BABYMETAL Can’t Hear Your Disbelief Over the Sound of How Awesome Their New Album Is
“I’m not sure what I’m about to see,” Stephen Colbert begins, cuing a chorus of nervous laughter. “But I’m pretty excited about it!”
Thus begins BABYMETAL’s first performance on American network television. While Colbert misattributes the infectiously weird “Gimme Chocolate!” to their recently released Metal Resistance, the performance otherwise carries on in typical BABYMETAL fashion: fast, loud, occasionally disturbing, and completely indifferent to your comfort zone. What could be more metal than that?
So, for those unfamiliar with this particular Japanese export (and there may not be many of you left by now), BABYMETAL is a metal band founded by babies.
Just kidding!
Sorta.
Fronted by 3 bubbly teenage girls and backed by a group of creepy-stage-makeup-wearing headbangers, BABYMETAL sounds exactly like what that description implies: sugary, ebullient J-Pop energy married to an onslaught of blast-beating, guitar soloing metal. Across two studio albums, the band sings (mostly in Japanese) about the trials of growing up, the complicated greatness of chocolate, martial arts as a metaphor for personal courage, and other ultra un-metal topics.
As you can imagine, this heresy has cultivated a small army of very, very upset human beings. I won’t bore you with the specifics of every butthurt “epic rant” blogged/vlogged in opposition to BABYMETAL’s international success – Google is more than equal to the task.
Instead, I’d like to merrily dance on the grave of every outraged comment and bad attitude – including my own – thrown at this band now that their second album, Metal Resistance, has proven what they can do. At first, I dismissed BABYMETAL as another thinly veiled bid to harvest the wallets of two separate audiences simultaneously, at least as far as their management was concerned. I’m not convinced that assessment is 100% wrong, either. At this point, however, it’s irrelevant; because Metal Resistance is as metal as metal gets.
BABYMETAL’s self-titled debut had a few high points, but seemed to lack a cohesive direction despite its singular strangeness. Songs like the aforementioned “Gimme Chocolate!” and “Megitsune” were accessible overall, even while flirting with questionable stylistic contrasts. Meanwhile tracks like “BABYMETAL DEATH”, “Ijime, Dame, Zettai”, and “Road of Resistance” (which opens Metal Resistance) proved they generally knew their way around heavier territory. But as a whole, the album felt disjointed and uncompelling; it showed a great deal of promise, but fell short of delivering. It was Season One of Parks and Recreation.
My opinion began to mutate once I saw a few clips of their live performances. I still wasn’t convinced I liked their music, but I couldn’t deny their dedication to exhausting performances or the morbid appeal of their unnerving theatricality. It wasn’t until I saw them stage a mock crucifixion during one of their shows that it dawned on me: this band had actually disturbed me, even slightly – dare I say it – offended me. Not because of the religious blasphemy, but because those motifs had long been the purview of my favorite super-mega-evil-dude bands like Behemoth, Gorgoroth, or Dark Funeral. There was something viscerally troubling about 3 teenagers in tutu’s skipping around blood-red stage lighting, pyrotechnics, and mock executions. Do their parents know where they are right now?
Provoked but unable to explain exactly what my objections were, I realized that BABYMETAL had won me over through the sheer madness of their work.
It’s not often that a band challenges my sensibilities. After all, it’s been several decades since parents everywhere first collectively blanched at the profane iconography and transgressive lyrics of heavy metal. In that era, metal was rebellious and even revolutionary; and in countries where violating blasphemy laws carries a heavy penalty – like Iran – it still is. But you can only butter the bread with blasphemy for so long before sacrilege becomes its own kind of sacred cow.
Someone had to blaspheme the blasphemous, disgrace the disgracious, and profane the profanatory. That someone was BABYMETAL. What could be more heretical to a self-serious scene flush with machismo than a trio of teeny-bopper Japanese idols singing about candy and boys?
Even if their music wasn’t particularly good (my initial assessment), BABYMETAL would deserve credit solely for breaking new ground in a genre that prided itself on trailblazing. Fortunately though, their latest release canonizes the distinction of a record and a band worthy of every metalhead’s attention.
Metal Resistance is a fascinating exercise in genre splicing. It’s equal parts cute and creepy, dabbling in divergent musical subgenres with impressive confidence. “KARATE” explores the more conventional tropes of metalcore (aggressive riffing accompanies the verses while soaring melodies carry the anthemic chorus) and results in one of the strongest tracks in BABYMETAL’s entire discography. “Awadama Fever” delivers a high octane blend of industrial big beat and pop-punk energy, which in turns gives way to “YAVA!” – a schizophrenic journey through insistent up-strumming guitars, explosive techno, subtle nods to surf-rock, and even a breakdown. I didn’t think BABYMETAL could get away with borrowing from the likes of Cryptopsy and Aborted, but “Sis. Anger” proved me wrong. “Tales of the Destinies” issues rapid-fire Dillinger Escape Plan-like pinch harmonics over layers of a Between the Buried and Me-esque fusion of progressive metal and whatever pops into the song’s head from moment to moment.
It is delirious, aberrant musical abandon; a Japanese transcription of Alice’s travels through Wonderland as told by Harley Quinn.
That’s to say nothing of the lighter, more intimate moments that counterbalance Metal Resistance‘s 50+ minute runtime – each one adding to the startling, brazen complexity BABYMETAL has finally subjugated.
Metal Resistance, like the band behind it, isn’t for everyone. Even with my love of metal and experimental music, I’m still struggling to contextualize and assimilate it within my listening habits.
But I think that’s what lies at the core of great art; the ability to provoke, challenge, and even offend. Metal Resistance isn’t great art per se, but given how quickly the band crystallized a new subgenre of music (in the subgenre-saturated arena of metal, no less), it’s more than just a standout sophomore effort. It’s so unprecedented, it almost defies description.
That’s why BABYMETAL’s Metal Resistance is my inaugural Album of the Month, and the next musical expedition you should conduct.
But don’t take my word for it…
