"Scars" is the sixteenth single by Japanese rock 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 November 18, 1996.

Summary

"Scars" is the band's only single to be written by someone other than

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 ...

, as it was written by the band's lead guitarist hide. The song was originally titled "Scars on Melody", and its B-side is a remix version of "White Poem I" from ''

Dahlia Dahlia (, ) is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico and Central America. A member of the Asteraceae (former name: Compositae) family of dicotyledonous plants, its garden relatives thus include the sunflower, ...

''. According to Alexey Eremenko of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, "Scars" was a glimpse into hide's future experiments in

industrial rock Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Cromagnon, Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten a ...

. The single was reissued with a different jacket cover featuring hide on July 22, 1998, following his death on May 2. The single reached number 15 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 5 weeks. The 1998 reissue also reached number 15. The song was used as one of many opening themes to the music television show ''

Count Down TV (also known as CDTV) is a Japanese late-night music television program, broadcast on TBS since 1993. The program is shown weekly, and features a Japanese music video hit chart countdown, live performances from musicians and music information. ...

''.

Track listing

Personnel

*Co-Producer – X Japan *Mixed by – Eric Westfall *Recorded by – Mike Ging, Kazuhiko Inada *Assistant engineers – C.J. Devillar, Tal Miller, Mario (track 2), Dave Heron (track 2) *Programming by – Kazuhiko Inada *Remixed by Rob Chiarelli (track 2) *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 ...

*A&R directed by – Osamu Nagashima *Art directed by – Shige#11 *Designed by Shigeru Komai *Executive producers – Ryuzo "Jr." Kosugi, Yukitaka Mashimo

References

1996 singles X Japan songs 1996 songs Atlantic Records singles Songs written by hide (musician) {{1990s-rock-single-stub