Introducing: Visual Laboratory

If you usually hang out in the back rooms of Osaka's visual kei scene, where diehard fans still dance like madmen to the beat of good old Japanese rock in full make-up, shiny leather and elaborate hairstyles, you may have heard of them. If you haven't, we are here to introduce you to this new visual kei band that sure delivers everything they promise... and more: hardcore riffs, killer vocals, gloomy lyrics and oldschool gore.

Founded in 2015, Visual Laboratory went through the usual band comings and goings before finding stability in their current lineup with Yossy (ex-UNKNOWN) on vocals, Misery on bass, Takumi on drums and Bebe and Kisato, their latest recruit, on guitar. While they could be called newcomers to the local visual kei scene due to this fresh line-up, they're not exactly beginners. In 2019, they released two singles titled Under Slave A Girl and Musica Democracy, and that same year they went through a massive musical and stylistic evolution.

Watch the lyric video for Musica Democracy:


Their latest single, Ai hate you, was released digitally in January, and a full lyric video for the track has been uploaded to the band's YouTube channel. Ai hate you is a play on words, substituting the Japanese word for "love", "ai" (愛) in for "I", which spices up the concept of hate with its inseparable antagonist, love.

The band's vocalist Yossy told JaME a bit more about this song's concept: "I recreated the melody of a song the band played before I joined. Bebe came up with this story of a woman who was betrayed by the man she loved. There's a feeling of love that turned to murderous hate, so we poured all that into the lyrics. The rhythm is closer to the atmosphere of a Japanese festival than that of a simple dance song. It's a track that always riles people up when we play it live."

Watch the lyric video for Ai hate you below:


One of Visual Laboratory's main goals for 2020 is to have their music reach audiences outside of Japan. "We listen to a lot of foreign music ourselves. It's always a very interesting experience to listen to different sounds and tunes, to get acquainted with different styles. We would be thrilled if our music were to reach foreign audiences, our goal is to play overseas in the very near future", Yossy says.

For now, fans can start getting acquainted with their music by streaming it on YouTube and Spotify.

The full MV for Under Slave A Girl can be viewed below.