''Vanishing Vision'' is the debut studio album by Japanese heavy metal band

X Japan was a Japanese rock band from Chiba, formed in 1982 by drummer and pianist Yoshiki and lead vocalist Toshi. Starting as a predominantly power/speed metal band with heavy symphonic elements, they later gravitated towards a progressive soun ...

, then known as simply X. It was released on April 14, 1988 by

Extasy Records Extasy Records is a Japanese record label founded in April 1986 by Yoshiki Hayashi, co-founder of the heavy metal band X Japan. The label's first release was X's 1986 single "Orgasm". Over the next few years, the label signed several then-lit ...

, topped the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

indies chart and reached number 19 on the main chart.

Overview

''Vanishing Vision'' was released on

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

on April 14, 1988 on

Yoshiki Yoshiki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshiki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義樹, "justice, tree" *義基, "justice, foundation" *義機, "justice, opportu ...

's own label

. Despite being an independent record label, it sold more than ten thousand copies, topping Oricon's indie music chart. But it also reached number 19 on the main Oricon Albums Chart, making them the first indie band to enter the main chart. A limited pressing of five thousand

picture disc Picture discs are gramophone (phonograph) records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or colored vinyl. Collectors traditionally reserve the term picture disc for records with graphics that extend at lea ...

s was also made, that included a separate

flexi disc The flexi disc (also known as a phonosheet, Sonosheet or Soundsheet, a trademark) is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntable. ...

of "Stab Me in the Back". This version of the song was originally included on the February 1987

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

sampler ''Skull Thrash Zone Volume I'', was recorded with

Pata Pata or PATA may refer to: Places * Pata, Sulu, a Philippine municipality * Pata, Galanta District, a village in Slovakia * Pata, Central African Republic, a village * Pata village (Samoa), a village in Samoa * Pontrilas Army Training Area, a ...

as a support guitar player, and is different from the one that would later appear on their third album ''

Jealousy Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety. Jealousy can consist of one or more emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, helplessness or disgus ...

'' in 1991. The band toured extensively in support of the record, beginning with Vanishing Tour '88 Spring throughout March and into early April. Vanishing Tour Vol.2 took them to 20 locations for 24 shows from June to July, while the Burn Out Tour '88 Oct. had 12 performances throughout October. A September 4 show at Kyoto Sports Valley, is a popular bootleg recording of the tour, however, only audio of "Stab Me in the Back" from it was officially released, being included on the 1999 '' Perfect Best'' compilation. ''Vanishing Vision'' was re-released on CD on October 15, 1989. This was after the release of the band's second album '' Blue Blood'' on the major label CBS/Sony. In 1990, with 158,220 copies sold ''Vanishing Vision'' was the 78th best-selling album of the year, and stayed on the charts for 47 weeks. By 1997, it had sold over 800,000 copies. A digitally remastered CD version was released on September 13, 2000 by

Warner Music Japan Warner Music Group's labels include the following. Flagship labels *Atlantic Records * Elektra Records *Parlophone Records * Warner Records Atlantic Records Group * 1st & 15th Entertainment * All Money In * Artist Partners Group * Asylum ...

Composition and analysis

The album's title, ''Vanishing Vision'', was chosen to mean the band was shedding the shameless image they had acquired for a fresh start. Its cover art drawn by Shiro Nishiguchi was inspired by the track "Sadistic Desire", with input from each band member. Yoshiki said that "Vanishing Love," which has roughly half Japanese and half English lyrics, represents human weakness. The other members pointed out that despite being a fast song, the twin guitars and melody are more important. "Phantom of Guilt" has a 16-beat rhythm with lyrics, according to Toshi, about conflict within the human spirit. "Sadistic Desire" is a song from hide's previous band Saver Tiger, originally called "Sadistic Emotion." Yoshiki rewrote the lyrics about violent sex, inspired by the 1986 film '' Blue Velvet''. Unusually,

Taiji Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. T ...

played the bass with his fingers for the track and it contains something of a bass solo. An alternate version of the song would later appear on X's 1991 single "

Silent Jealousy "Silent Jealousy" is a single released by X Japan (then named X) on September 11, 1991. Summary The song's structure is comparable to " Kurenai", opening with a calm intro, performed on a single instrument, followed by a speed metal composition ...

". Taiji wrote the 16-beat rhythm,

slap bass Slapping and popping are ways to produce percussive sounds on a stringed instrument. It is primarily used on the double bass or bass guitar. Slapping on bass guitar involves using the edge of one's knuckle, where it is particularly bony, to ...

song "Give Me the Pleasure" after watching a news report on a murder. The piece is unusual for X in that it uses

minor seventh chord In music, a minor seventh chord is a seventh chord composed of a root note, together with a minor third, a perfect fifth, and a minor seventh (1, 3, 5, 7). For example, the minor seventh chord built on C, commonly written as C– ...

s and has an ethnic drum beat that also used instruments such as the

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

and

cow bell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. Although they are t ...

. " I'll Kill You" is a reworked version of their 1985 debut single. Yoshiki explained that the song is not about killing people as the title would suggest, but is a love song in the vein of a disgruntled married couple. Yoshiki wrote the lyrics to "Alive" to be about human life and life or death in a dream. The intro contains an excerpt of the first movement of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

Moonlight Sonata The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, marked ''Quasi una fantasia'', Op. 27, No. 2, is a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. The popular name ''M ...

. hide stated that the guitar solos in this song contrast with the others on the album because they are more melodic; "a crying guitar." The lyrics for this version of " Kurenai" are entirely in English, it would later appear mostly in Japanese on ''Blue Blood'' and be released as their major debut single, becoming one of their signature songs. While seemingly a love song, Yoshiki stated that "Kurenai" is actually about the struggle of one's heart. hide revealed that it was his favorite X song before he joined the band and was disappointed that they did not perform it when he did, so he had to nag to get them to play it. Both Toshi and Taiji felt that it has a very Japanese feel to it, with Taiji stressing that each member helped arrange it. Just as its title suggests, "Un-finished..." is a short incomplete ballad that suddenly cuts off. Yoshiki came up with the song after the album was completed feeling it needed an ending theme. It would also later be reworked and "finished" for the band's second album.

Track listing

Personnel

X * Toshi –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, voice * hide –

, voice *

– bass, voice *

– drums, voice,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Production *Kinya Maekawa – director *Seiji Komura – director *Masanori Chinzei – recording engineer, mixing engineer *Hikaru Sawamura – mixing engineer *Akinori Yoshino – assistant engineer *Norio Kaziki – photography *Shiro Nishiguchi – sleeve design *NOBU – art direction & design (on CD only) *Mitsukazu "Quincy" Tanaka – digital mastering engineer (on CD only)

References

{{Authority control X Japan albums 1988 debut albums Japanese-language albums Extasy Records albums