App News: Dir En Grey release official iPhone app

It's been a busy few weeks for Dir En Grey. They've released their new album 'Dum Spiro Spero', started a world tour in support of the album in Germany at the Wacken Open Air festival last week and are due to play at the Camden Koko in London this coming Friday (providing certain troubles in London don't say otherwise). Now they are reaching out to their fanbase further with the introduction of an official iPhone application!

The 'Dir En Grey - OUROBOROS' app is based on their previous album 'OUROBOROS' released back in 2008. (A somewhat odd choice to me personally seeing as the new album has just been released, but then again it is potentially the album that most UK fans are familiar with.) It features photos from their two concerts at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo that was later released on CD/DVD along with slide shows, access to setlists from concerts and app exclusive extras to customise your handset with.
Below is the official information for the app -

"The app features live photos from the 2 DAYS show at NIPPON BUDOKAN in January 2010. On top of that, the app offers live photos from their domestic and overseas tour including shots from their appearance at music festivals. Carefully selected photos from the official photo book for sale only by mail order in Japan and unreleased photos are presented in realistic, sensational and uplifting feelings of DIR EN GREY’s live.
When you tap on a photo, you will be able to view the set list of each show. You also have the option to view photos as a slideshow and have access to checking out some band interview. The app also comes with DIR EN GREY icons and skin to customize your iPhone with. With so many features including the ability to watch video previews, the app is user-friendly and simple to use."

The app is available to purchase through the iTunes app store HERE for the price of £3.99

Review - Dir En Grey @ Wacken Open Air, Germany

On August 6th Dir En Grey kicked off their 'Paradox Of Retaliation' European tour with a performance at the Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany.

With their latest album 'Dum Spiro Spero' being released just a few days earlier it was a chance to catch the bands new material while still fresh to the senses. This performance at Wacken was also streamed online and viewable to millions of fans around the globe. I watched this performance on that very stream.

Having seen Dir En Grey during their last European tour twice, at Sonisphere in Knebworth and at the Koko in London, I had seen two very different experiences of a Dir En Grey show. One to a relatively unknown crowd and the other to passionate fans of the Japanese outfit. On this occasion it was likely to be a performance to the former but interestingly despite it appearing to be a lot of people unfamiliar to the band they got into the music and were very respectful to what they were hearing. (With the festival being a heavy metal festival, Dir En grey fit right in when it came to how heavy they could be.)

The band themselves were on good form. With this being the first date of the tour everyone looked fresh and ready to go. Kicking off with a few recent songs including their last single 'Lotus', the band launched into what would be a predominantly heavy set of numbers from their back catalogue. Playing 'Red Soil' and 'HAGESHISA TO, KONO MUNE NO NAKA DE KARAMITSUITA SHAKUNETSU NO YAMI' (the single prior to 'Lotus') it came across to me there was an issue of some kind on stage. Be it a technical fault or not, Kyo (vocalist)looked to be distracted by something so much so it caused him to miss certain lyrics of 'HAGESHISA...'. From what I could tell, which keep in mind wasn't a lot as I watching a time delayed internet stream, it appeared to be a foldback problem. (Foldback is the speaker at the front of the stage facing the various band members so they can hear what's being played by each other.) He was beginning to sing off key at some points during this early portion of the set and it looked be annoying him as he glared back to his road crew while singing as best he could. No doubt trying to motion there was a problem that needed to be attended to.

After a minute or two to have some water and the crew to attend to whatever the issue was the problem appeared to be sorted. Kyo was getting into his singing a lot more and band felt more cohesive because of it. The energy level picked up tenfold and they roared through such songs as 'Different Sense' & 'RASETSUKOKU' from the new album along with favourites 'Dozing Green' & 'Obscure'. This proved why you should catch them live if at all possible. The ferocity of their music is something special and I can vouch from personal experience it's a whole different kettle of fish when you are there in person.

For those interested the songlist as according to a post on Setlist.fm was:
-(Intro music) KYOUKOTSU NO NARI
-TSUMI TO KISEI
-LOTUS
-RED SOIL
-HAGESHISA TO, KONO MUNE NO NAKA DE KARAMITSUITA SHAKUNETSU NO YAMI
-OBSCURE
-DIFFERENT SENSE
-CONCEIVED SORROW
-DOZING GREEN
-BUGABOO
-REIKETSU NARISEBA
-Merciless Cult
-Agitated Screams of Maggots
-RASETSUKOKU

Dir En Grey are returning to the Camden Koko next Friday (12th August) in London following their monumental performance in same building last year. If you can get to Camden, I strongly suggest you experience this live!
[Photos in this review captured from Live stream by the ndr.de website]

Jeremy Graves

Details on how to watch Dir En Grey's performance in Germany tomorrow through your PC!

Dir En Grey are set to perform at the legendary 'Wacken Open Air festival' in Germany tomorrow (Saturday 6th August) as part of their current European tour. Thanks to the wonder that is the internet you'll be able to watch their set through your computer!

All you have to do is click HERE and you'll be taken to the page where the Wacken live stream is located, click play in the window located in the centre of the page that loads up and before you know it you'll be watching the stream!

Please note, Dir En Grey will be on stage from 2-3pm (UK time) in Germany but, the performance itself won't be streamed until a few hours later. The time you need to tune into to see their performance is 6.45-7.45pm (UK time).

Expect a mixture of old favourites along with track from their new album 'Dum Spiro Spero' to be played during their 60 minute set.

For more information on the Wacken Open Air festival click HERE.

Music News: Entire new Dir En Grey album available for streaming!

Ahead of the release of their album Dum Spero Spiro, Dir En Grey have made the entire album available for streaming through their myspace site!

You can visit their Myspace page HERE.

The album is due for release this week (August 2nd) so be sure to head over there to hear it in it's entirety!
[There's currently no word on how long you'll be able to stream the album for. So perhaps best to listen sooner rather than later.]

Video: 2 Interview with Dir En Grey talking new album

The good folks over at PunkVideosRock and Metal Assault have conducted an interview with two members of Dir En grey, Karou and Die ahead of the release of the new album 'Dum Spiro Spero' and upcoming touring cycles.

The interviews talk cover topics such as the inspiration for the new album, how the recent disaster affected the writing and recording process of the album, language barriers and more

You can view the entire interview conducted by PunkVideosRock below -




You can view the interview conducted by Metal Assault (also with Karou and Die) below -




Dir En Grey will be returning to the UK on August 12th at the Koko in Camden Town to play what will no doubt am amazing show.
Their new album Dum Spiro Spero is released on August 2nd. You can pre-order the album now at many online retailers including Play and Amazon.

Music News: Dir En Grey reveal details on new album

In an interview with NME.com Kaoru (guitarist for Dir En Grey) has claimed the upcoming album by Dir En Grey titled 'Dum Spiro Spero' (meaning 'While I breath, I hope' in Latin) will be "more savage" than any album previously released by them. He went on to say that the"record comes from a deeper world and is completely different from any of our past works,".

Bassists Toshiya also commented "We live in a world where we don’t know what is the truth and what we should believe in. I just wanted to put some hope into the music that we create" when questioned about the lyrical inspirations and content of the forthcoming 14 track album.

Other details that have been confirmed regarding the album is that the 14 tracks will include the bands previous 2 singles 'Lotus' and 'Hageshisa To, Kono Mune No Naka De Karamitsuita Shakunetsu No Yami' (that was featured in the a recent 'Saw' movie soundtrack) and forthcoming single 'Different Sense' which is set for release on June 3rd in Japan.

Of course perhaps the most important information for all, the release date. Mark this in your calendars as August 8th is the release date for 'Dum Spiro Spero'. And for those of you who are collectors out there, there will be a special edition that will include a bonus DVD. For thosw who may want something super special though, there will also be a 'Initial Limited Version' (aka a super limited edition version) of the album that will include the album itself along with a bonus audio CD, a DVD and a 2 LP vinyl version of the album!
If you're interested in getting any of the special editions, be warned that they are generally Japanese exclusives. So you might want to visit a site like CD Japan where you can import them.

In a statement of the official website of Dir En Grey, the record company described the release as follows:
"DIR EN GREY will release their 8th studio album "DUM SPIRO SPERO" 2 years and 9 months after "UROBOROS" which garnered overwhelming support as the strongest and the maddest record resonating across the globe.
There are 14 tracks including "Hageshisa To, Kono Mune No Naka De Karamitsuita Shakunetsu No Yami", "LOTUS", "DIFFERENT SENSE" as single-cut tracks in this album.
With the combination of world-noted engineers and the individuality of a Japanese born and bred band. After all, DIR EN GREY is the only artist that can surpass themselves."

Don't forget that Dir En Grey are coming back to the UK in August for a one off show at the Camden Koko! Head over to the official website of Dir En Grey for details!