X JAPAN Announces Reunion Shows, Forthcoming 'Best-Of' Collection
According to a posting on the Jrock Revolution web site, reactivated Japanese rockers X JAPAN will release their new song, "I.V.", via iTunes on January 23 in 23 countries, including Japan, Korea, America, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Holland, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland and Sweden. The track will also shortly become available in Thailand, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
In other news, "I.V." and another new song, entitled "Without You", will be featured on a forthcoming "best-of" collection, to be released later in the year.
X JAPAN has announced two reunion shows for Tokyo, Japan. They will play March 28 (Destruction Night) and March 30 (Creation Night) at Tokyo Dome.
"I.V." appears in the fourth movie of the record-breaking "Saw" horror franchise, although it's not featured on the film's soundtrack.
"Saw IV" comes from the same team that produced "Catacombs", which featured the song "Blue Butterfly", written and produced by X JAPAN founder Yoshiki.
Approached in July 2006 about producing the theme track for "Saw IV", Yoshiki chose to perform the song with X JAPAN.
Written and composed by Yoshiki, with lyrics completely in English due to the international target audience, the song features Toshi on vocals, Pata on guitar and Heath on bass. While attending Toshi's vocal recording sessions, Yoshiki took the lead in overseeing the English lyrics.
"I.V." reportedly features previously unreleased ideas written by X JAPAN's influential lead guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto, who committed suicide in May 1998.
The video for the song "I.V." can be viewed below. The clip was shot on October 22, 2007 at Aqua City, Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan. Read a report from the video shoot at Jrock Revolution. Check out photos from the shoot at Wire Image.