Art of Life

There is one piece on this record: the title track, twenty-nine minutes long. Yoshiki wrote both the words and the music, and the lyrics are entirely in English. The orchestral parts were played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It is the band's first album after they changed their name from X to X Japan, and the first with Heath on bass. It went to number one on the Oricon chart and has sold more than six hundred thousand copies. Because of its length the piece was played live only a handful of times at first — at the Nippon Budokan on 30 July 1992, and then at the Tokyo Dome on 30 and 31 December 1993. Since the band reunited in 2007 it has been performed regularly, whole or in part. In 2021 Metal Hammer included the album in its list of the 25 best symphonic metal albums. The running order here is the original's as printed: one piece.