Tokyo’s Serotonin Mist sound like a band born from both rupture and intent. Formed in 2023 after the breakup of vocalist Hiroshi’s previous band, Asthenia, the project set out with a clear drive to move forward rather than repeat the past. “After my previous band broke up, I wanted to start a new band with a different sound and new members,” he explains.
What began as a conversation with guitarist Sergei—a regular at Asthenia shows—quickly expanded. “Sergei invited Makino on bass, Makino brought in Ryuho on drums, and finally, Hiroyuki, an old friend who used to play in The Cops Are Inside Us, joined. That’s how the lineup came together.”
From the start, Hiroshi had a clear sonic vision. “In simple terms, I’d call our sound emo violence or emotive hardcore with heavy metallic hardcore influences,” he says. The spark came from a single, infamous moment in hardcore history. “Before starting the band, the main idea was to explore the possibilities in Reversal of Man’s ‘Get the Kid with the Sideburns.’ Short, emotional, chaotic songs injected with direct metallic hardcore elements.”
Hiroshi, fully aware of the song’s original context and controversy, saw its accidental fusion as something worth pushing further. “Almost by accident, it became the perfect mix of emo violence or screamo and ’90s metalcore. I loved both styles, and no band in Japan had done that exact combination, so I wanted to see what would happen if we went all in.”
According to Hiroshi, that vision draws from a wide range of influences: metallic hardcore staples like Unbroken, early Converge, Chokehold, Refused, and The Swarm, as well as screamo and post-hardcore touchstones like Indian Summer, Frail, Neil Perry, Codeine, and Slint. Hiroshi also nods to Letters to Catalonia as a modern reference, saying they “updated that kind of style for the 2010s.”
Despite ups and downs in popularity, he’s optimistic about the current climate. “In Japan, the scene isn’t as big as it once was, but it’s never died—just gone through cycles,” he says. “Recently, more young bands with new ideas are appearing, more albums are dropping, and there’s a real positive momentum in the air.”
That momentum comes through on Serotonin Mist’s debut full-length, Mirror of Reality, released independently in September 2025 and later pressed on CD with bonus tracks. Their Bandcamp page proudly states “100% DIY,” a label Hiroshi is careful to explain. “One reason we put it front and center is because we believe in the potential of the DIY scene,” he says. “But honestly, the album really was made that way.”
From funding and production to the paper quality, the band handled every detail. “We didn’t do it to win the ‘DIY Olympics,’” he adds. “The reality is, there are very few indie labels in Japan willing to release a full album by a lesser-known screamo band, and even then, they often don’t fit our vision.”
Lyrically, Mirror of Reality stays grounded and immediate. “I try to write lyrics that feel real to me—describing scenes within a five-meter radius of my own life,” Hiroshi says. The album tackles debt, workplace exploitation, domestic abuse, casual racism, gentrification, and quiet pressure to conform—all filtered through lived experience. “
I want to speak as someone directly involved,” he emphasizes. That ethos led the band to look to past inspirations like legendary Tokyo screamo band There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. “They showed you can create something better than a product made for the market by doing it yourself,” Hiroshi says. “They felt less like a band and more like an art collective.”
That sense of interconnected history even extends to the album art. The cover was drawn by Matthew Wheelock, who first reached out to the band online. Only later did they realize he’d also fronted late-’90s New Jersey DIY band. Linus. “New Jersey in the ’90s and early ’00s was home to so many bands we love,” Hiroshi says. “Finding out our album art was tied to that scene was a genuinely exciting surprise.”
As Serotonin Mist keep playing shows around Tokyo and get ready to put the album on streaming platforms by Christmas, they’re already writing again. “The new songs feel really strong so far,” Hiroshi says. “We’re hoping to release more music next year, so keep an eye on us.” For a band so focused on reflecting real life, Serotonin Mist are always looking ahead, intent on pushing their sound—and their scene—forward.
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Serotonin Mist on social media: Instagram
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