BABYMETAL -- Ijime, Dame, Zettai（イジメ、ダメ、ゼッタイ）

 

BABYMETAL is an aidoru group that, according to J-Wiki, puts out J-Pop, Heavy Metal, dance pop, bubblegum pop, alternative metal, power metal, Metalcore and Extreme Metal, genres that I'm honestly not too well-versed in. However, my fellow contributor and co-administrator on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Marcos V. can explain about what makes this band tick far better than I ever can through the very first article devoted to BABYMETAL, "Doki Doki Morning" (ド・キ・ド・キ☆モーニング)/"Iine!" (いいね！)/"Megitsune" (メギツネ).

However, I did want to focus on this band which has been around for over a decade through a feature of their fourth single "Ijime, Dame, Zettai" (Bullying, No Good, Absolutely) that came out in January 2013. For one thing, BABYMETAL was invited onto last year's Kohaku Utagassen for the first time to perform it, and for another, I remember that the members SU-METAL, MOAMETAL and (now former member) YUIMETAL had actually done a couple of gigs here in Toronto a number of years ago.

When I hear "Ijime, Dame, Zettai", I get those X Japan epic strokes in the classical piano intro and then the thundering electric guitars while, of course, the vocals retain their aidoru sweetness especially in the call-and-response stretches. According to the Wikipedia writeup on the song, the music by KxBxMETAL, TSUBOMETAL and TAKEMETAL (with NAKAMETAL and TSUBOMETAL on lyrics) takes on a melodic speed metal sound which is again something that I don't really know although it makes me wonder whether that is the sound that X Japan has stood by all these years. There is even a J-Wiki article for that specific genre in which for Canada, Unleash The Archers and Forgotten Tales are the representative bands.

"Ijime, Dame, Zettai" peaked at No. 6 on the Oricon weeklies and sold close to 20,000 copies. The single was included onto the band's inaugural album "BABYMETAL" from February 2014 which went as high as No. 4 and earned them a Gold ranking. When I heard that the band got that invitation onto the Kohaku, I did feel some happiness for the lasses clad in black. I may not be a fan of Heavy Metal and perhaps NHK's year-end special may no longer have quite the cachet that it once did decades ago, but it is still nice to know that BABYMETAL has gotten some further nationwide recognition after a decade in existence.