Today marks the 11th death anniversary of Matsumoto Hideto, also known as hide from X Japan. During college, I used to think that X Japan was overrated, the band that j-rock newbs would bring up just to prove they had clout. I didn't think much of them.

One day, while drunk, and possibly on a rampage(I don't really remember), I thought to myself, "alright, this band is so damn popular and revered, there's got to be something about this band that keeps them so popular even up until now"(bear in mind this group is over 20 years old). So I streamed the intro for their Last Live concert. My first thought was, "damn these guys like explosions, and damn that's a ton of fans". Then, after the members were introduced to the background song of "Amethyst", I hear some instruments, reminiscent of a piano. Then Yoshiki tapping his drums. Then I hear something that would finally change my mind on this group; the guitars.

God damn, the guitars. Amazing. Melodic. Melancholy at times, but always melodic. Very expressive. Unique. Catchy. Timeless.....

So in a sudden, drunken moment of clarity I realized just why these guys were revered so much. They're actually pretty damn good. Thanks in large part to Yoshiki, each instrumental flows very well together, same goes for the vocals by Toshi, and sometimes by hide. As I streamed more videos, I realized that their influences ranged from classical to alternative, from piano to guitar, from vocals matching the notes of the piano, to a guitar's wounded melody.

Still drunk, yet determined to learn more about this band, I looked up who the band members were, and was itching to find out who the lead guitarist was. It turned out to be a guy named hide. I listened to more, found his guitar solos from Last Live were incredible, and sought more information on how he started, what other music he contributed to, et al.

It was then that I found out that this was indeed the same guy that had died in 1998(I knew someone from the group had died, but didn't really know who or which instrument he played). The authorities, not surprisingly, initially announced that it was death from suicide. His friends and family all say it was an accident. It did seem like an accident, there is no proof that he killed himself. He was found hanging from a towel tied to a door knob, what the authorities completely failed at acknowledging was that it was a technique for relieving shoulder/back pain, and that all X Japan guitarists/bassists practiced this on tour all the time. This would include Pata, Heath, and Taiji Sawada, who left years before and was replaced by Heath.

Also, hide's solo career was about to explode. His group, Spread Beaver, was about to debut an album and new videos, Zilch was going forward, and other artists under his Lemoned label were rising. Revealed after his death, was the fact that he and Yoshiki were planning to resurrect X Japan sans Toshi in 2000.

This is truly a case of a guy with so much potential, who died very young. It left a huge effect. Yoshiki stopped music for 2 years and hadn't talked to most of his friends. He and Toshi would go on for 10 years without talking to each other(Last Live was a concert dedicated to the fans, as they announced earlier in 1997 that X Japan would disband, shortly after Toshi announced that he was leaving the group).

Yoshiki returned to the music scene, and he and Toshi finally reconciled a few years ago. What everyone wonders, is what if hide were alive today, how far would X Japan have gone? What if hide wasn't even at the peak of his career? What if he was just starting? Same goes for X Japan.

The questions could go on forever, what we know is this: hide left behind a legacy of music that a lot of fans still enjoy today.

I'll admit, it took me a while to get used to his solo work, but the more I listened to his guitars, and eventually his vocals, his work grew on me. He was brilliant, his first solo was almost entirely composed by him, nearly all the intruments were played by him. Despite being different from his work with X Japan, there are key similarities while maintaining his own unique direction.

With that said, here is a video of his solos from Last Live, one of the first videos that changed my view of the group: