Roots of X Japan

Color was a Japanese punk rock band formed in Osaka in 1985 by vocalist Dynamite Tommy, who founded the Free-Will record label a year later. They are considered to be important to the formation of visual kei, with the phrase "X of the East, Color of the West" (東のX、西のCOLOR) comparing the importance of the Kansai band to that of X Japan in Kantō. Their debut album Gekitotsu was named one of the top albums from 1989–1998 in a 2004 issue of the music magazine Band Yarouze.