''Withering to Death'' (stylized as ''Withering to death.'') is the fifth studio album by Japanese heavy metal band

Dir En Grey Dir En Grey (stylized as DIR EN GREY and previously as Dir en grey) is a Japanese Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in February 1997 and currently signed to Firewall Div., a sub-division of Free-Will. With a consistent lineup of guitari ...

. Initially published in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

on March 9, 2005, it was the band's first album to be officially released in

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and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. In June 2006, ''Withering to Death'' reached number 42 on ''Billboard's'' "Top Heatseekers" chart.

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included ''Withering to Death'' in its listing of "Top 10 Hard Rock & Metal albums of 2006". In September 2007, ''

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Japan'' rated it number 34 on its list of the "100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time". In Japan, a first press limited edition with a tannish cover in digi-pack and slipcase form with a red booklet was released, while the standard version has a black cover and a purple booklet. The American and European releases received the black cover and contained an additional DVD with the

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of either

-Saku- is the 19th single off the ''Withering to Death'' album by Dir En Grey released on July 14, 2004. It was nominated for best Music Video Award on MTV's ''Headbangers Ball'' in 2006, making it the first ever J-rock song to be nominated for the Awar ...

(

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), "Dead Tree" (

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), "Kodō" (

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) or "The Final" (

); along with live compilations of "Merciless Cult" and "Machiavellism", and selected footage from ''Tour04 The Code of Vulgar sm'. A live version of the song "Merciless Cult" is on the '' Family Values Tour 2006'' CD compilation.

Track listing

Personnel

* Yoshinori Abe – co-producer, programming * Tatsuya Sakamoto –

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, mixing, mastering *

Dynamite Tommy , better known by his stage name Dynamite Tommy, is a Japanese musician, record producer and businessman. He first rose to prominence as vocalist of the punk rock band Color in the late-1980s and early-1990s, but now predominantly works behind t ...

–

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

* Koji Yoda –

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Notes

*"The Final" was re-recorded and released on their 2013 EP ''The Unraveling''. *"Beautiful Dirt" was re-recorded and released on their 2018 best-of album ''Vestige of Scratches''.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2005 albums Dir En Grey albums Free-Will albums