Xirculo.com » Design Notes {In the pain I am waiting for you ~ ART OF LIFE \\ 1.Vampire Hunter D}

§ Design Notes §

VERSION 1 \\ ART OF LIFE
Uploaded: 2 March 2002
Cover: Vampire Hunter D, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano
Verse: Art of Life, X-Japan
Tools: Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and Image Ready 7.0, Notepad

Art of Life
Performed by X-Japan
Lyrics and Music by Yoshiki

Desert Rose
Why do you live alone?
If you are sad
I’ll make you leave this life
Are you white, blue or bloody red?
All I can see is drowning in cold grey sand

The winds of time
You knock me to the ground
I’m dying of thirst
I wanna run away
I don’t know how to set me free to live
My mind cries out, feeling pain

I’ve been roaming to find myself
How long have I been feeling endless hurt?
Falling down, rain flows into my heart
In the pain I’m waiting for you
Can’t go back
No place to go back to
Life is lost, flowers fall
If it’s all dreams, now wake me up
If it’s all real, just kill me

I’m making the wall inside my heart
I don’t wanna let my emotions get out
It scares me to look at the world
Don’t want to find myself lost in your eyes
I tried to drown my past in grey
I never wanna feel more pain
Ran away from you without saying any words
What I don’t wanna lose is love

Through my eyes
Time goes by like tears
My emotion’s losing the color of life
Kill my heart
Release all my pain
I’m shouting out loud
Insanity takes hold over me

Turning away from the wall
Nothing I can see
The scream deep inside
Reflecting another person in my heart
He calls me from within
All existence you see before you must be wiped out
Dream, Reality, Memories and Yourself

I begin to lose control of myself
My lust is so blind, destroys my mind
Nobody can stop my turning to madness
No matter how you try to hold me in your heart
Why do you wanna raise these walls?
I don’t know the meaning of hatred
My brain gets blown away hearing words of lies
I only want to hold your love

Stab the dolls filled with hate
Wash yourself with their blood
Drive into the raging current of time
Swing your murderous weapon into the belly, the earth
Shout and start creating confusion
Shed your blood for pleasure
And what? For love?
What am I supposed to do?

I believe in the madness called Now
Past and future prison my heart
Time is blind
But I wanna trace my love
On the wall of time, over pain in my heart
Art of life
Insane blade stabbing dreams
Try to break all truth now
But I can’t heal this broken heart in pain
Cannot start to live, cannot end my life
Keep on crying

Close my eyes
Time breathes I can hear
All love and sadness melt in my heart
Dry my tears
Wipe my bloody face
I wanna feel me living my life
Outside my walls

You can’t draw a picture of yesterday
So you’re painting your heart with your blood
You can’t say No
Only turning the wheel of time with a rope around your neck
You build a wall of morality
And take a breath from between the bricks
You make up imaginary enemies and are chased by them
You’re trying to commit suicide
You’re satisfied with your prologue
Now you’re painting your first chapter black
You are putting the scraps of life together
And trying to make an asylum for yourself
You’re hitting a bell at the edge of the stage
And you are trying to kill me

I believe in the madness called Now
Time goes flowing, breaking my heart
Wanna live
Can’t let my heart kill myself
Still I haven’t found what I’m looking for
Art of life
I try to stop myself
But my heart goes to destroy the truth
Tell me why
I want the meaning of my life
Do I try to live, do I try to love in my dream?

I’m breaking the wall inside my heart
I just wanna let my emotions get out
Nobody can stop
I’m running to freedom
No matter how you try to hold me in your world
Like a doll carried by the flow of time
I sacrificed the present moment for the future
I was in chains of memory, half-blinded
Losing my heart, walking in the sea of dreams

Close my eyes
Rose breathes I can hear
All love and sadness melt in my heart
Dry my tears
Wipe my bloody face
I wanna feel me living my life
Outside my mind

Dreams can make me mad
I can’t leave my dream
I can’t stop myself
Don’t know what I am
What lies are truth?
What truths are lies?

I believe in the madness called Now
Time goes flowing, breaking my heart
Wanna go live
Can’t let my heart kill myself
Still I haven’t found what I’m looking for
Art of life
I try to stop myself
But my heart goes to destroy the truth
Tell me why
I want the meaning of my life
Do I try to live, do I try to love?

Art of life
An eternal bleeding heart
You never wanna breathe your last
Wanna live
Can’t let my heart kill myself
Still I’m feeling for
A Rose is breathing love
In my life

Xirculo.com‘s launching spread, entitled Art of Life, utilizes tight tables, style sheets and grungry graphic brushes from Nocturna.net and Vbrush. The overall visual scheme was based on imagery of surreal, dream-like swirls and whorls, in shades of black, brown, orange, gold and red.

This layout is based visually on artwork by Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano for the illustrated series Vampire Hunter D. The series tells the story of a beautiful youth named Danpeal, who has vampire blood but is ironically set on the quest of destroying this race to, once and for all, end its evil.

Amano is well known for his work, among plenty others, in DC Vertigo’s The Sandman comic series, Square Soft’s Final Fantasy IX official character art portrayals, and the modern illustrated rendition of the Old Nippon epic Tale of Genji. He also has a fantasy series entitled Hero and has likewise staged many successful art exhibits all over the world.

The inspiration for this version is the song Art of Life, performed by the band X-Japan. Art of Life was released in an album of the same title; the song itself stands until today as one of the band’s most beautiful and memorable English songs.

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