Dir En Grey New Album ‘DUM SPIRO SPERO’ and Interview

Interview by: JACOB GAITAN

Since gaining notoriety on American soil a few years back while performing at countless festivals, Dir En Grey have established themselves as an elite metal act within their genre. Internationally, they have participated in numerous European festivals with iconic acts and built a solid fan base. Last week, they released their eighth studio album titled “Dum Spiro Spero”.

Early last month, guitarists Kaoru and Die promoted their upcoming release from their hotel room overlooking the Los Angeles Westside barrier. Kaoru spoke about the hardships they faced as a band while - Show quoted text -

“When I’m standing on stage, I’m actually the same person I was ten years ago or a year ago,” added Die. “As a band, our motivation and heart that we share for music has remained the same since day one. Our upcoming tour will involve the emotions we experienced during the disasters in Japan. As of right now, we have no idea what the future of our country holds for us. We aren’t sure if we’d be able to tour on our own soil right now or record another album there, so we want to planning on collaborating with other bands for a South American and overseas tour in 2012,” shared Kaoru.

“The details and locations are still being finalized, but we are very excited to get back out on the road and play our new songs across multiple countries. Every opportunity has been very significant with each band we’ve played. We had such a great time doing Family Values with KoRn and with Deftones that we’d love to collaborate with them again. Once the details are finalized and labels lock in bands, we’ll release the information publicly.”

Since their debut album “Gauze” in 1999, the five-piece act has released eight full-length LPs, countless live videos across multiple formats, compilations and music videos. They’ve played multiple continents spending thousands of hours on the road.

“We’ve never taken a few years off or a break from music or the road, if we could actually schedule taking time off, we’d jump at the opportunity,” shared Die while laughing. ”It’s been three years since we released our last album, once the album debuted, we hit the road for about two years and supported the record. When we aren’t touring we are writing, when we aren’t writing we are recording, so we are constantly surrounded by music.”

The five founding members have remained in the lineup since their inception. Few bands coexist creatively for extended periods, yet Dir En Grey continue to share each stage with the same people since the late nineties.

“We haven’t always remained stable within the past ten plus years,” said Die. “We’ve experienced parts where we clashed a few times, we’ve never been ‘buddy-buddy’ with each other, but we’ve always respected one another and we feel we can create our music because there are five of us. We’ve never felt we could branch out individually and maintain the musical core we represent as a band. Because of it, we have a mutual understanding and have enormous respect for one another. There is also competition between us, which pushes us creatively and it’s detected in our music and live shows”.

Dir En Grey’s 2008 album “Uroboros ” debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 116 selling 6,000 copies. They will return this winter with a North American tour that will continue internationally next year. For more information about Dir En Grey’s music, tours and music videos, visit their official website.

http://www.direngrey.co.jp/english/e-information.html

Tracklisting for DUM SPIRO SPERO:

1. Kyoukotsu No Nari
2. THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB
3. DIFFERENT SENSE
4. AMON
5. “Yokusou Ni DREAMBOX” Aruiwa Seijuku No Rinen To Tsumetai Ame
6. Juuyoku
7. Shitataru Mourou
8. LOTUS
9. DIABOLOS
10. Akatsuki
11. DECAYED CROW
12. Hageshisa To, Kono Mune No Naka De Karamitsuita Shakunetsu No Yami
13. VANITAS
14. Ruten No Tou

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:

1. RASETSUKOKU
2. AMON (Symphonic Ver.)