I love a good concept album, as a musician and someone who has taught teenagers music, I think they are the easiest way to open up someone’s mind to more than the latest Taylor Swift single. Not to detract from modern pop artists, though there is something cathartic to a full album making something special rather than a single. Maybe that’s the idea of keeping something that’s dying alive in some way, not that it needs to be kept alive. That said, my taste in music can be simply put: Weird.

Most recently I’ve listened to everything from Wagner, Supertramp, Creeper, Beabadoobee, Spandau Ballet, J. Cole, Green Day, Queen, War, Atomic Kitten, Bobby Darin, Avril Lavigne, Run The Jewels, Fleetwood Mac, and sure, a bit of Madness, to name a few. Now we’ve established I’m not a normal human when it comes to my music tastes, alongside my adulation for Run the Jewels, I really like Babymetal (stylized in all caps). Only in Japan would you get teenage women (three “idols”) dancing to heavy metal with an air of emo-pop princess to them. Don’t back out now, I’ve already said it would be weird!

That said, I don’t have a preference for heavy metal outside of the occasional wrestling event, and that’s where I found out about Babymetal. NXT TakeOver: The End featured their song Karate as one of the themes, from there I fell into the rabbit hole of Gimme Chocolate, and their two albums. I say this with no hint of irony, their albums and they themselves are in my top five alongside Too many Zooz, Kesha, Paramore, and Run the Jewels this decade. I love this weird mash of pop and metal that Babymetal is known for at this point.

With that lengthy setup, their third album Metal Galaxy (stylized in all caps) released just under two months ago, which I didn’t know was out yet. So recently I’ve been binging the entire album (“Japan complete standard edition”) on repeat while writing, as that’s what I do with Babymetal albums, write or read. So as one would expect from my glowing praise already, I’m going to continue that for another strange and wonderful Babymetal album. An album of heavy backing tracks, a strange genre-bending catalog of songs, and all-out madness from start to finish.

Starting out with the fairly short FUTURE METAL, it reinforced that the album isn’t a couple of singles, track seven as a ballad, and then rest filler, it is an explosion of Babymetal. Something that’s shown in the next few tracks with “Da Da Dance“ (Featuring: Tak Matsumoto), “Elevator Girl,” and “Shanti Shanti Shanti.” Heavy, loud, and the metal meets pop thing the band is known for and sometimes despised for by metal purists. “Shanti Shanti Shanti,” in particular, is the beginning of the “genre-bending” I spoke about; it isn’t Babymetal’s usual metal backing to pop singing and dancing, instead, it takes a little bit of an Indian-influence along with it.

“Shanti Shanti Shanti,” being particularly heavy on an electric guitar bringing an electric sitar sound to Babymetal’s heavy metal/pop madness. Something that continues into “Oh! MAJINAI” (Featuring: Joakim Brodén) with a heavy pirate metal sound that could use clips from Muppet Treasure Island and wouldn’t feel out of place. It is as heavy as it is weird and could use Sobaton’s Joakim Brokdén playing “Animal” for any visuals required. This is where I think Babymetal works best, shifting from song to song making it still feel like them, and yet everything feels so different from the last.

The next track being “Brand New Day“ (Featuring: Tim Henson and Scott LePage of Polyphia) simply falls back into an uncomplicated metal sound between verses. It is another perfect blend of a heavy emo/pop verse with a progressive metal guitar-led instrumental between and through the chorus. Then in tradition with this whole album, “Up Down Left Right BBAB“ sounds like it came out of a Japanese dub of Wreck-It Ralph. Once again shifting to use synthesizers on the voice and through-out with a brash metal instrumental.

Then for all that shifting around for the proceeding several songs, we fall back into almost “classic” Babymetal with “Night Night Burn!” ending disc one and “In The Name Of” going into disc two. “Night Night Burn!” features an almost Latin breakdown in the middle to spice it up, while “In The Name Of” shows off a gothic build that sounds like it came from the Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack. The latter doesn’t feature Su-metal or Moametal at all, as far as I can tell. “In The Name Of” might as well be the most metal in the mind of a metal purist, it is the Kami Band’s moment to shine without Babymetal on top.

Then once again we fall into the Babymetal sound of thumping metal that wouldn’t feel out of place in a JRPG with “Distortion” (Featuring: Alissa White-Gluz) and “PA PA YA!!” (Featuring F.HERO). That’s really the best way to explain these two, battle anthems from a JRPG that’s not been made. They are big, they are loud, they are weird, they are heavy, and I love that about this group.

Both are followed by another two that just shows why Babymetal is strange and wonderful: “BxMxC” and “Kagerou”. “BxMxC” is particularly pop-ish as it is another track that uses synthesized vocals with a heavy and thunderous bass, guitar, and drum accompaniment under it. Meanwhile, “Kagerou” feels like another “Headbanger!!” or “Do Ki Do Ki MORNING” with Babymetal’s pop/metal blend perfectly captured into just a few minutes of simple Japanese metal.

The same could be said of “Starlight,” the last of my high praise. The third from the last song, this one wouldn’t feel out of place on the other two albums from the group. While there isn’t anything wrong with “Shine” or “Arkadia” which follows “Starlight,” they feel excessively long as the two longest songs on the album. “Shine” feels like an epilogue of the entire album, while “Arkadia” is a climatic metal explosion to end another excellent album from Babymetal.

I don’t believe everyone shares my weirdly happy feeling while listening to Babymetal, as most that listen to metal don’t want happiness. However, as I said at the top, there’s something different about this album that would/could take someone’s usual pop tastes and blend in something strange. Not every song is going to be to everyone’s taste, however, together it makes sense as the group’s most varied project yet. Nevertheless, I think there’s something in there for everyone, as “Oh! MAJINAI” sounds like the Muppets doing pirate metal in parts, “Band New Day” is a great rock track, and “Up Down Left Right BBAB” is silly pop meeting metal.

Alongside Dave’s Psychodrama (stylized in all caps), I think Babymetal’s third album show you can still do strange and wonderful concept albums in 2019.

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BABYMETAL - METAL GALAXY

$5.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fun sound.
• Each track feels different from the last.
• A strange mix of featured artists that work well together.

Cons

• The last two tracks are lengthy.