He was replaced by Heath and the group changed their name to X Japan before producing the mini album Art of Life (1993), which is composed solely of the 29-minute title track.

Over the next two years they performed several concerts, including their first overseas show in Hong Kong, and formally added Sugizo as lead guitarist in place of Hide, who died in 1998, before holding a North American tour in 2010.

[8] Their first single, "I'll Kill You" was released on Dada Records in June and the band contributed "Break the Darkness" to the sampler Heavy Metal Force III in November, which also featured a song by Saver Tiger.

[11] To ensure a continuous outlet for the band's music, Yoshiki founded the independent label Extasy Records in April 1986, and released their second single "Orgasm".

[11] That year the members also made a brief cameo appearance in the American film Tokyo Pop, starring Carrie Hamilton and Diamond Yukai.

The show was part of the Violence in Jealousy Tour, which lasted to the end of the year and once again saw Yoshiki collapse after the October 24 Yokohama Arena gig.

[9] Aptly titled X Japan Returns, the concerts were held at the Tokyo Dome on December 30 and 31,[25] marking the beginning of a New Year's Eve tradition that would last until the group's disbandment.

[22] Just two months later, the debut album 3.2.1. from his American-based band Zilch, which included Ray McVeigh (The Professionals), Paul Raven (Killing Joke) and Joey Castillo (Queens of the Stone Age), was released.

[22] His third solo album Ja, Zoo, formally including his live band Spread Beaver, was released in November 1998 and became his most successful, having reached number one and sold over a million copies.

[35] Heath then continued his solo career and Pata formed the instrumental rock group Ra:IN, which later added Spread Beaver keyboardist DIE.

[36] Before the band's breakup, Yoshiki had already independently collaborated with Queen drummer Roger Taylor on the single "Foreign Sand"[37][self-published source?]

[9][50] Rumors of an X Japan reunion subsequently began, and in June Yoshiki was reported as having expressed interest in a tour (beginning in Los Angeles), "Without You" being released as a single, and that he was in talks with Heath and Pata regarding their participation.

[49] The band made its first public appearance on October 22, 2007, on the rooftop of the shopping center Aqua City in Odaiba, Tokyo, to film a music video for the newly recorded song "I.V.".

[3][63] Because of technical difficulties, possibly due to the hologram, the first concert was delayed for over two hours and later came to an abrupt end when drummer Yoshiki collapsed eight songs into the performance.

Later that day, X Japan released a press statement through their French language website apologizing for the second postponement and announced that the planned Christmas shows would likely suffer a similar fate.

[88] On July 1, the band appeared at Club Nokia in Los Angeles where they performed an acoustic setlist, and recorded a music video for the new song, "Born to Be Free".

[86][101][102] From September 25 to October 10, X Japan performed their first ever North American tour with dates in Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Chicago, Vancouver, Toronto and New York City.

[153] On June 9, X Japan announced at a press conference that the concerts would not be postponed but instead performed as an acoustic tour, with Yoshiki at the piano, as it is uncertain whether he would be able to play the drums in the future.

[159] On April 10 and 11 the band performed at Zepp Divercity in Tokyo for a limited audience, and the concert was broadcast live across Asia in selected theaters.

[173][174] On November 11, an official statement posted on the musician's website disclosed that Heath was diagnosed with colon cancer in June and died in a hospital on October 29, 2023, after his condition suddenly worsened that month.

[22][177][178] Many of the group's songs make use of orchestrated passages, particularly on longer tracks such as the ten and a half minute "Tears", "Crucify My Love", and the twenty-nine-minute "Art of Life".

Taiji contributed music to a couple of songs, notably "Voiceless Screaming" from the album Jealousy, for which, when performed live, he played the acoustic guitar, and "Desperate Angel".

Of songs from the band's lesser-known former members, only the track "Time Trip Loving" from the single "Orgasm", composed by Jun with Toshi writing the lyrics, was officially released.

During live performances, the band relies on its members (with drummer and pianist Yoshiki and guitarist and violinist Sugizo switching between their instruments) and prerecorded tracks for orchestrated strings, spoken word passages, and more recently, some of Hide's guitar parts.

"[187] Will Hodgkinson of The Times described X Japan as having, "the grandiosity of Queen, the heavy-metal hysteria of Iron Maiden and the symphonic sophistication of classical music, all tied up with a healthy dose of melodrama.

Their stage reflected the band's duality in nature: the forceful, "masculine" heavy metal songs were balanced out by Toshi's high-pitched tenor voice and Yoshiki's soft piano playing, where he would often wear long female dresses, and act effeminate.

"[22] Many bands and artists, most related to visual kei, count them as an influence or look up to them, including Miyavi,[192] Dir En Grey,[193][194] Kisaki,[195] Syu and Fumiya of Galneryus,[196][197] The Gazette,[198] D,[199] Sadie vocalist Mao,[200] Tōru Kawauchi from 12012,[201] Maya of LM.C,[202] Flow,[203] Yuuki from Unsraw,[204] DJ Ozma,[205] Kei of Dio – Distraught Overlord,[206] aie from Deadman,[207] Screw's Jin,[208] Mari of Mary's Blood,[209] and Daizystripper.

[212] Established musicians Dancho (Nogod), Miya (Mucc), Yuu (Merry), Akane (ex-The Scanty) and Daisuke (Jupiter) occasionally perform in a X Japan cover band called X Suginami.

"[218] In the documentary Global Metal, Yoshiki stated that the music industry and media hated the band and would not even interview them, "but eventually we sold 20 million albums, so they had no choice".

In 1999, at the request of the Japanese government, Yoshiki composed and performed a classical song for Japan's Emperor Akihito at a celebration in honor of the tenth anniversary of his enthronement.