‘Psychedelic violent crime of visual shock’. That’s how X Japan like to describe themselves – a self-proclamation that really sums up the crazy, chaotic world that is visual kei: eccentric, elaborate, outrageous and entertaining.

Indeed, it’s a world that X Japan virtually created in the mid-1980s. Perhaps their country’s biggest musical export, the Chiba-born band pioneered an eastern (and even more extreme) spin of what Kiss made famous a decade earlier – a mix of metal with bizarre levels of made-up glam.

After rising to stratospheric heights, X Japan called it quits in 1997, reuniting a decade later and embarking on sold-out stadium shows around the world. They graced Hong Kong a couple of years ago, hit American soil for the first time last year and have more recently released two new singles internationally – Jade, a speed metal track that picks things up from where their last album Dahlia left off, and Scarlet Love Song, a sappy piano-driven ballad of which only X Japan could pull off. The new tracks are hardly groundbreaking and it’s hard not to admit that the group is starting to show signs of ageing (even despite the layers of makeup).

Luckily the true charm of the band lies in its bombastic live performance, which hasn’t loosened up one bit. Last time they were here, frontman Yoshiki wowed audiences with his concurrent piano-drum solo in the 29-minute monster Art of Life, and even collapsed on stage later that night due to pure exhaustion – exactly the kind of extravagance that people want from their visual kei icons.

X Japan play AsiaWorld Arena on Friday November 4. Tickets: 2734 9009; www.urbtix.hk.

Edwin Lo