Babymetal: Death to False Metal
There are two stories about the origins of Babymetal. One is that producer Key Kobayashi formed the band around Suzuka Nakamoto in 2010 alongside Yui Mi...

There are two stories about the origins of Babymetal. One is that producer Key Kobayashi formed the band around Suzuka Nakamoto in 2010 alongside Yui Mizuno and Moa Kikuchi to blend sugar-coated pop with the weight of metal after realising that metal, as a genre, was only getting older. The trio was a subgroup of Japanese idol band Sakura Gakuin for a while until Suzuka ‘graduated’ at the age of fifteen and Babymetal branched out alone. The other story is that many years ago The Fox God blessed three girls with the potential to become heavy metal guardians. Each of the girls, Su-Metal, Yuimetal and Moametal, has their own power to help them achieve this while Kobayashi acts as The Fox God’s messenger. A Power Rangers ‘teenagers with attitude’ sorta deal.
"We challenge so many types of music."
Whichever one you choose to believe, it’s clear that babymetal are here for a reason. Heck, both stories could be true. What started off as a song you’d share because you couldn’t quite believe what you were hearing quickly developed into something more. There were festival appearances, headline shows and a hyperactive debut album. Curiosity and questions slowly grew into excitement about where they’d go next. Two years on from ‘Babymetal’, the band released ‘Metal Resistance’ and it justified all that talk. Charting on both sides of the Atlantic as well as at home, the band also pulled off a confident headline slot at London’s Wembley Arena to kickstart a world tour that would eventually wind up at the 55,000 capacity Tokyo Dome. More than that though, ‘Metal Resistance’ is a great album. Debates about authenticity don’t mean much when a band is fully committed to entertainment and inspiring a good time. Call them what you like but Babymetal are here to stay, and it’s not their origins that are the big talking point anymore. “We’ve grown so much and in so many different aspects,” begins Moametal. “We’re taller than before,” she adds with a grin shared by Yuimetal and Su-metal. It’s two days before ‘Metal Resistance’ is released on what the band, and their fans, have dubbed International Fox Day. It’s a day that will also see “the new Babymetal revealed to the world.” But before all that, the trio are sat on a sofa in a West London hotel, calm, collected and in good spirits ahead of the upcoming whirlwind. “The reaction to the first album was more than we expected,” starts Yuimetal. “People really liked it so obviously we weren’t sure if we could beat that with our second album. We weren’t sure if we could surpass the first album but after listening to ‘Metal Resistance’, I realised that this album is a good one. I’m confident people will like it.” “Our first album sums up Babymetal,” offers Su-metal. “On ‘Metal Resistance’, we challenge so many types of music.” Their remit widened, Babymetal rolled the dice with their new album. Change is scary, especially when you’re already toeing all sorts of boundaries. “For this album, we really challenged ourselves to try new things and new genres,” explains Yuimetal. “We’ve also grown a lot since our last album. I hope the fans will be able to get that through this album, that they can really understand what has changed with Babymetal.”




