Posts tagged: visual kei

Dogma, the eighth album from Japanese heavy rock sensation the GazettE, is set for release digitally in Europe on 26 August, a week before Japan (2 September) and the rest of the world (4 September) get it! Dogma will then be physically released on 2 October.

Dogma is engineered by Ted Jenson (Bring Me The Horizon, Deftones, Pantera) and 2013’s Beautiful Deformity album which peaked at number five in Japan and climbed into the top 10 global iTunes charts on the back of the band’s world tour.

Fans were given a taste of Dogma in early August this year when the band released a lyric video for the album track “Ominous”. Metal Injection hailed the song as “Japan’s answer to bands like Katatonia… and Porcupine Tree”. A week later the GazettE followed it up with a sampler of the entire album on their YouTube channel.

Formed in 2002, the GazettE have risen to become one of Japan’s most successful rock bands, refining and redefining the boundaries of rock music and achieving continual chart success with their often heavy, ominous sound. They emerged from the “visual kei” scene, a Japanese cultural music and fashion phenomenon associated with elaborate make-up, hairstyles and costumes.

the GazettE have played sold-out “one man lives” (a Japanese term for shows with a single band on the line-up) at the mighty Nippon Budokan, Saitama Super Arena and Japan’s 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome and have undertaken numerous packed world tours. The band even managed to bring Shinjuku Station – the world’s busiest transport hub – to a halt when a guerrilla gig got out of hand and tens of thousands of fans arrived within minutes of the news breaking on social media.

The mid-2000s saw the group turn heads when their independent, self-produced EPs began reaching the top three in Japan’s indie charts, and they even broke into the top 30 of the official album chart. By 2005 the band had reached the top 10 of the official singles chart with the indie single “Reila”, and followed it up with their first major album Nil (Nameless Liberty Underground), entering at number four. Major labels came calling and the rest is history.

Even today the GazettE maintain their independent ethos by remaining completely self-produced. Their energy, artistic vision and power has made the GazettE a serious force in spearheading Japanese rock to the world, and reignited interest in “visual kei” on a global scale.

JPU Records has also re-released the GazettE’s first three major-label albums Nil, Stacked Rubbish and Dim, out now on CD with exclusive new translation booklets. They’re also available digitally on iTunes and Spotify, amongst others.

Dogma tracklist:
1 Nihil; 2 Dogma; 3 Rage; 4 Dawn; 5 Deracine; 6 Bizarre; 7 Wasteland; 8 Incubus; 9 Lucy; 10 Grudge; 11 Paralysis; 12 Deux; 13 Blemish; 14 Ominous (video)

the GazettE are Aoi – guitar (Twitter); Reita – bass (Twitter); Ruki – vocals (Twitter/Instagram); Kai – drums (Instagram); Uruha – guitar