BABYMETAL - Who saw that coming?

Just a quick thought on BabyMetal after hearing the new song, Karate.

I'll get this out the way right now ... I love BabyMetal! I do. "Head Bangya!!", "Doki Doki ☆ Morning", "Onedari Daisakusen" ... they live in my car. Metal and heavy music can get stale quite quickly and this just worked for me in a refreshing kind of way.

Is is manufactured? Yeah. Is it a gimmick? Totally. Is it fun metal? Hell yes!

In saying that, have you heard the new track, Karate? If you haven't, go and listen to it. Go on. I'll wait .....

Things just got serious. What do I mean by that? Listen to it! Put Karate up next to "Give Me Chocolate!!" or any other track on the first album. This is metal!! From the opening phased intro into that riff! That riff! The the "Oh ooh, oh ooh, oh ooooh" in the choruses? ... it's just brilliant. Some people will dismiss this outright because of the singers and premise, but unlike the last album you can NOT argue with the music in this song.

The music in the first album was good but nothing to write home about. It all worked in the same way Austrian Death Machine does. It's standard or generic riffs and beats but with a gimmicky twist. The first BabyMetal album didn't know what it wanted to be so it had almost generic elements of different music styles mashed together. Listen to "Line!" and you'll see, well hear, what I mean. That's the extreme example, but you could feel that kind of insecurity through most of the album.

This tracks seems a lot more focused. It may be because they've got a steady touring line up of a live band instead of the band recorded track playing, or maybe it's just how much metal fans gravitated towards BabyMetal that focused things somewhat. I don't know. I don't know if the touring band recorded this or ... whatever. The point is, this is sonically and musically leaps and bounds ahead of the debut album.

Yeah, they could be talking absolute nonsense, or absolute filth and you'd never know (unless you speak Japanese ... I'm working on it ;) ) but the sound of the lyrics fit perfectly. It still amazes me how much that language and style works with this brand of metal. Look at a band like Lady Baby. The whole premise sounds utterly mental, but it works. On a side note, if you haven't checked out Lady Baby, do :) Thanks me later ;)

It's strange to think how much BabyMetal did on the back of that one album. Seriously, they sold out the standing area of Wembley Arena before the new album was even announced. If this track is any indication of where the new album may land quality wise ... wow. There's no saying how far this 'gimmick' may run, or how big it may get.

So yeah, just a brain dump after listening to Karate. I have high (pre-ordered) hopes for the new album. I'll ignore any suspicion of the April 1st release date being a joke and hope for the best.

What do you think?

Ross