Skip to main content
Heavy Metal Thunder Visual Kei Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Doom Metal Gothic Metal Visual Kei Metal

Visual Kei Metal

Japanese metal in which the costume, the make-up and the music are one inseparable thing. Theatrical, restless, unmistakable.

Active years
1989 – present
Origin
Japan
Family
Gothic Metal
Bands here
13

Start here

Three records in order of how easy they are to get into β€” which is not the same as best first.

  1. Blue Blood X Japan, 1989 The landmark

    The founding record of Japanese metal, released in 1989 when the band were still called simply X β€” they became X Japan in 1992. Speed metal, power ballads and a classically trained drummer, all at maximum volume.

    Listen to Blue Blood

  2. Mother Luna Sea, 1994

    The genre growing up. Less metal than X Japan and considerably better written β€” this is where visual kei stopped being about the hair and started being about the songs.

    Listen to Mother

  3. Withering to Death Dir En Grey, 2005

    Stylised on the sleeve as "Withering to death." The heaviest thing in the genre by a distance, and the point where the band lost interest in being pretty. Their videos are banned in several countries.

    Listen to Withering to Death

What it sounds like

Impossible to separate from how it looks, and that is a musical fact rather than a complaint. Japanese visual kei runs from speed metal to gothic to pop within one band's discography, because the constant is the presentation rather than the genre: elaborate costume, androgynous make-up, and a theatrical vocal delivery that shifts between clean singing, screaming and something close to musical theatre. Melodies are strong and often unexpectedly bright. Western metal rarely allows this much stylistic promiscuity in one band, which is why the good records here sound like nothing else on this site. Compared with Western gothic metal it is faster, brighter and considerably less mournful; the theatricality is playful rather than funereal.

  • Heaviness 3 out of 5
  • Speed 3 out of 5
  • Aggression 3 out of 5
  • Technicality 4 out of 5
  • Darkness 3 out of 5
  • Melody 5 out of 5

Where the name came from

From the Japanese ヴィジγƒ₯をル系 (vijuaru kei), literally 'visual style'. Widely credited to X Japan's slogan 'Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock' on their 1989 album Blue Blood. The movement treats appearance as a genre marker rather than a sound.

The bands

Hear these first

  • X Japan Japan
  • Luna Sea Japan
  • Dir En Grey Japan
  • Malice Mizer Japan
  • Buck-Tick Japan

And 8 more

  • Gazette Japan
  • Versailles Japan
  • Girugamesh Japan
  • D'espairsRay Japan
  • Nightmare Japan
  • MUCC Japan
  • Moi dix Mois Japan
  • Deluhi Japan

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

  • Tokyo Visual Kei & Japanese Metal 6 bands
  • Japan Japanese Metal 6 bands

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.