X Japan Discography

X Japan Discography

The discography of the Japanese heavy metal band X Japan consists of 5 studio albums, 6 live albums, 1 remix album, 10 compilations, 22 singles, and around 22 live video recordings. X Japan sold over 30 million records worldwide.

Founded in 1982 by Toshi and Yoshiki, X Japan achieved their breakthrough success in 1989 with the release of their second album Blue Blood. They started out as a power/speed metal band and later gravitated towards a progressive sound with an emphasis on ballads. Besides being one of the first Japanese acts to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label, the band is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the visual kei, a movement among Japanese musicians comparable to Western glam.

With the member line-up established in 1987, X released their debut studio album Vanishing Vision on Yoshiki's own record label Extasy Records the following year. They achieved breakthrough success with few singles and second album Blue Blood (1989). It was followed by the million-selling Jealousy (1991), which is the band's most diverse album in terms of songwriting credits. In 1992, the band changed their name to X Japan, and bassist Taiji left the group, being replaced by Heath. Their fourth studio album Art of Life (1993) is composed solely of the 29-minute title track. Their last album Dahlia was released in 1996, and the following year the band decided to break up. However after ten years, X Japan reunited in 2007 and recorded the new song "I.V.". In 2011, they had their first worldwide release, the digital single "Jade".