Art of Life
| Art of Life | ||||
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| Studio album by X Japan | ||||
| Released | August 25, 1993 | |||
| Recorded | April 1991 – June 1993 | |||
| Studio | One On One Recording, The Complex, Enterprise, Master Control, Pacifique, Devonshire, Red Zone, Abbey Road Studios | |||
| Genre | Symphonic power metal, progressive metal | |||
| Length | 29:00 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | Yoshiki | |||
| X Japan chronology | ||||
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| Sputnikmusic |  |
Art of Life is the fourth studio album by Japanese heavy metal band X Japan, released on August 25, 1993 by Atlantic Records. The album consists solely of the 29-minute-long orchestrated title track, which was written and composed by Yoshiki entirely in English and recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It topped the Oricon chart and has sold over 600,000 copies. The album is the band's first after changing their name from simply "X" and the first to feature bassist Heath.
With the release of two successful studio albums, Blue Blood in 1989 and Jealousy in 1991, X Japan was hugely popular for a metal/rock band in Japan and were selling out the country's largest indoor concert venue, the Tokyo Dome, yearly. But in 1992 bassist Taiji left the group and was replaced by Heath.
Also in 1992, Yoshiki bought a recording studio complex in North Hollywood, California, United States. Known as One on One Recording Studios, it would later be renamed Extasy Recording Studios and become the place where recordings for nearly all his projects takes place. For the release of Art of Life, X Japan left Sony and signed a deal with Atlantic Records, and like the previous album it was not completely recorded in Japan or Los Angeles, but in several different places, most notably One on One Recording Studios in the US and Abbey Road Studios in London (orchestra only). The heavily orchestrated piece (recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) comprises several passages of varying speeds and instrumentation, including numerous verses, with no set chorus, several harmonized guitar solos, and eight minutes performed solely on piano. In 2011, Yoshiki recalled that he wrote the song in roughly two weeks and that recording took approximately two years. As for the lyrical theme, he said he drew from his own life, particularly from how he felt suicidal when his father died.
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