Usually when I write one of these articles about "challenging music," meaning music that has layers to it, that contains more than just the regular instrumentation of a pop album, I review a single album by a single group or artist. This article, however, will be different. While it would be quite possible to focus on just one group in the visual kei genre, it would be well-nigh impossible to only review a single album. Since that is the case, I felt it would be better to write an all-inclusive article on three of the best j-rock/visual kei artists.

First off, a definition is certainly in order. Visual Kei is a style of music popular in Japan. It is characterized by flamboyantly costumed musicians performing intricate rock music, often mixing loud, grinding thrash songs next to soft, emotive ballads. The performers tend to be male and tend to dress like women. The style and type of music is believed to have been originated by the band X Japan. However, while an article on the origins of visual kei would be informative, and would by necessity include X Japan, this article is about music that challenges the listener and rewards repeated listening, and is also about bands that I like. With the exception of a few songs, I'm not a big fan of X Japan, and so they will not be reviewed in this article. Instead, I will be discussing Malice Mizer, Dir En Grey and Dope Headz.

Malice Mizer was one of the widest known and most popular visual kei groups (along with X Japan and Dir En Grey). They went through a number of line-up changes throughout their history before disbanding in 2001. Their first album, memoire, featured vocals by Tetsu, who left the band in 1994. This album sounds very transitional as though they were still searching for their style. The vocals greatly distract from the music. It wasn't until Gackt joined the band in 1995 and they released Voyage Sans Retour that Malice Mizer hit their stride, both musically and vocally. Gackt's singing was the perfect compliment to the faster then slower dynamic of their sound. The song "Transylvania" was the first to feature their trademark orchestral arrangements, including a very gothic-sounding church organ. This marks the start of their romantic period. They released one more album with Gackt, merveilles. Considered by many to be the pinnacle of their career, this album fully incorporates all of the disparant elements of their sound into a surprisingly cohesive whole. Rock, pop, goth and classical are all present, usually within the same track. There's even some very well-done calliope music! Highlights include the dark, foreboding calliope-tinged rock song "Illuminati" and the poppish classically-influenced "Au Revoir." After Gackt left the band in 1999, they began to flounder, hunting for a singer and releasing singles from merveilles rather than new music. Eventually in 2000 they added Klaha as their vocalist and released the album Bara No Seidou. Much darker than their previous effort, this album saw the group going in a more goth-influenced direction. Less rock, and no happy sunshiny music, this record was steeped in opera, classical and baroque styles, while brooding about the inevitability of death and the possibility of rebirth. After this album they released a string of singles, the best in my opinion being "Beast of Blood." That song completely obliterates every song on Bara No Seidou, featuring as it does loud industrial rock guitars, pounding drums, inventive programming and great classical flourishes. It's a true shame that Malice Mizer are no more.

Dir En Grey formed in 1997 and appears to be the first and only visual kei band to truly break into America and will soon tour extensively here. (I think X Japan may have toured America, but I have no idea how extensively the touring was or if it even took place, beyond the fact that they changed their name from X to X Japan so as to avoid confusion with the California punk band named X.) Their sound has gone through a number of changes over the years, from symphonic metalish goth rock to straight ahead thrash numbers. Many consider their first two albums, Gauze and Macabre, to be their finest work. Both feature incredibly experimental soundscapes mixed with pop sensibilities, utilizing noise as an instrument, and alternating between beautiful soft passages and raging primal scream workouts. Gauze is the lighter album, being a bit more uptempo than the darkly brooding Macabre but only just. Standout tracks from both albums include "Cage," "Raison D'Etre," "Mazohyst of Decadence," "Macabre," "Myaku," "Wake," and "[KR] Cube." The following album, Kisou, continued in much the same style, but evolved to being a natural extension of their sound. Many consider this to be their best album. The songs themselves perform a balancing act, incorporating discordant metal, ambient experimentation and truly bizarre passages, all within the same song. My favorite DEG track is the song "Embryo" from this album. Other great songs are "Kigan," "24 Cylinder," and "Jessica." Their next few albums represent a bit of a split from their earlier material, seeing the band veer away from their visual kei roots in a more straight ahead metal/thrash direction. Vulgar featured a lot of headbanging but little else. There are a few poppish songs on the album, but no real ballads to speak of, and most of the songs are far more metal than on previous releases. The best song in my opinion would have to be "Obscure," mostly because it harkens back to their other albums. Dir En Grey started to become boring to me, and their next album did nothing to increase my interest. Withering To Death is the first DEG album to be released in Europe and the United States, which is a real shame because it isn't their best album. While there are some really good songs on it, Withering almost completely jettisons their earlier experimentation and is far more straight-forward than their first few albums. And it's more thrash metal, a genre which I'm not very interested in. So the songs I'd recommend from here are "Higeki" and "Itoshisa ha Fuhai Nitsuki," as well as some of the louder songs such as "Dead Tree" and "Koduo." A new album and U.S. tour are both coming next year (2007).

Dope Headz are a group I was lucky to discover, copies of two of their albums having been given to me by an ex-girlfriend. They are a much more obscure jrock group then either Malice Mizer or Dir En Grey. As such, I know very little about them other than they mix a lot of styles into their hard rock/industrial sound, and that they totally kick ass. Both their Planet of Dope and Primitive Impulse albums are loud, experimental and brilliant. The best songs from both releases are "Reincarnation," "With," "Move," "00's," "Paranoia Pig" and "True Lies."

I hope that by highlighting these great bands and this innovative style of music, that other people will want to investigate this branch of jrock music on their own and come to enjoy a sound completely unique and different from anything else coming out of other countries.