Review by Lawrence Stillman on October 9, 2024.

Welcome to one-song albums; have a look around. Everything the prog fandom has shown you can be found. We've got decades of albums, some longer, some short. If none of it is of interest to you, you wouldn't be the first... But have you heard of this one?

X Japan, mostly known for inventing Visual Kei and doing everything possible to not release an album after their reunion, was also known for creating possibly the first one-song album in all of metal music, making X Japan among the proggiest of prog bands when this came out. But I think we all know that this wasn't what Yoshiki had in mind when he composed this song, and instead, it is an ode to his despair and depression, as a way to talk himself out of it. And as we say, in our darkest times, we welcome the greatest change, and Art of Life is definitely the biggest change that X Japan has seen towards their sound, all when Yoshiki was very messed up in the head during its creation.

Art Of Life is a 29-minute song that is the sole track within the album that takes up the same name. Unlike the previous 3 albums that X Japan has composed, this one marks a massive departure from their previous works; it has a heavier focus on progressive elements and a more endurance-focused approach to their songwriting. Instead of making extensive ballads or epic rocking mutually exclusive within their songs, the band decides to make both coexist within the song to great effect; now the slower sections and the metal sections both complement each other via the extensive presence in the lack of their mirrors (aka extensive rocking causes the ballads to hit harder than intended and vice versa). Thus the final result is a power metal whose cheesiness is mellowed out, and the sappiness of the ballads is no longer too saccharine for its own good, along with an incredibly long run time to allow the listener to savor the length, the sound, and the magnificence of the song.

One thing I noticed about the song compared to its contemporaries like Octavarium, And Then There Was Silence, Crimson, and so on, is that Art of Life has a greater focus on maintaining the same pacing for each movement, going from the opening ballad to the proggy power metal section, then the piano solo, and finally the ending. Art of Life also spends significantly less time to build up the payoff in the form of the opening ballad-power metal transition within the first 5 minutes of the song when the full length is almost 6 times the time. This also makes Art of Life a great entry point for one-song albums (as long as you can overlook or skip the piano solo). The power metal section is also worth a passage or two for a movement that spans around 9 minutes; it is surprisingly varied for a band that has never dabbled in large amounts of prog influences; the listener always hears something new every other verse; it makes repeated listening quite entertaining, which cannot be said for a good amount of entry-level prog metal/rock songs that progheads recommend. It is also worth mentioning that the first power metal movement, which spans around 9 minutes, is full of nonstop relentless drumming, Yoshiki has only 30 seconds of downtime during the entire movement, and combining the fact that when this song is performed live (yes, the band can play the whole song live and an entire set after it, at least before the breakup), Yoshiki has to play the piano solo as well, it makes it all the more impressive that Yoshiki can perform these feats, back to back, in a time where performing either of these is already a great showcase of endurance and showmanship.

The lyrics here are written surprisingly well for someone who is not a native speaker, along with the lyrics being very introspective and quite dark once you know how fucked Yoshiki's mind was during the creation of the song. The English here is very intelligible, and the song is written exclusively in English, which makes the lyrics, themes, and composition of the song all the more impressive. My personal interpretation of the lyrics is that the lyrics in the ballad represent the events that lead up to his fucked up state of mind, the power metal movement represents his attempts at coping with it, and the piano solo is his darkest moment where if something goes wrong, he would have taken his own life, with the violins before the ending him coming to terms to keep living, and the ending being his newfound perspective on life, the desire to keep living, which is why the song is named the way it was.

Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about the elephant in the room, the goddamn piano solo. While most listeners have understood the cacophony and chaos that was the piano solo, it certainly did not occur to me that it was supposed to sound that way, and I thought my device had some audio rendering error, so that's neat. I guess this is one of those "DLCs" that the listener has to read through first to understand the piano solo; at least it does make the solo more impactful, so if whoever reads this couldn't get it, don't worry about it; you'll get used to it.

Duality/contrast is probably the theme that defines the song the most: the juxtaposition between the rose and the singer, life and death, metal music and classical elements, life and death, simplicity and complexity, hope and despair—all of these are used as tools in this song to portray the nonsensical and paradoxical nature that makes us simultaneously seek death and cherish life. Such is the nature of humanity and life, and what's to say that we cannot share these universal experiences with others?

Regarding the production and instruments, they are quite crisp considering the time of the composition, sounding very 2000s in production quality despite being released in 1993, kind of like Heartwork in a way when it comes to how ahead of the time the production quality is. The guitars are very clean and take up a lot of upper register in the sound, which has the bonus benefit of opening up the lower register for the bass to thrive. The drums are quite subdued here, which ends up working in their favor since they are loud enough to be the center focus of the entire sound and accurately portray the ferocity of the composer behind the kit. Can you imagine if the drums sound like the ones found on Blasphemy Made Flesh? That would turn the song from an introspective, grandiose masterpiece to St. Anger 0.9. Toshi's vocals are quite... meh? I did find his vocals quite offputting early on, but I guess this is also another thing that anyone exposed to it long enough will grow accustomed to, much like harsh vocals, although I suppose his distinct vocal style did help the band stand out more, especially when most power metal vocals are either a copycat of Rob Halford or a copy of Kamijo nowadays. The orchestration is also very rich in sound and yet not overpowering the instruments, which is a welcome addition. The orchestrations also serve as an entry point to combining metal and real symphonic elements into metal instead of using synths to mimic their sounds.

Art of Life is undoubtedly a pioneer, masterpiece, magnum opus, and genre changer all at once, being complex while simultaneously being incredibly accessible despite its length and scope. The meaning of the song is deep yet easy to grasp: it is the physical manifestation of a determined desire to live and thrive. And to finish off this review once and for all, this is what Yoshiki has to say about life, and Art Of Life:

“It is a journey to identify who I am, and it will never end.”

Highlight: 2:58 - 15:05

Rating: 10 out of 10