is the first album by the Japanese

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Glay Glay (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese rock band, formed in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan, in 1988. Glay primarily composes songs in the rock and pop genres, but they have also arranged songs using elements from a wide variety of genres, includ ...

. It was released on May 25, 1994, by the independent label

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 ...

and peaked at #57 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 ...

chart, with more than 51,000 copies sold.

Overview

As an unsigned band, Glay promoted themselves by handing out flyers on the streets of Tokyo and giving out demo tapes. Eventually, hide of

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 ...

gave one of their demos to his bandmate

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 ...

. During an October 1993 show, Yoshiki and his entourage came to watch and offered the band a contract to his record label

. The drums on ''Hai to Diamond'' were performed by Akira, who left the group in January before its release. Although "Rain" was written and demoed under the title "Julia (Reason For So Long)" prior to this album, the finished version includes lyrics and co-composition by Yoshiki. It and the other singles, "Manatsu no Tobira" and "Kanojo no "Modern..."", were all re-recorded for their second album '' Speed Pop''. "Manatsu no Tobira" was used in the 1994 anime ''

Yamato Takeru , originally , was a Japanese semi-legendary prince of the Yamato dynasty, son of Emperor Keikō, who is traditionally counted as the 12th Emperor of Japan. His name written in kanji can vary, in the '' Nihon Shoki'' it is spelled 日本武尊 ...

''. It was also covered by v eufor the compilation album ''Counteraction - V-Rock covered Visual Anime songs Compilation-'', which was released on May 23, 2012 and features covers of songs by

visual kei is a movement among Japanese musicians that is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics, similar to Western glam rock. Some ...

bands that were used in anime. "Kanojo no "Modern..."" was covered for ''Crush! 3 - 90's V-Rock Best Hit Cover Love Songs-'', which was released on June 27, 2012 and features current visual kei bands covering

love song A love song is a song about romantic love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. A comprehensive list of even the best known performers and composers of love songs would be a large order ...

s by visual kei bands of the 90's. It was performed by Crash49, a one-off supergroup consisting of Mitsu from v eu Yoshihiro from Guild, Aki from -OZ-, Karin from

Nogod Nogod (stylized as NoGoD) is a Japanese visual kei heavy metal band formed in 2005 by vocalist Dancho. Originally named , the band has been using simply Nogod since signing to the major label King Records in 2010. History 2005–2009: Formati ...

and Hiroki from D. In celebration of their 20th anniversary, Glay released exactly 20 years later on May 25, 2014. The two CD/one DVD set includes remastered tracks, re-recordings, demo versions, and a live medley.

Track listing

All tracks written and composed by Takuro except track 5, written by

and composed by Takuro and Yoshiki. # "" - 5:19 # "" - 4:40 # "Kissin' Noise" - 4:50 # "" - 6:07 # "Rain (Glay Version)" - 6:45 # "Lady Close" - 4:48 # "Two Bell Silence" - 4:09 # "" - 5:03 # "Burst" - 3:21 # "" - 4:45

Personnel

* Teru -

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 ...

* Takuro -

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

, acoustic guitar * Hisashi - electric guitar * Jiro -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Akira - drums *Mr. Kitaguchi -

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 ...

*Makoto - keyboards *Takuya Kon -

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

*Naoki Ichikawa -

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 ...

on track 5

References

Hai to Diamond page at Oricon

External links

Glay official web site
{{Authority control Glay albums 1994 debut albums Extasy Records albums