"Dahlia" is the thirteenth single 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 ...

, released on February 26, 1996.

Summary

"Dahlia" went on to become the title track of the band's 1996 album and one of

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 last compositions in his signature blend of

speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...

and

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitar ...

. The song's title, "Dahlia", appears in the lyrics as an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

during a voice over, which says "destiny, alive, heaven, love, innocence, always, destroy, aftermath, hell, life, infinite". The single was released with two different covers. The B-side is a live version of "

Tears Tears are a clear liquid secreted by the lacrimal glands (tear gland) found in the eyes of all land mammals. Tears are made up of water, electrolytes, proteins, lipids, and mucins that form layers on the surface of eyes. The different types of ...

", recorded on December 30, 1993, at the

Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium. Construction on the stadium began on May 16, 1985, and it opened on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of th ...

. The same recording also appears on their live compilation album '' Live Live Live Tokyo Dome 1993-1996''.

Commercial performance

The single reached number 1 on 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 Nov ...

charts, and charted for 8 weeks. In 1996, with 412,810 copies sold was the 72nd best-selling single of the year, being certified Platinum by

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p ...

Track listing

Personnel

*Co-Producer – X Japan *Orchestra arranged by – Yoshiki, Dick Marx, Shelly Berg *Scored by – Tom Halm *Orchestra –

American Symphony Orchestra The American Symphony Orchestra is a New York-based American orchestra founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski whose mission is to demystify orchestral music and make it accessible and affordable for all audiences. Leon Botstein is the orchestra's m ...

*Mixed by – Yuji Sugiyama *Assistant engineers – Tal Miller, Brad Haehnel, Takaoki Saitoh, Cappy Japngie *Recorded by – Rich Breen, Mike Ging *Mastered by –

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California, United States. He has been mastering music since 1979. Biography Marcussen's introduction to music recording happened in 1976 when, at ...

(Precision Studio)

References

1996 singles Oricon Weekly number-one singles X Japan songs Songs written by Yoshiki (musician) Atlantic Records singles Torch songs {{1990s-rock-single-stub