BABYMETAL -- Gimme Chocolate!!（ギミチョコ!!）

By Steve Rainwater via Wikimedia Commons

Well, Easter is approaching. As a kid, I used to remember my parents buying these huge chocolate Easter bunnies from the supermarket or Shopper's Drug Mart. My brother and I took quite a while to devour the annual Easter bunny, and frankly I'm surprised that we survived the ritual. I mean, that was one hunk of solid milk chocolate!

It's been a while since we've invited the good ladies from BABYMETAL onto KKP, so welcome them back to the blog. The heavy metal/J-Pop band has been visiting Toronto a few times over the years but it doesn't look like they'll popping by the 6ix this year although they did visit our city last summer.

"Gimme Chocolate!!" is a song that was released in the UK as a single in May 2015 although in Japan, it popped up as just a track on BABYMETAL's self-titled debut album several months earlier in February 2014. Composed by Takeshi Ueda（上田剛士）and written by Mk-metal and Kxbxmetal, it's a headbanging and heart stopping mix of heavy metal and Japanese pop, stuffed with enough energy to feel as if I had munched down half of that aforementioned chocolate rabbit in one go. SU-METAL, MOAMETAL and YUIMETAL are wailing their thoughts on chocolate which is stretching from one end to the other. Do they happily fall to the temptation of the sweet goodness or hold off on it, lest their weight board a rocket ship? I can totally relate!

Wow! All that mayhem and strobing in the music hall above. If I'd had a Snickers while watching all this in person, it would have been "Gimme Ambulance!!".

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.

BABYMETAL -- Doki Doki Morning (ド・キ・ド・キ☆モーニング)/Iine! (いいね！)/Megitsune (メギツネ)

I don’t quite like Rock music, much less Heavy Metal. But truth must be said, I enjoy BABYMETAL a lot.

Introduced to the world in October 2011 with the “Doki Doki Morning” (ド・キ・ド・キ☆モーニング)  music video, BABYMETAL, a Sakura Gakuin subunit, started in a rather shy way with the aforementioned song being included in the first Sakura Gakuin album, “Sakura Gakuin 2010 Nendo ~message~” (さくら学院 2010年度 ~message~), along with other subunits songs in April 2011. Just to mention, Sakura Gakuin is an aidoru group in the style of AKB48. BABYMETAL, on the other hand, is a very interesting and even innovative aidoru unit.

SU-METAL, the oldest girl (15 years nowadays), is responsible for the main vocals, while YUIMETAL and MOAMETAL (both with 14 years nowadays), the little girls, are there to scream, shout and do some crazy dances. And I must admit, SU-METAL is improving a lot with her live vocals. In the beginning, for example, she lip-synched a lot and the music was playback. Nowadays they have a live band playing with them, and SU-METAL is singing more live, which are two great things for the group.

Their gimmick, which must be clear after watching the video and listening to the song, is to blend heavy metal elements with aidoru music, something that is being called "Kawaii METAL" by BABYMETAL's marketing team. Based on that, as one of their slogans says, "they are pursuing the road of the only one instead of the number one". “Doki Doki Morning”, their first song, is probably the lightest in the heavy metal department, with following singles “Iine!” (いいね！), “Headbanger!!” (ヘドバンギャー！！), “Ijime, Dame, Zettai” (イジメ、ダメ、ゼッタイ) and “Megitsune” (メギツネ) being darker and heavier songs. And just like groups as Momoiro Clover Z (ももいろクローバーZ), BABYMETAL is a breath of fresh air in an aidoru world dominated by AKB48 and its sister groups.

The creativity behind BABYMETAL’s production team is fiercely represented in “Iine!” (2012), the second song released by the group. Like its antecessor, “Doki Doki Morning”, “Iine!” is a strange fusion of aidoru music and heavy metal. But taking things to a crazier and more extreme route, it also features eurobeat synths, and even a hip-hop section. As a whole, “Iine!!” is just too over the top, but it’s also a fun song that will make most of the listeners very confused at the first listen. Luckily, after BABYMETAL switched to a major label, the production team behind it gave up the eurobeat and hip-hop styles and is now concentrated in making “heavier” heavy metal arrangements (if that makes sense), while still doing it in an aidoru-like way, which is better and more cohesive. They do add some electronic touches in BABYMETAL’s newest songs, like in latest single “Megistune” (2013), but we can handle that if they don’t transform the song into an eurobeat/rock party, like in most of “Iine!”. And talking about “Megistune”, it also features some traditional Japanese themes in the music and the story, something that is being used a lot in J-Pop nowadays. You can check both “Iine!” and “Megitsune” below.

Being a group that started in such odd manners, BABYMETAL acquired quite a stable place in the industry with four singles released so far (two indies and two majors), and an upcoming full length album that is planned to be released in October 2013. Based on that, let’s see what the future holds for these girls, as they were capable of making me – a person who doesn’t like rock music at all – want to buy their album once it gets released. As BABYMETAL is getting more serious with each release, they will undoubtedly achieve more fame than the amount they have up to date. And it’s interesting to note that sales wise they are doing even better than Sakura Gakuin, their main group.

Who would know that heavy metal and aidoru music was such a great combination…

And here’s “Doki Doki Morning” being performed live at METROCK 2013 (not quite...unfortunately that video was taken down so here's one of their live efforts in Zurich). SU-METAL's vocals are not bad at all. And YUIMETAL/MOAMETAL are very charismatic little girls as well.

The “Sakura Gakuin 2010 Nendo ~message~” album was released in April 2011 and reached #54 on the Oricon chart. “Doki Doki Morning” was released as a digital single months after the release of the album, in October 2011. The song was written by NAKAMETAL, while the music was composed by both Norizou (のりぞー) and Motonari Murakawa (村カワ基成).

“Iine!” was released in a joint single between BABYMETAL and indie/alternative rock band Kiba of Akiba in March 2012. The single reached #46 on the Oricon chart. The lyrics were wirtten by Kaosu Nakata (中田カオス), while the music was composed by Mish-Mosh.

As for “Megitsune”, it was released in June 2013, reaching #7 on the Oricon charts and selling around 28,500 copies. The song was written by MK-METAL and NORi-METAL, with the latter being responsible for the music was well.