If you listen to rock music and havent heard of Babymetal, what rock has your head been under for the last 2 years. I mean they’ve played some the biggest metal festivals in the world and even toured with Lady Gaga (weird right?). To describe Babymetal think cutesy J
apanese idol pop much like the intro song for an anime, fused with melodic death metal and fronted by 3 teenage girls. At first glance its like srsly?, after you listen to it though it makes sense and its fun. Yes heavy music doesn’t always have to be serious, it can be fun. From the get go with Babymetal it is important to remember that this band was constructed much like another pop act within Japans music industry. With that does come the stigma that this band is just a novelty act, and maybe that is the case. To be honest, I don’t think authenticity of their music is relevent to say whether Babymetal is good or not. Because their first album is really good, catchy hooks, good riffs and just good music.
But does “Metal Resistance” live up to the standard of the last album ?
…I’d say it does, yeah. “Metal Resistance” starts off with the track “Roads of Resistance” which features leads from Dragonforce guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, so it’s a total shredfest. Stylistically their fingerprints are all over the track too, but it doesn’t sound like Babymetal covering Dragonforce. Stylisticly Babymetal really picks and chooses a little bit from everything modern heavy metal has to offer this record, with the tracks “Karate” and “Gj” borrowing a lot from Djent, Roads of resistance being a straight up Power metal anthem and Theres a big prog metal influence on the track “Tales of the Destinies” which feels like a Dream Theatre song with a J-Pop Chorus.
You get a vibe of alot of songs being influenced by Contremporary japanese rock aswell, the song “Yava” sounding like the intro to a Shonen anime. Theres also a few nods to japaneses bands Like Dir En Grey on the track ” Sis. Anger”, Crossfaith on the track “From Dusk Til Dawn” and “No Rain, No Rainbow” feels alot like one of X Japan’s ballads.
So My opinion on this album is it’s pretty solid, it really satisfys alot of of musical craving for me. Theres metal theres the poppy moments, but it doesn’t at any point feel like a parody of either it feels very genuine despite being constructed by a label. The performances on “Metal Resistance” are stellar as well with the Kami Band (Babymetals backing band) puting down some of the best metal riffs I’ve heard in a while. And despite there being alot of songwriters on this record it manages to stay very cohessive as well.
The letdown for me on Metal resistance is the ballads which are too cheesey for my liking, and seemed to just to have been tacked on to meet the labels requirement of having at least two ballads on the record. Aside from this the record is really strong
Recomended tracks: Karate, Roads of Resistance, Yava, Tales of the Destinies, Gj and From Dusk till Dawn
9/10
OverDriver 