RYM band summary:

Although you wouldn't think it, in a Western world that barely recognizes their name, X-Japan are one of a handful of truly seminal bands. Throughout their 17-year growth from teenage dreamers to national heroes, X-Japan revolutionized both Japanese popular culture by kick-starting the visual kei movement, and their homeland's music industry, shifting the focus away from teen pop and showing a nation of teenagers that rock music was not just some funny-sounding American trend. They were, effectively, Japan's answer to The Beatles, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin.

The band has always been focused around Hayashi Yoshiki, the drummer, pianist, and songwriter. Indeed, the seeds of the band - then known simple as X - were sown while Yoshiki was just a high school student. He assembled a revolving-door group of musicians around himself and his friend Deyama 'Toshi' Toshimitsu, to play the compositions he was writing.

Part of the reason the band took so long to take off was that Yoshiki's compositions were just too advanced for a lot of the musicians he knew. However, once he had assembled X-Japan's first stable line-up, with Sawada Taiji, Iizuka 'Pata' Tomoaki, and Matsumoto 'Hide' Hideto, success was swift. Their small cult fanbase, which had grown around songs X has contributed to compilations (notably 'Orgasm' and 'I'll Kill You'), exploded in the wake of their 1988 album Vanishing Vision, which was released on Extasy Records, a label Yoshiki set up himself, specifically to release X's material. This success led to a deal with Sony, after which their popularity continued to grow.

An attempt to crack America in 1992 led the band to change their name to X-Japan, to avoid confusion with the punk group of the same name. It was also around this time, Taiji left and was replaced by Morie 'Heath' Hiroshi.

The band came to an end when Toshi decided to leave the group, citing 'religious reasons'. Yoshiki decided almost instantly that the band could not possibly replace their vocalist, and to great public shock, the band's split was officially announced in March of 1997. To commemorate their history, the band played one last gig on New Year's Eve at the Tokyo Dome, later releasing it as The Last Live.

Since the split, the members of the band have gone their separate ways and taken part in new projects, most notably Yoshiki's trip-hop influenced Violet UK, and Pata's instrumental progressive rock group, Ra:IN. Yoshiki has also gone on to work with George Martin and Queen's Roger Taylor. hide also had a successful solo career which he started in 1993, though it was cut short when he took his own life in 1998, an act that signaled once and for all that X-Japan was truly over, and which led to 4 fans attempting suicide themselves.

On February 11, 2007 Toshi announced that X Japan would reunite to mark their 25th anniversary. To take Hide's place is ex-Luna Sea guitarist Yasuhiro "Sugizo" Sugihara.