Music
Uroboros is "stuffed with themes of 'guilt and reincarnation' as well as 'the past, present and future of Dir En Grey,'" as guitarist Kaoru stated in a press release. This was later echoed in CDJapan's album overview, calling the album "a sort of return for the band, revisiting the pre-Withering to Death. era." Kaoru also included that the album would again be a progression into "heavier and darker" sounds than prior albums, as well as an "oriental and religious mood."
In an interview in the band's regular fan-club magazine, Haiiro no Ginka, interviewer You Masuda described the style in comparison with the band's preceding album, The Marrow of a Bone:
| “ | I'm actually starting to feel troubled. I don't know how I could describe your music in words. For example, Marrow of a Bone is a work that has elements of metal, but the songs I just heard now are difficult to describe. If I were to express these songs, it would be something close to being acoustic. If you put it in a strange way, it's close to something like, 'What happens if Thom Yorke does metal?' | ” |
| — Yuichi "You" Masuda, Haiiro no Ginka |
With the announcement of an American release date, guitarist Kaoru expressed further opinion on the album's style, saying the album would experiment with oriental sounds, and the "hard and heavy" atmosphere found on The Marrow of a Bone would be absent, instead favoring more elegant instrumentation and "something that lets you visualize several scenes".
Together with the band's label, a California-based radio station, Indie 103.1 premiered music from Uroboros on 19 October and 26 October, and will premier again on 2 November. The tracks "Red Soil" and "Dozing Green" were played on the first night, with "Glass Skin" chosen on the second, available both as a radio broadcast and internet radio show. On the 2 November broadcast, the band debuted "Gaika, Chinmoku ga Nemuru Koro".
During promotion, the track "Stuck Man" was referred to as "Third Time Does the Trick", however the title was changed before the final track listing was revealed.
In harmony with the Asian themes in the album, the first two tracks titles, "Sa Bir" and "Vinushka" are derived from the Tibetan language and Russian language respectively. The former referring to the movement of the Earth, while the latter is a "word from Russian origin" used "to talk about elements that are linked to sins," according to VerdamMnis Magazine's interview Kaoru did with French journalist Mandah Frénot. "Vinushka", which is a form of the word "vina", can be translated as "guilt".
Read more about this topic: Uroboros (album)
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