the GazettE - NINTH (2018)

The Gazette, one of Japan's leading heavy rock bands, returns with ninth studio album NINTH, their first original album in almost three years. Leading track "Falling" was originally released on the band's website online but servers couldn't keep up with demand as thousands of fans flocked and caused the website to crash for several days. When the video was released on YouTube it achieved over 350k views in under a month. Since 2002, The Gazette has risen to become one of Japan's most successful rock bands. They've refined and redefined the boundaries of rock music, achieving continual chart success despite their often heavy, ominous sound. In the last decade, The Gazette have earned top-ten chart success with all 20 of their major label albums and singles. Their music has taken them all over Japan on massive, sold-out tours and seen them perform at some of the country's most prestigious venues. Highlights include sold-out "one man lives" (a Japanese term for shows with a single band on the line-up) at the mighty Nippon Budokan, Saitama Super Arena and Japan's 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome - not to mention packed-out tours across the globe. The band even managed to bring Shinjuku Station - the world's busiest transport hub - to a halt when a guerrilla gig got out of hand and tens of thousands of fans arrived within minutes of the news breaking on social media.