they preformed their first ever live together in January of 1997 they covered 4 songs by the band 黒夢 (Kuroyume) under the name "DEATHMASK". Then in febuary of the same year they relesed their first demotape titled 業 / 蒼い月 (KARMA/Aoi Tsuki) under the name Dir en grey. In May of 1997 they made their debut with their EP MISSA (released on May 25 1997) songs included on the EP were 霧と繭 (kiri to mayu), 「S」, Erode, 蒼い月, GARDEN, and 秒「」深 (Byou「」Shin). at the end of the year in december they release (for mail order) 「楓」 (kaede)~if trans・・・~ (crystal box ver) this VHS held the PVs (promotion videos. same thing as music videos) for Ash, 惨劇の夜 (Sangeki no Yoru), 業, and GARDEN (this release was eventually sold in stores the crystal box ver in Jan of 1998 and the standard ver in July)

in 1998 Dir en grey released the singles Jealous and I'll. They were the first of many dir songs to hit the top 10 in the oricon music chart! getting the highest ranking ever reached by an indipendent band at that time! In may their fanclub 「a knot」 was founded!

On January 20th 1999 Dir en grey make their major debut with 3 singles (produced by YOSHIKI from X Japan) アクロの丘 (akuro no oka),残-ZAN-, and ゆらめき (yurameki) with them all hitting top 10 in the oricon chart! later in 1999 they release the singles cage, 予感 (yokan), and gauze. and then their first full album GAUZE. near the end of the year they even preformed at some bigger venues such as Yokohama arena in september and Osaka-jo hall in december ( here is a playlist of clips that makeup the Osaka-jo hall live) in november they released the VHS GAUZE-62045- this had PVs for all of the songs on their album GAUZE GAUZE -mode of adam-, Schwein の椅子 (no isu), ゆらめき, raison detre, 304 号室、白死の桜 ( goushitsu、Hakushi no Sakura), Cage, 蜜と唾, (tsumi to batsu) mazohyst of decadence, 予感, MASK, 残-ZAN-, アクロの丘, and GAUZE -mode of eve-