Kept meaning to post this one.
Dir en Grey.
A band I genuinely believe to be one of the best metal acts in the entire world. I try not to use terms like "best in the world" when it comes to music too often because it's all subjective, obviously. But there's just something so intense, so individual, so mature about their newer stuff (past five years, roundabout). And even then, aside from their newer work, their entire sixteen-year discography is kind of a wonder to haul out and listen to in order. They began as a visual kei band; a particularly good visual kei band, and I still absolutely love their old works, but they were still kind of "restrained," so to speak, by being in that scene. But over time they kept experimenting, trying new things, making conscious efforts to stand alone and do things that weren't just "same-old, same-old." They've literally gone through the biggest "character arc" of any band I've ever heard. They began as one thing, and now they're something completely different.
There are fans who whine and complain because their newer work doesn't sound just like their older work, but that's kind of a selling point in my eyes. Their discography is eclectic, to a goddamn extreme. It isn't that they've sold out by any means, because their newer sound isn't necessarily any more "marketable" than their old sound. They're just artists; they make an effort to continually express by challenging themselves.
And fuck me, I absolutely love that about them.
Just to illustrate:
First song is from about 1999, when they were still firmly visual kei.
And the next song is from a couple years ago. Completely different from the first. You wouldn't even know it was the same band.
And between those two, they've played around with a huge, huge assortment of other genres, sounds, and styles. There's so much great work in their entire backlog that it's impossible to give a concrete impression of who they are with just two songs.
And I just have to mention that the vocalist, Kyo, is easily the greatest metal vocalist in the world as far as I'm concerned. I don't know of anyone else who can make screaming and growling sound that fucking brutal, then turn around and clearly sing a verse/chorus as cleanly as he can. He's had some rough vocal spots in their history; for a while (around, say 2006-2010), his live performances seemed like he was struggling through them, because he'd scream and growl so much that his vocal chords would get inflamed, and then he wouldn't be able to sing very well at all. But over time, he abused the fuck out of his voice so much that he can do it all brilliantly now. It's frankly kind of amazing to me. This is the kind of voice that no one has naturally; it takes a fuck-ton of hard work to get to this point. And literally no one sounds like him.