BABYMETAL — Metal Resistance (review)

BABYMETAL — Metal Resistance album cover

Album · 2016 · Alternative Metal

4.5/5 · 2016-09-01
Warthur

J-Pop/metal mashup act Babymetal get a lot of needless flack. Yes, they're three singers who work with session musicians and were assembled as a unit by their record label; those are the conventions of the idol genre they hail from. But they had adapted quite admirably to those conventions of the metal genre compatible with their schtick - for instance, they shifted quite early on from having prerecorded backing tracks to actual backing musicians for their live appearances, which shows a decent level of respect for how things are done in the metal sphere, and they genuinely seem to enjoy metal at that. (Yes, their label probably encourage them to put across the right image... but their label has literally dozens of idol singers to choose from, they wouldn't have picked Su-metal, Moametal and Yuimetal if they didn't figure the trio had at least some affinity for the genre.)

And the fact is, the musical package delivered on this second album is actually pretty good! Their compositional team manage to skillfully work in a range of nods to different metal subgenres over the course of the album - power metal and symphonic metal tend to be especially prominent, but there's also the odd prog metal twist, and Sis. Anger is actually a pretty brutal Babymetal take on black metal, which is taken on by Yuimetal and Moametal as a duo (tagged "Black Babymetal") in a fairly wise choice, given that Sui-metal's more gentle vocal style wouldn't be right for it.

But what really makes Babymetal's act stand out is the vocals themselves, and I genuinely think that Metal Resistance accomplishes a really interesting adaptation of the J-pop idol singing style to this context. Yes, it's not what metal fans are used to, and some purists may gripe about it - but purists who insist on metal staying within strict pre-existing boundaries aren't going to like an awful lot of more widely-accepted bands either. The fact is that metal has always had a certain flair for diverse styles, experimentation, and genre-blending. Nobody thought you could mix jazz and metal until Cynic, Atheist and the like did it, for instance, and I don't think incorporating a particular vocal style which is unusual for metal is any less worthwhile an experiment than that.

In short, I'm on the Babymetal bandwagon and there isn't a gosh-darn thing any of you can do about it. And after their time in the spotlight is over, once their finely-choreographed routines are no longer performed, and once everyone moves on, this will still stand as a genuinely interesting album which did a little something to expand the boundaries of metal, and we should be grateful to them for doing that, just as we should be grateful to everyone who succeeds at creating something genuinely musically novel.

more than 2 years ago
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aglasshouse wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm a person who over the years has enjoyed all of the "pussy" bands that are in some way a part of the metal circuit (e.g: Nickelback, Creed, etc.). I generally tend to keep an open mind about music from the scene, especially when it comes to the side of it that people despise the most, like alternative metal. But for some ungodly reason I cannot enjoy Babymetal to the extent that I feel I should. I guess that's just me.