YMMV / Dir en grey

• Awesome Music: So much of the band's catalog, especially the one-two-three punch that is UROBOROS, DUM SPIRO SPERO and ARCHE. Justified by the fact that they were voted First on Loudwire's "Extreme Metal Olympics", beating extreme metal acts such as Belphegor, Opeth, Arch Enemy, Meshuggah, Vader, Despised Icon and the Fathers of Death Metal Death (which they beat in the Gold medal final) and Death Metal Trope Codifier *drum roll*... Cannibal Corpse (which won bronze), cementing their place among the music elite.
  • Even fans who otherwise think They Changed It, Now It Sucks! love "THE FINAL."
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Their style of music and performances invoke so much Mind Screw that even fans of technical music have trouble appreciating their works. Despite that, they still get positive recognition from music critics and metal purists alike.
• Brown Note: "SA BIR" from UROBOROS and "Kyoukotsu no Nari" from DUM SPIRO SPERO. Especially the latter, thanks to massive Sensory Abuse and its sheer loudness (at least when played live).
• Crosses the Line Twice: Almost everything. They have become the Visual Kei counterpart of what a certain band is to metal.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Of Nu Metal (before the UROBOROS era) and deathcore in recent years. Also considered by many to be the dark horse of the Technical Death Metal genre and, according to some, djent.
• Fan Community Nicknames: The Merciless Cult. The old fan community nickname ("knots") is still in use, however.
• Fandom Rivalry: The band's fanbase is notorious for engaging in raging rivalries with the fandoms of other Japanese bands, and even with an American one, as of late.
  • A well-known one involves Diru fans vs. The Gazette fans. It's only more likely to get worse, as their respective fandoms try (in vain) to accumulate evidence that the bands copy each other.
  • Kuroyume fans vs. Dir en grey fans engage in massive arguments about who really kickstarted the Nagoya and Eroguro kei sub-movements, as well as which band was more groundbreaking and experimental (and responsible for keeping Visual Kei alive). This Fandom Rivalry approaches Pantera vs. Exhorder levels in many Visual Kei circles. ^note Just like with Pantera and Exhorder, the members of Dir en grey and Kuroyume are friends - Kyo even worked as a roadie for Kiyoharu and were pretty close.
  • As of the Extreme Metal Olympics's aftermath (see above), the Diru fanbase has now a fierce rivalry with Death's one.
• In Name Only: Some older fans' reactions to the current trend of re-arranging older songs in their new style, to the point that they can sound like different songs with the same title.
  • The same can be said for the band in general, with every album sounding like it's been done by a completely different group.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Happened preemptively among some long time J-Rock fans who were actually hoping the band would flop in the United States because they couldn't stand the thought of "Hot Topic kiddies" liking their band.
  • Mostly averted in recent years. The band is both commercially successful and massively respected by metal fans, both within and outside the VK scene.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The band is beginning to develop this as of THE UNRAVELING and the 2013 tour. Many of the newer songs sound much like other more recent songs (to the degree that when played live and badly mixed, telling what song the band is playing is difficult). But since releasing "Sustain the untruth" (and eventually ARCHE), they somehow averted this trope.
  • Played straight once more on The Insulated World. Though well-received, a major criticism leveled against it had to do with Dir treading water at that point. To say nothing of the unfortunate mixing/mastering choices possibly brought on by "Big Bass" Gardner and Dan Lancaster's fingerprints...
• Less Disturbing in Context: A lyrical case involves "mazohyst of decadence", which, ripped from its context of abortion being a primary method of birth control in Japan, seems like a right-wing anti-abortion rant and Victim-Blaming, when it's actually lashing out at a society that refuses to acknowledge the need for birth control and sex education and uses the most painful and traumatizing last-ditch procedure as a substitute for preventing pregnancy in the first place.
• Misaimed Fandom: Rape and misogyny are frequent themes in Dir en grey's work from depictions in their videos to their lyrics, and whether the band is trying to condemn them or play them as erotic, they have a very large Misaimed Fandom that thinks rape is funny/sexy/cool/not as serious as it is/all of the above and will often use the word "rape" as a term of endearment. Dir en grey's fandom is not a very survivor friendly place in Visual Kei as a result. Also, they're possibly the primary reason that rape is still a popular seen as "add instant awesome shock value" not just in Eroguro but in a depressingly large part of Visual Kei and metal (especially Deathcore) in general.
• Narm: Many songs from Withering to death. and THE MARROW OF A BONE.
  • "AGITATED SCREAMS OF MAGGOTS" is an entire track filled with this, mainly because of Kyo's badly written, badly pronounced English lyrics, with lines such as "I'm gonna slash your wound just like mine", "You can't shoot the silver bullet into me!" and the ever-notorious "I'LL RAPE YOUR DAUGHTER ON OUR GRAVE!" It is so wrong in so many ways that it's not even funny.
  • The Cluster F-Bomb at the end of "LIE BURIED WITH A VENGEANCE" which is occasionally interrupted by Kyo making unintelligible noises that sound an awful lot like "Ooga-booga-booga." ^note He's actually growling out "YOU'RE A MOTHERFUCKER", though due to the vocal production coupled with his Engrish, that bit tends to get misheard as such
  • The Last Note Nightmare on "DOZING GREEN".
  • Due to its odd diction and butchered pronunciation, the first part of the chorus of "NEW AGE CULTURE" sounds an awful lot like Kyo is demonically chanting "BEAN BURRITO!"
• Nightmare Fuel: They have their own page, and boy have they ever earned it.
• Periphery Demographic: They have an enthusiastic following with metalheads who don't normally listen to Japanese language music.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Early on, Yoshiki saved the band from the collapsing Visual scene by helping them develop the experimental vibe they are now very well-known for.
• Signature Song: "OBSCURE". Other notable songs would include "THE FINAL", "AGITATED SCREAMS OF MAGGOTS", "DOZING GREEN" and, more recently, after the "Extreme Metal Olympics", "DIFFERENT SENSE"^note It was the song that made Diru win the Olympics..
• Spiritual Successor: Literally this to Kuroyume, having taken their predecessors' Darker and Edgier approach to Visual Kei and running off with it so that they can popularize Avant-Garde Metal in the scene. And that's not mentioning the fact that they have a vocalist that is both a near-perfect double for and has very good relations with Kuroyume frontman Kiyoharu.
• Tear Jerker: "ain't afraid to die" is a Surprisingly Gentle Song about a man remembering his former lover on the anniversary of her death. One interpretation of the title is that he welcomes death as a chance to be reunited with her. Kyo leaves all but the first line of the last verse unsung, implying that he died before he could finish.
  • Also qualifies as Nightmare Fuel for some listeners.
  • This performance.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This either started with VULGAR, with THE MARROW OF A BONE, or not at all.
  • Also one reason why THE UNRAVELING was met with mixed reactions from fans.
  • Fans (or former fans) who complain about Dir en grey's new sound are mostly people who miss the band's Visual Kei period. Though some of the complaining is beginning to originate from people feeling the band is stagnating as of The New '10s, and/or that their production value live and recorded seeming to take a massive nosedive from even the UROBOROS era. Even Yoshiki Hayashi, their former producer, walked out midpoint of the 2013 Hollywood live claiming a business engagement elsewhere.
• Tough Act to Follow: Averted every time by the band in terms of music. However, it seems that they have been getting this after some fans have claimed that their new THE UNRAVELING EP is not a worthy match for the band's previous efforts. The same can apply for The Insulated World.
  • Also played straight in terms of the band's visual image. Though they have re-applied visuals since the UROBOROS era, fans still expect to see something that would match the awesomeness of the bands Visual Kei era.
• Wangst: A recurring theme in the band's lyrical content, and often overlaps with Gorn, Mind Screw, Nausea Fuel and Nightmare Fuel
• The Woobie: Poor, poor poor Kyo. Seems nothing ever seems to go his way in his life. NOTHING.

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