"I don't think of this as a reunion. We didn't break up; we just paused our activities and came back to life," says Sugizo, guitarist and violinist of rock group Luna Sea. Sitting next to bandmate Inoran, he speaks calmly and softly, his eyes looking back at me through tinted sunglasses. "Words like 'reunion,' 'business,' 'plans' . . . those things were never priorities. If we had thought about business first, then we wouldn't be doing things this way."

It's tempting to write off the "reboot" (as it's officially referred to) of Luna Sea as just another rocker reunion; the band announced a "shūmaku" (curtain call) gig in 2000 and had been dormant for almost a decade before returning to the public eye in 2010. But take a look at Luna Sea's output since: a digital single titled "Promise"; an updated re-recording of its self-titled debut album; a 23-minute single called "The One -Crash To Create-"; and its eighth studio album, "A Will," which was released in December. Combine this with a ton of recent electrifying gigs and it seems that Luna Sea is, as Sugizo says, simply picking up from where it left off — every bit the hardworking, boundary-pushing rock band it has always been.

"Each member has his own important solo projects, but in order to express ourselves to our maximum potential within a rock-band format, there was only Luna Sea," Sugizo says.