Tibetan and Russian languages, respectively.

The style of the band is described as "melodies crossed with sections bordering on Metalcore ". While the opening song Sa Bir is an instrumental and only muffled screams can be heard in the background, this style is more evident in songs like Vinushka , Red Soil , Stuck Man and Dozing Green with their growling and screaming passages. This fusion of styles can be heard most extreme at Bugaboo , where calm, melodic vocals alternate with deep growlings.

Toguro , Glass Skin and Ware, Yami Tote ... are very melodic, carried by calm singing. Inconvenient Ideal also falls into this category, with the unplugged version accompanied by organ playing . The specialty of Glass Skin and Dozing Green is that the lyrics on the album are completely in English.

Reiketsu Nariseba and Gaika, Chinmoku Ga Nemuru Koro are close to metalcore and convey a mood of anger, hatred and despair.

reception

The album was well received by the critics. The band would deliver an experimental album with Uroboros . Above all, the versatility of the music and the continued use of Japanese lyrics were praised. Given the heavy promotion of the album in the United States, with mostly English song lyrics, it was feared that this might have changed. Criticism was expressed of the repetitive style of the songs, which some interpreted as a strength. Despite the versatility of its songs, the album is structured in such a way that it sounds like a single continuous song.

The album peaked at # 114 on the Billboard 200 album charts. It was the first time in the band's history that they reached a position on these music charts . In Japan, sales rose to over 36,000, which was enough for fourth place on the Oricon charts . This was Dir en Gray's best ranking since the album Kisou in 2002, which reached third place.

Track list

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Uroboros
  JP 4th 11/12/2008 (9 weeks)
  US 114 11/29/2008 (1 week)
Singles
Dozing Green
  JP 3 October 24, 2007 (5 weeks)
Glass skin
  JP 6th 09/10/2008 (7 weeks)

The lyrics were all written by Kyo. As usual since the album Vulgar , the composers of the individual songs are not named, but the band name Dir en gray is given.

Track list CD:

  1. Sa Bir - 2:00
  2. Vinushka - 9:35
  3. Red Soil - 3:24
  4. Doukoku to Sarinu (慟 哭 と 去 り ぬ, lamentation and abandonment) - 3:48
  5. Toguro (蜷 局, vortex) - 3:57
  6. Glass Skin - 4:27
  7. Stuck Man - 3:34
  8. Reiketsu Nariseba (冷血 な り せ ば, If I were in cold blood) - 3:33
  9. Ware, Yami Dead ... (我 、 闇 と て ･ ･ ･, I, the darkness) - 7:01
  10. Bugaboo - 4:43
  11. Gaika, Chinmoku ga Nemuru Koro (凱歌 、 沈 黙 が 眠 る 頃, hymn of praise, the time when silence sleeps) - 4:42
  12. Dozing Green - 4:05
  13. Inconvenient Ideal - 4:23

Bonus songs:
American Version: 14. Glass Skin (Japanese version) - 4:28
15. Dozing Green (Japanese version) - 4:08

American Vinyl Edition: 14. Dozing Green (Japanese version) - 4:08
15. Undecided (Re-recorded B-side by Glass Skin Single) - 4:58

European Limited Edition: 14. Glass Skin (Japanese version) - 4:28
15. Dozing Green (Japanese version) - 4:08
16. Agitated Screams of Maggots (Unplugged, b-side von Glass Skin Single) - 3:08

Bonus CD / DVD: Track List CD (Japanese Deluxe Edition & Limited Version):

  1. Ware, Yami Tote ... (我 、 闇 と て ･ ･ ･) (Unplugged) - 6:39
  2. Inconvenient Ideal (Unplugged) - 4:23
  3. Red Soil (Unplugged) - 3:25
  4. Dozing Green (Before Construction Version) - 4:19
  5. Dozing Green (Remastered Japanese version) - 4:08
  6. Glass Skin (Remastered Japanese version) - 4:29

Title List DVD (Japanese Deluxe Edition):

  1. Recording and interviews
  2. Toguro (蜷 局) (Studio Live)
  3. Dozing Green (Studio Live)

Title list DVD (American Limited Edition):

  1. Repetition of Hatred (Live at Zepp Tokyo, December 22, 2007)
  2. Agitated Screams of Maggots (Live Take at Zepp Tokyo, December 22, 2007)
  3. Hydra -666- (Live at Zepp Tokyo, December 22, 2007)
  4. Dead Tree (Live at Wacken Open Air, August 4th 2007)
  5. Dozing Green (Live on Tour 07 The Marrow of a Bone, 2007)

Singles

Dozing Green

The single was released in Japan on October 24, 2007. The Japanese version contains two B-sides, the European version lacks the song Hydra -666- . The song is a new composition by Hydra from the Macabre album . The music video for Dozing Green shows elements from the horror manga "The Drifting Classroom" by Kazuo Umezu . The video was voted video of the year 2008 in the MTV-2 show “Headbangers Ball”. The music video for Hydra -666- can be found on the DVD In Weal or Woe .

Track list CD:

  1. Dozing Green - 4:05
  2. Hydra-666- - 3:36
  3. Agitated Screams of Maggots [Live] - 4:33

Glass skin

The single was released in Japan on September 10, 2008. The cover was designed by the Osaka artist Genta Kosumi. The album was released in a regular and a limited edition. The B-Side Undecided is a new composition of the song of the same name by Kisou . Agitated Screams of Maggots -Unplugged- is an unplugged version of the 2006 single. The live performance of Ryoujoku no Ame took place on May 23, 2008 at Yokohama Blitz.

Track list CD:

  1. Glass Skin - 4:30
  2. Undecided - 4:58
  3. Agitated Screams of Maggots -Unplugged- - 3:08
  4. Ryoujoku no Ame [Live] - 4:19

Contributors

  • Dir en gray - producer, composer
  • Jun Fukamachi - piano , organ
  • Tadasuke - piano
  • Hiroshi "Dynamite Tommy" Tomioka - Executive producer
  • Yasushi "Koni-Young" Konishi - recording, mixing
  • Akinori Kaizaki - mixing (unplugged CD)
  • Ted Jensen - mastering
  • Kazushige Yamazaki - mastering
  • Hiroyuki Kondo - director, camera
  • Mitsuhiko Koechi - video lighting
  • Koji Yoda - Art Director , Art Design
  • Toshio Sakurai - Art Design
  • Satoshi Mizuno - Art Design
  • Genta Kosumi - illustration
  • Takato Yamamoto - illustration
  • Shigeo Kikuchi - Photos
  • Jewels - translator
  • Yuichi “You” Masuda - Interviewer (deluxe DVD)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Dir En Gray, Interviews. ( Memento from January 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) VerdamMnis WebZine, October 28, 2008
  2. ↑ a b c Begins Work On New Album. ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. blabbermouth.net @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.roadrunnerrecords.com
  3. ↑ a b c Dir en gray - Uroboros. cdjapan.co.jp
  4. ↑ a b Alternative Music And Lifestyle Website.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Planet Loud@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.planet-loud.com  
  5. ↑ a b Dir en gray - Uroboros (Limited Europe-Pressing) JaME Germany
  6. ↑ Big Sales Week For The Faceless, Dir En Gray, Behemoth . Metalsucks
  7. ↑ DIR EN GRAY- リ リ ー ス -ORICON STYLE ミ ュ ー ジ ッ ク
  8. ↑ DIR EN GRAY- リ リ ー ス -ORICON STYLE ミ ュ ー ジ ッ ク oricon.co.jp
  9. ↑ UROBOROS DIR EN GRAY の プ ロ フ ィ ー ル な ら オ リ コ ン 芸 能 人事 典 -ORICON STYLE. oricon.co.jp
  10. ↑ Charts US