Album Rating: 4.5

Love Heath’s little bass run in Scars after the guitar solo on their Last Live.

Album Rating: 4.5

Used to hate Forever Love with a passion but it's kinda grown on me. The acoustic version on this album is a bore, but the original recording is enjoyable, if incredibly cheesy

Album Rating: 4.0

Listening to the live versions of that song sold it for me. It is supremely cheesy, but when has X Japan not been? It's beautiful, regardless.

Album Rating: 4.5

The guitar solo is amazing, and is the main thing missing from the album version for me. The Last Live rendition is something to behold

Album Rating: 4.5

Yush.

Album Rating: 4.0

The Last Live version of it is heartbreaking.

Album Rating: 4.5

The Last Live version of “Endless Rain” is even more heartbreaking.

Album Rating: 4.0

Yoshiki initially planned to beat up Toshi on stage, the hug between them during Forever Love is when Yoshiki couldn't bring himself to do it. That's why Forever Love especially hurts to watch.



"i. Did your anger vanish on the day of the last live?



y. I had been raging since the day after the press conference until the day before the last concert. I had not spoken to Toshi during that period. I intended to beat him at the end of the concert.



i. On the stage?



y. Yes. On the stage. I didn't want a beautiful break up. It was my true feeling I was going to beat him at the end of the concert and leave the stage. Do your remember the moment that I and Toshi walked toward each other? I had been thinking of beating him until that moment.



i. Really?



y. I was going to beat him there, but...



i. ....



y. But when he appeared in front of me, there was "my friend Toshi" whom I had known since I was five years old."

Album Rating: 4.5

Now I’m gonna have to pull out my copy of The Last Live and find that part...

Album Rating: 4.0

Here it is. The camera work, the slow walk, the violins...it hit me like a brick when I watched the show: https://youtu.be/6iWgqWHpd6I?t=225

Album Rating: 4.5

Last Live is a near perfect concert, other than the 15 minute version of Orgasm. Always hated how they couldn't just play the album version: short, sweet, and most importantly fast.

Album Rating: 4.0

I have issues with Last Live but that version of Orgasm is not one of them. The crowd at absolute fever pitch, hide stylin' on the catwalk, the insane light show, rocking out with Heath, Yoshiki running all over the place with security having none of it...



It's the thing I remember and enjoyed most about the show probably. I usually hate these "let's make this song go out forever and get the crowd involved" because it sucks unless you're there but in this one case it's such a spectacle to behold, feels larger than life even if other bands have had bigger crowds. What deserves shit instead is the fact they left in the massively long intermission between the two halves of the show and Yoshiki's smoke and mirrors drum solo.

Album Rating: 4.5

True, those parts are a bit of a bore. Not gonna lie, I normally skip them on the occasions I give the show a viewing, so they don't really stick in my brain when I reminisce haha. Still, one cannot deny what a pivotal performance that is in J-rock history, the actual performances are top notch.

My absolute favorite X concert is still the 1989 Blue Blood tour, it shows X with their best lineup early on, and to me represents what X Japan was all about, before they over-saturated their albums with ballads and quietly dropped their fast paced speed metal tracks (not that I dislike the ballads, as my 4.5 for this album obviously suggests). The Vanishing Vision and Blue Blood eras are what I think about when someone mentions 'X'.

Totally unrelated, but has anyone watched the X documentary? I watched it when it first came out but haven't viewed it since, but i remember it wasn't bad as an overview of the bands career from then till now.

Album Rating: 4.5

Yeah, I own it and I do agree that it’s not a bad overview of X Japan as a band. It may not be enough for, like, X super fans, but it works pretty nice as a gateway into X Japan and J-rock.

Album Rating: 4.5

The parts about hide and Taiji were nice

Album Rating: 4.5

this was really good; yeah, it had more of a softer sound to it, but that was more than likely due to Yoshiki's influences. This was probably one of the better definitions of the phrase "all killer no filler", and the albums has a nice flow to it, switching seamlessly between heavier and softer tracks. "Tears" and "Forever Love" just made me sad because it reminded me of their Last Live. RIP Hide.

Album Rating: 4.0

Indeed, though I would have still liked a better balance between the rockers and the ballads. At least 50/50.

Album Rating: 4.5

Maybe their mythical fifth album will rectify that, along with Violet UK.

Album Rating: 4.0

Well, it is 50/50 rockers/ballads on this. I think it balances fine although cut out Forever Love and swap that out with Tears and the album makes much more sense.

Album Rating: 4.0

I'm having serious doubts that the new one will ever see the light of day.