Maps of Music

Art of Life (1993)

Where the lyrics of Art of Life take you, and where it was really made.

The whole album is a single 29-minute orchestral track, and this one-song record still went to number one on the Oricon chart in Japan.

Key places

Recorded at One on One in North Hollywood (1993)

Recording site One on One Recording Studios — Yoshiki bought this studio complex in North Hollywood in 1992. The source names it as one of the main recording places for the album. It was later renamed Extasy Recording Studios. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Orchestra recorded at Abbey Road (1993)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — The source names Abbey Road Studios in London as a recording place for the orchestra parts only. The rest of the album was recorded elsewhere. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• Art of Life: fourth studio album by Japanese heavy metal band X Japan
• Released 25 August 1993 by Atlantic Records
• Consists solely of one 29-minute orchestrated title track
• Yoshiki wrote and composed the track entirely in English
• Recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
• Topped the Oricon chart; sales over 600,000 copies
• First album after the band dropped the name X; first to feature bassist Heath

Background

• Blue Blood (1989) and Jealousy (1991) made X Japan hugely popular for a metal/rock band in Japan
• The band sold out Tokyo Dome every year
• 1992: bassist Taiji left and was replaced by Heath
• 1992: Yoshiki bought a recording studio complex in North Hollywood, California
• For this album the band left Sony and signed with Atlantic Records
• Originally intended as a song on Jealousy, with the album split across two CDs
• Release of the song was postponed by three years
• Critic Tetsushi Ichikawa linked the delay to Yoshiki's perfectionism in vocal direction and to various business issues

Recording

• Not recorded fully in Japan or Los Angeles; several locations were used
• Main sites: One on One Recording Studios in the US and Abbey Road Studios in London (orchestra only)
• Heavily orchestrated, with passages of varying speeds and instrumentation
• Inspired by Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony
• In 2011 Yoshiki recalled writing the song in roughly two weeks and recording it over approximately two years
• Lyrical theme drawn from his own life
• The song was unveiled at a concert at the Nippon Budokan on 30 July 1992

Cover

• Cover art made from an actual X-ray image of Yoshiki's skull
• Hospitals refused to take the X-ray without a medical condition to justify the radiation

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• X Japan is a Japanese rock band from Chiba, formed in 1982 by drummer and pianist Yoshiki and lead vocalist Toshi.
• The group began as a predominantly power/speed metal band with heavy symphonic elements and later moved toward a progressive sound with an emphasis on ballads.
• The band is widely credited as one of the pioneers of visual kei, a Japanese movement comparable to Western glam.

Members

• Current members are Yoshiki (drums, piano), Toshi (lead vocals), Pata (guitar) and Sugizo (guitar, violin).
• Hide, who died in 1998, and bassist Heath, who died in 2023, are still considered members by the band.

Career

• The band released its debut album Vanishing Vision on Yoshiki's own Extasy Records in 1988 and reached the main Oricon chart as the first independent band to do so.
• Blue Blood (1989) brought breakthrough success, and Jealousy (1991) debuted at number one.
• The group changed its name from X to X Japan in 1992 and disbanded after its Tokyo Dome farewell show in 1997.
• The band reunited in 2007, toured internationally, and released the We Are X soundtrack in 2017.
• The band has sold over 30 million records.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Nick Butler of Sputnikmusic gave the album a perfect 5 out of 5
• Butler called the title track Japan's Stairway to Heaven, a multi-layered song with a near-mythical reputation
• Butler compared it with Dream Theater's similarly themed A Change of Seasons and found the track more emotional, diverse, intense, impressive and epic
• Butler said the members were more technically skilled on their instruments than Dream Theater's
• Butler finished by calling the track the best song he had ever heard

Reappraisal

• Kazuaki Nakatsuka of Re:minder felt Toshi's vocal performance deserves as much praise as the instrumentalists, if not more
• Nakatsuka cited Toshi's impassioned cry at the end of the song as especially moving
• In 2021 Metal Hammer included Art of Life on its list of The 25 Best Symphonic Metal Albums

Records

• Oricon chart: number one
• In the initial counting week of September 1993, sales were 337,490 copies
• By the end of 1993 sales reached 513,000 copies, the 28th-best-selling album of that year
• By 2013 sales had passed 600,000 copies

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The cover uses an actual X-ray image of Yoshiki's skull, and hospitals refused to take it without a medical condition to justify the radiation.
• The title track was first intended as a song for Jealousy, but its release was postponed by three years.
• The song was first played live at the Nippon Budokan on 30 July 1992, and only a handful of times in its early years.
• At the reunion concert on 28 March 2008, a hologram of the late Hide created from 1993 footage played alongside the band during the song.
• The third movement of the track is included on the 2017 We Are X soundtrack.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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