DIR EN GREY’s New Single 朧 (Oboro)
DIR EN GREY continues to provide visually stunning music videos to back their powerful, emotion-driven songs.
The new music video from DIR EN GREY, 朧 (Oboro), has been released, adding to a plentiful bounty of content from them surrounding the single. To promote this single, each of the members has engaged with fans like never before through member-specific Twitter accounts, including members who don’t use social media, bassist Toshiya and guitarist Die. This has been an effective choice for building excitement in a time where live concerts are difficult to navigate and the fan base is so loyal- and varied.
A synth and piano intro accompanies clean vocals that build to the first chords of the song. This song is a slow build steeped in powerful roots, and the instruments all support genuine-sounding despair and pain, as we’ve come to expect from this band who expresses the ugly things hidden in existing.
The song’s climax aligns with extreme visuals that incite a strong emotional response. After such heavy and experimental albums in recent years, the simplicity allows the band to shine in a way that reminds us that they can be strong and moving with or without the extreme complexity that defines albums like The Insulated World.
The central feature of the video includes vocalist Kyo emerging from the grotesquely swelling stomach of Kawamoto Yuko, who has made an appearance devouring an infant’s head in the band’s music video for Obscure, which is known for its similarly visceral visuals. There are intricate lanterns and fox-masked thieves, as well as a particularly interesting point of symbolism: fireflies. Fireflies often remind us of childlike fascination, the thriving life of summer, but are also commonly used to represent death. This is especially true of Japan, where the lights of fireflies are said to be the souls of soldiers who died in the war. Fireflies, representing life, love, and death all in one, are incredibly suited imagery for this song about the loss of a child.
The concept isn’t as developed as some of their previous work. Both 朧 (Oboro) and 落ちた事のある空 (Ochita Koto no Aru Sora) releases haven’t had the same level of completeness in their visual elements. While this isn’t a problem for most, myself included, it does call into question whether the band is limited in their production because of the regulations regarding COVID-19 or if their wells begin to run dry after over two decades. It is worth mentioning that the trauma of birth, childbirth, familial rejection, and abortion, are all common themes. Ranunculus, which this song has been likened to in its infancy of release, was the last music video that had an entire concept that was weaved into the costumes, multiple sets, and even created an entire world in which to exist, and that world was reminiscent of a carnival, which is hardly a revolutionary concept. It, too, shared a visceral scene of a traumatic birth.
That said, 朧 (Oboro) is a song that does more with less, and the music video might be designed to reflect that. Having the most shocking and painstakingly detailed music videos in the scene for such a long time is a hard thing to continuously live up to. Sometimes keeping the disturbing things in the dark is more effective than dragging them to light and dissecting them in high-speed flashes (I’m looking at you, Child Prey, Obscure). Perhaps it’s simply a step into refined maturity. The violence and shock value that lies at the heart of DIR EN GREY, still exists here in abundance, after all.
Either way, its composition is an example of how at full power or slow crawl, DIR EN GREY has been around for 24 years for good reason.
Oboro will go on sale on April 28th with both standard edition and special edition which includes the screening of rock-may-kan and a special behind the scenes film.
