Good reaction and analysis. BABYMETAL is a fusion of metal with Jpop aesthetics - and yes it is the three girls you saw in the video. Their live band, the Kami Band, is made up of the best session musicians to be found in Japan and they can play anything. The studio recordings do tend to be a bit over produced, especially Su-metal's vocals - they are at their very best playing live and that is where you will really hear the power in her voice, plus the backing of the Kami Band - and the live performance is what they are all about while losing absolutely none of the quality - if anything they improve on it. They have about 50 songs and virtually none of them are the same. They play almost every metal genre but will blend in many other musical styles and genres, so some may be a bit more pop leaning while others are straight metal, but they do everything in between and in one or two songs they will be at both ends of the scale at the same time. They started in 2010 when they were aged 12, 11 and 11 and the whole idea was based around the lead singer's vocal talents and stage presence despite her tender years. 10 years on and they have gone from strength to strength and they fill arenas as one of the very best live acts in the world (and they have awards from international publications to say so, it isn't just my opinion). 'Megitsune' regularly tops fan polls for their favourite song and has been played live more than any of their songs. This is really a female empowerment song. It reflects a lot of the Japanese culture starting with the traditional instruments (shamisen) in the intro and the lyrics about women being compared to foxes (kitsune - which also explains why the fox masks were so prominent in this video) which in Japanese mythology are able to shape shift and take human form in order to deceive. They are saying that women wearing their make up and hiding their true feelings are not trying to deceive anybody, they are simply trying to please everybody - so they are not kitsune (foxes), they are actresses and megitsune (female foxes or vixens) - and they are strong. The breakdown with the pig squeals uses the exact melody of an old and very well known Japanese folk song called 'Sakura Sakura' (Cherry Blossoms). When Su pulled the short blade (tanto) from her microphone (you may have missed that, I think you had your eyes closed) she said "Otome wa ... nametara ikan zeyo." (Maidens ... shouldn't be underestimated). This is a famous quote from a Japanese gangster movie said by the daughter of a gang boss. Much of the video was shot on location at the Asagaya Shinmei Shrine in Tokyo. This has become a place of pilgrimage for BABYMETAL fans visiting Tokyo. As a composer I suspect you will enjoy the more technical songs like 'Tales of the Destinies' (full on prog metal according to Mike Portnoy), 'Rondo of Nightmare', 'Amore' or 'Shine'. Those are the songs I would recommend first for you. Songs like 'Gimme Chocolate' get a different "WTF" reaction, they may be fun but you won't get so much from them until you are more familiar with what BABYMETAL are, so please don't jump at that just because it has most views.
@@Blizzard0fHope I don't think this guy is interested so much in virtuosic musicianship as he is in interesting composition. With that in mind, I'd second the recommendation for Tales of the Destinies ua-cam.com/video/UY0UPwKdXFk/v-deo.html Amore ua-cam.com/video/UetwDri5lIY/v-deo.html or even Iine!! ua-cam.com/video/qVdBBOpSoN4/v-deo.html
Very informative post. I cant say I'm a fan but I appreciate everything about them after watching numerous reactions to their live performances, even gimme chocolate:) I do love their choreography (not something you see in metal aside from guys standing side by side w/ their guitars and moving the necks up and down lol) and general Jpop aesthetics as you put it and the band is obviously very talented. They're certainly far more talented than I thought the first time I saw them on youtube. And to start so young! I saw some of their very early stuff and they were definitely born to be stars. Anyways, great backstory/info on them.
@@zelgkopitar8799 Thanks - and yes I never realised choreographed dancing was something I was missing with my metal for all those years before I stumbled across BABYMETAL.
Thank you so much for this info! I'm not a Babymetal fan, but I do appreciate their music and think they're very talented. The metal genre needed them, and their energy.
Yes, absolutely. The breakdown is using the melody from "Sakura, Sakura", a Japanese folk song from the Edo period, but with metal instrumentation, pig squeals and changed lyrics.
I saw them once live I think 2-3 years ago and it was their first time in Canada. If anyone wants to know it was the Heavy MTL. Almost no one really knew who they were before the show. A lot heard of the name Babymetal or were intrigued by it and at they received a great ovation. They are energic live and even if you don't understand what they're signing, they definitely gets you with the instrumental. I would definitely see them again if I had the chance
@@jason7120 No. It's a good performance, but far too long, repetitive, and has the huge "empty" spot of the crowd "singing" with no music or assistance from the girls.
@@Kaylakaze Ummm... That's what makes them the best live. Crowd interaction. That feeling you get when a 16 year old wields such power. If you think that's not good to show in a live, you fail absolutely on what makes BM so special live. There is a reason Road of Resistance is looked at as the go too in Live shows, it is because it has Everything. The theatrics, the music, the crowd interaction, and the girls putting out 200% in every second.
@@jason7120 Except it's not. Headbanger from Legend '97 is the go to show for crowd interaction. It's a far more dynamic performance, has a much more powerful crowd, much better performance by Su, much better theatrics, and the girls do far more in their choreography and singing. And if RoR didn't have 4 minutes of nothing but "oh wo wo wo" while the girls do nothing but walk and fist pump (no dancing), I could say it's a matter of opinion, but that section ruins it.
@@Kaylakaze Headbanger from Legend 1997? It's decent but not even one of the best performances of Headbanger. Legend 1997 as a whole is an overated show. The show is nostalgic but Su's voice was nothing that it is now, also Baby Bones, gag me with a spoon... Headbanger best song they did in that entire set. I love it but it doesn't show the whole picture, hell it barely shows the crowd, and you miss out on their power not showing the crowd. Shooting dry ice into the crowd is cool but doesn't show crowd control, just makes them not see shit for a minute. Your argument is so poorly articulated, hell Headbanger is one or my favorite songs, but you suggest Legend 1997... Big Fox Festival maybe it has a similar spectacle to 1997 and Su is a far superior singer in that show, Legend S maybe... but even then you don't have an audience eating out of your hand like in RoR live in Japan not even close. The perfect BABYMETAL live show you need that goosebumps feeling everyone gets in RoR live in Japan as Su, Moa, and Yui walk down that bridge, something you don't get with any of those... I know Headbanger Legend Metal Galaxy, that one has some good crowd interaction and all Su did was stand there holding a stick. That extended part with Moa and Kano (I think it was Kano) pumping up the crowd. Everyone dropping and bowing. That one is superior to even RoR Live in Japan. No you failed to prove how Legend 1997 Headbanger is the best live. Legend 1997 is just a poor show to pull stuff out of so not your fault maybe you haven't seen the superior quality of other shows. So your better argument is Headbanger Legend Metal Galaxy.
Yeees, Maximum the Hormone, Otoboke Beaver, also good ol' Melt-Banan with "Shield for Your Eyes, A Beast in the Well on Your Hand", some of the best Japan has to offer.
Oh man....I used to blare MtH from my crap car/speakers ('on last leg when bought' 91 civic hatch, stock system) back in college in 07. Completely forgot about them until this comment. Memory lane, here we go....! ty edit: unrelated to music, but gods I miss that car. So small and snappy...I'll never get drive those eastern OK mountain roads the same ever again :(
It's an O. K. music video. If you want to see where they truly shine though, it's in their live performances. The Kami band (backing band) is just top tier, and the girls performances have incredible choreography and execution. I 100000x recommend checking out the rondo of nightmare @black night Budokan with the full "Mischiefs of Gods" intro. It will make your socks stick to the wall two rooms over.
YESSSSS Megitsune (may-ghee-tsu-nay) That instrumental breakdown at 6:20 is one of my favorite parts of the song! The melody is from an old Japanese folk song taught to shamisen players called Sakura Sakura.
The part that is probably missed/hardest is the TSU sound, which doesn't exist in most (if not all) other languages. The T acts like a hard stop, transitioning into Sue. Only have seen it in Japanese. Closest would maybe be a pause like ' used in Native American languages.
The _"ts"_ sound exist in Slavic languages, we just write is as _"c"_ 😉 Unfortunately Japanese took the Romanji script from the worst sources they could 😅
ALOHA!! Nice reaction! This song is メ me ギ gi ツ tsu ネ ne. "キツネ ki tsu ne" is fox, "メギツネ me gi tsu ne" is female fox. I hope you continue their reaction. I looking forward to it !
@Der Bettnässer "MEGITUNE" is an old Japanese word so originally written in hiragana. But Japanese people have a sharper image of KATAKANA"メギツネ" than HIRAGANA"めぎつね". I think this is probably the reason they chose KATAKANA , to match their sharp image. Sorry for the poor English.
Awesome reaction, thanks for giving my favorite band some more exposure! As others have already said in comments Babymetal is really a band that needs to be seen and listened to in live performances, so I’d recommend virtually anything live by them. There’s a few that are UA-cam safe that don’t get hit with copyright claims (anything from Budokan or Legend 97 seem to be fine) but there’s also a channel called Babymetal Reactor Resource that has been uploading “safe” versions for reactors to use so any of those would also work. Road of Resistance, Akatsuki, Rondo of Nightmare, and Karate are some of the other commonly reacted to tracks.
Yes BABYMETAL is just the girls and the songs are written by pro writers and recorded by studio musicians and then played live by The Kami band, which is a group of rotating studio musicians. And they're amazing musicians.
1. "group of rotating studio musicians" is the understatement of the century. They're literally PhDs of music and teachers at the highest college/uni levels of various institutes. 2. The songs aren't written by "pro writers". They are simply professional musicians. "pro writers" sounds so dirty and demeaning. Several (if not the majority) of their songs are written, arranged, and composed by the regular session band members. What you wrote just sounds so harsh, negative, and devaluing of the band members and the bands integrity to me. But I probably misinterpreted you completely.
@@vhaarr several if the majority are written by the session members? Wrong. Leda Cygnus has contributed to several songs both with arrangements and recording. But that's it.
The engineering and perfection probably goes hand in hand, some of the best musicians in Japan were assembled for this era of BabyMetal. However having Idol industry influences there will be that element of production that can be heard in their music Definitely check out Kagerou or Distortion next
Yes Japanese metal is and has been killing it for years now. Babymetal is best live, not just for the show but the less produced, rawer sound is even better then the studio, the singer Su is a beast live.
great reaction and analysis!! welcome to BabyMetal Galaxy, and yes. MEGITSUNE is pretty much describes what BabyMetal are, but we must warn you that you've seen nothing yet, BabyMetal best experienced LIVE but they also got some good MV, this song for example, every song sounds different and i bet as a composer you'll enjoying this a lot if you willing to continue your BabyMetal journey. just expect the unexpected and as Su-Metal (the lead singer) says, "don't think, FEEL!" keep the good work and have a good day!
"Road of resistance" will be a better choice to see what the band is capable of Also PLEASE react to Ningen Isu, they are a solid 3 peace japanese metal band too and have over 30 albums!
No. RoR is so often cited as what they 'can do'. They can do _anything_ . They are so much more as a group, a band, a performance: what they do in RoR (although that's great too) is just another example of exceptional talent. They continue to surpass this.
@@Varksterable Well... i don't know... now that one of the girls left, and one of the guitar players of the background band passed away, the last album was... too weak. There was good songs, but the collaborations were awful...
@@keluargabuleminang "Fastest???" Is that how you measure music now? BxMxC will blow your mind then. It's irrelevant. My point was that babymetal is more (much more) than a single song. That is my opinion, yes. That's all I can offer. Are you some holy seer that can offer better? Because the tone of your reply sure implied that.
@@Varksterable Once again that's your opinion, I don't argue or anything I just give my opinion. Now you answer my comment, so I answer back that's all. I don't say Baby Metal is just one song, I just propose ROR because it's a compendium of technicality, speed and melodies. Now if you want to argue about this you can if you want, but I don't see the point.
If you are trying japanese bands, Toe is a most goodbye is one of my favorites, uchu conbini is another cool one with 8fils/tobira and Jyocho with the bluish house or a life without a sun (I don't really remember the name of that one but is freaking awesome)
Greetings from Scotland,just subscribed and enjoying your videos.couple of suggestions for you.1st one is myles Kennedy with watch over you acoustic for billboard,2nd is any shinedown song,Brent smith the singer has an amazing voice
Since we've turned you into a metal head, you might enjoy Sylosis. Their album Conclusion of an Age is absolutely under appreciated. Idk what song I would recommend, maybe Reflections Through Fire, Blackest Skyline, or Teras. The whole album is amazing front to back and the extra Vultures song is also amazing. Sheer thrash metal talent on all fronts. If they make it on the list, as always, I'll look forward to watching that video. Keep up the good work man. Alllrriigghhttt
if you really wanna see a great display of their guitar work do the live shows. . specifically Rondo of Nightmare . . with intro. . every memebers of the bandall get a solo and the song is also a Su solo singing song so its an amazing showcase of a song
Been following you and subbed for a while now, but, BABYMETAL is the whole reason I got into reaction videos to begin with. I am a metal musician/multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, and to be honest BABYMETAL is my favorite band for several years now. The whole thing from concept to production is just immaculate. Live BABYMETAL is ALWAYS better than the albums, which simply serve to teach you the songs before you attend a show. (I've seen them live here in North Carolina, year before last) They have been together for 10 years and even held #1 Rock album, their latest, Metal Galaxy, on Billboard when it was released. The band is built around the singer, Nakamoto Suzuka, whose voice is super powerful, she cuts through the heavy music like a knife through butter. The musicians are the best Japan has to offer and the songwriting is outstanding, they have quite a few "masterpieces" in their 50 plus song catalog. Go deeper, you'll be surprised again and again as they cover almost every genera of metal and have invented their own, "Kawaii-metal". Their stage shows are second to none with some production that are staggering in scope with some of the most elaborate stages you have ever seen. My suggestion is BABYMETAL - AKATSUKI, Black Night BUDOKAN (yes, that Budokan) Kitsune Dao!
Heyo, after watching your Aurora and Wardruna video I thought that if you want something magical in cinematic and music you may wanna check out Clann with the Kin Fables project, it does come in three parts but the first part is 7 minutes or so and touches the soul, and I was stumped that I could barely find any reactions to it. Keep up the good work, your videos are soothing and very enjoyable
You are asking about Key Kobayashi, also known as Kobametal. He is the producer of Babymetal. He created the group. The original front was Su-metal (lead vocals), Moa-metal and Yui-metal. Yui left due to health problems and was replaced by rotating back up dancers.
Nice review! If you love the instruments and the vocals, I suggest you Headbanger Live Legend 1997. You'll be a witness for their immense energy, crowd interaction, the Kami Band's skills and other stuffs. I bet you'll love this! Catch you at the foxhole! Kitsunes up!
Babymetal’s crowning achievement would have to be “Arkadia”, the finale from their latest album. Since you enjoy Tim Henson, your probably also like the collaboration he and Scott LePage from Polyphia did with them, “Brand New Day”, which is the closest thing I can call to 8 string pop metal. But funnily enough if you want to hear great Japanese folk metal, Whispered from Finland do it the best (who’d’ve thought?). Give their track “Lady of the Wind” a listen/ reaction: ua-cam.com/video/0Bg-1zM1x-c/v-deo.html
When it comes to Arkadia, I highly recommend listening to it with Starlight and Shine, as the three of them work together to create an emotional journey through the stages of grief (roughly) - loss (Starlight), acceptance (Shine), and moving on (Arkadia). Some of the best live performances of these three have been uploaded to the Babymetal Reactor Resource channel with a translucent logo over them to avoid copyright issues. Geebz, if you want to react to them, the version without the logo is linked in the description of each one, so you can watch that and then edit the logo'd verison into your vid so it doesn't get blocked. Brand New Day is also an excellent suggestion. Unfortunately, there aren't any good live videos of it on YT; just that one that splices the one pro-shot performance of it with fancams. :( The unspliced pro-shot (streamable dot com slash uyxv3z) gets blocked by the copyright bots on upload, sadly. Hopefully the aforementioned resource channel will get it uploaded soon. ;)
@@silly_programme5061 I think he tends to prefer studio versions over live, as he likes to examine things from an engineering perspective and get the artist’s truest intent, which crowd noise, bad acoustics, and less than ideal mics tend to obfuscate.
@@kvltmart That's certainly fair, but with Babymetal specifically it will only give him part of the picture. The choreography actually forms an integral part of the songs; for example, in Megitsune as we just saw, you see the girls miming stereotypically feminine actions such as putting on makeup and flipping their hair in between headbanging and other wild movements. Meanwhile, the lyrics are talking about how society puts pressure on women to hide their true emotions behind a facade of pleasantries. I know that he's a composer and not a choreographer, but the visuals really are an important part of the experience. On top of that, Babymetal writes a lot of their songs with crowd interaction specifically in mind, so hearing them _without_ crowd noise is actually farther from the "artist's intent". Lastly, their live sound production is (in most cases) actually better than their studio sound production, which tends to be very brickwalled and doesn't really let Su's vocals shine, and the live band is so technically proficient that their live shows are often very true to the albums (especially after the studio magic applied before publishing a pro-shot).
@@silly_programme5061 Ahh, maybe you’re new to the channel? Geebz doesn’t look into lyrics, visuals, or the meaning behind things (except on very rare occasions such as Tool’s “Wings For Marie” duology), so the stage performances wouldn’t factor into it at all for him. If you notice, most of the time he even avoids looking at the video while he listens so he can focus on just the music, and all vocals are treated as an instrument rather than a storytelling device through words. And it’s not about how pristine the live recording may or may not be, but rather the music itself being the only element in play, no crowd noise or anything. Geebz likes to listen carefully for even the quietest/ tiniest reverb and stereo effect details, that’s his jam, studio engineering, not so much live mixing.
@@kvltmart "he likes to examine things from an engineering perspective" then studio Babymetal is of course the best way for him "the artist’s truest intent" but a the same time, he won't get that with the studio as it's just a "demo" version of what they're actually about Talk about a complicated group ahah xD
I know I'm late to the party, but some other recommendations from the Japanese Metal scene: BAND-MAID / onset - ua-cam.com/video/mVrN-j_Uc0U/v-deo.html Wagakki Band - 焔 (Homura) + 暁ノ糸 (Akatsuki no Ito) - ua-cam.com/video/ponTbDDMYjw/v-deo.html *and* Wagakki Band / Bring Me To Life with Amy Lee of EVANESCENCE - ua-cam.com/video/hk1GtYK7BJM/v-deo.html (The fact that they covered a song *with* the singer of the band is amazing!)
My favorite metal band from Japan is Maximum of Hormone. Unfortunately they have bad history on UA-cam and it's hard to find their classic videos. But the ones they officially have in his channel are good too.
Oooh, this is some quality reaction right here, thank you. Go for Tales of the Destinies if you want more technical song by them, otherwise you can go for any of their songs people here might already mentioned, their songs are so diversed.
Babymetal music is so different from anything else in metal. They tend to blend styles, so I would be interested in the differences that you hear from song to song. I first listened to "Gimme Chocolate" and it was a bit much for me, but I like how they have grown - they have so much energy and stage presence live. Babymetal suggestions are often followed by Band-Maid (rock) and Lovebites (power metal) - both are all-female bands. I really like Band-Maid and think the songs show off how talented they are. I have not explored Lovebites much (the vocals are not quite to my taste), but I have enjoyed the live performances I have seen. Have fun :)
Oh please let the 'other japanese metal band' be BAND-MAID 🙏 It's a dream of mine since I first saw this channel and started falling in love with Band-Maid which happened at the same time of these things coming together. Fingers crossed 🤞
Geebz is currently sitting at 99.8k subs, I feel like he's either recording his 100k video or frantically refreshing waiting for those last couple hundred to sub.
All female from Japan. Band-Maid hard rock Freedom live Lovebites. Heavy Metal Holy War live Mary's Blood. Hard rock. Wings live ALDIOUS. Rock, +- hard We Are. Live Doll$boxx. Hard rock. Take my Chance. (Mv is real cute-but beware the growls).😈 Okay five bands to start out with If I knew how to link any songs... but with my carpal tunnel, I can't type a lot. But what the heck A little pain lets you know you're still alive
You need to get into some eluveitie - rebirth. Multi-instrumental folk metal with fiddles, penny whistle, flute and even a hurdy gurdy. They also have male and female vocals. So plenty to unpack 😏.
Here are some very worthy suggestions if they haven’t already been given to you. They are from Steven Wilson (Same guy from Porcupine Tree), in order of personal preference: Luminol, The Watchmaker, The Holy Drinker, The Raven that refused to sing (the song). All from the album The Raven that refused to sing. It it pure bliss. Top class production and song writing.
My friend, watching your facial expressions during the video was priceless. The noise of the gears clicking in your head was distracting me from the music. 😄 Great reaction though and I am glad you enjoyed it.
So, so many great hard rock/metal bands from Japan---they are really killing it! Gotta check out Galneryus, "Angel of Salvation." Basically a power metal masterpiece ode to Tchaikovsky. Also highly recommend Versailles (my all-time fav), "Ascendead Master." They're virtuosic neo-classical metal with a pretty-boy vampire theme. Unlucky Morpheus, "Cadaver/Revadac." A technical, power metal supergroup with an amazing virtuous violinist. Buckets of talent! TRiDENT, "Continue" An all-girl three-piece hard rock similarr to Band Maid. Also highly recommend Tears of Tragedy, "Void Act" Very straight forward, prog-ish metal with a clean, contemporary style female vocalist. Yousei Teikoku, "Paradiso-Inferno. " Hard to really describe them other than, "Gothic, Dark-Fairy Metal" Hell, I really could keep going....😁
if you enjoyed the mix of cultural instrument with metal i would suggest checkign out Wagaki Band - Senbonzakura, they are extremely talented and put traditional japanese instruments at the core of their songs. Another band i would recommend is MAximum the hormone, my favorite japanese band by far. some of their most popular track that are always nice to react to would be : -Koi no megalover -Zetsubou Billy -Let’s Talk about Menkata Cottelee -yoshuu fukushuu -What's up people No traditional instrument with them however, just pure savage metal to be heard.
The backing band are all veterans of the japanese metal scene (the bassist Boh is a fooking beast). The 3 girls are signed to a label that makes kids music (think mickey mouse club). There is a producer that allegedly got the idea of little girls signing pop melodies over heavy metal from a dream and here we are.
He actually got the idea when he saw Su-metal singing with her previous Jpop trio and thought her voice was so powerful she would be wasted in pop and that she had the potential to sing to much louder music - the sort he liked as a life long metalhead. So when he got the chance to work with her a year or so later he put BABYMETAL together around her as a sub-unit of the Jpop group that had just been formed by their agency with his idea of fusing metal with Jpop aesthetics. She was his only choice as lead vocalist and he chose her good friends Yui and Moa as her support for backing vocals and dance because of their talents as singers and dancers and for the fact they would work well as a trio.
> "The 3 girls are signed to a label that makes kids music" That's not correct. They are signed to a talent agency that hosts artists of all performing arts (including acting and such). Sakura Gakuin (I'm sure you meant this) is one of the projects that Amuse Inc. (said talent agency) produces and BABYMETAL originated from that.
I like this song. But it’s obviously very weird. High energy, catchy, shredding, cheerleading so-re bit, good for exercise. I don’t listen to their other songs though. I think I saw a UA-cam concert where they were performing in front of a picture of the weeping blessed virgin, just very strange stuff. Can’t get too into it. Agree that it’s radio-pop level production, very slick. Consider giving a take on Sunflower by Jakub Żytecki? It’s more of that edgy and cool-at-first, but at the end of the day quite exhausting and maybe a little silly, virtuosic showcasing genre that guitar culture and UA-cam culture have culminated in (you know what I’m talking about, you’ve done reactions to some of those sorts of artists). Sunflower is an interesting track, though. His guitar composition is fairly novel in addition to the virtuosity, and they made some interesting mixing/engineering decisions.
i did see this live and it was played so freeking tight its almost unbelievable, but there are some great musicians gathered on stage with Baby metal (i was way more intrested in the musicians as i was in the underaged girls 1 of them just turned 18 when i saw them live)
nice video. japan has a lot of interesting bands trying to fuse disparate genres together. coaltar of the deepers is another example that i think you should give a listen. songs like zoei combine big chugging guitar with distant shoegaze-y vocals. its very cool stuff.
I'd be intrigued by your reaction to something like Merzbow. There's a lot of great music from Japan. I love Boris and Sigh are a great band. Or Acid Mother's Temple for something a bit different.
Another Japanese band you should check out is Vow Wow, they had Neil Murray on bass for a while too ! Rock me Now, Helter Skelter and I Feel The Power !! Great band and live they blow you away !! Only band I heard that were louder than Vow Wow were the great Motörhead !!!
Its so weird... I've been an anime fan almost as long as I've been a metal fan (close to 25 years now) and this should be a band I LOVE, but I have such a WEIRD dislike of them.... this is like the 3rd or 4th song by them I've heard and they always just kind of weird me out. LOL Also, you want to dig into the good stuff, check out Dir En Grey. They are a Japanese metal band that have endured for more than 20 years, and started off as Visual Kei (which is sort of a Japanese Glam style) but have transformed into a more traditional metal outfit over the years. Kyo, their vocalist, is a BEAST. He is comparable with Mike Patton from Mr Bungle/Faith No More (etc) and is just amazing. Check out Juuyoku by them, for a great example of his range and the crazy things he does with his voice as an instrument.
Nice to hear what you had to say about Babymetal. Considering that you reacted to "Dance of Eternity" recently, I really think you should take a look at Babymetal's "Tales of the Destinies". It's an explicit Dream Theater tribute, heavily inspired by precisely "Dance of Eternity". Apparently it took over 2 years to write, and has only been performed live once.
Babymetal are the three (just two now) girls. They are the product of a Japanese talent agency called Amuse and that agency employs writers and musicians to play on the albums while the girls do the singing. They are more of a live act and are very theatrical in their staging with dancing and crowd interaction being very important. When they play live they are backed by the "Kami Band" who are all top hired musicians. Megitsune is Babymetal's female empowerment song and when they sing it in front of all female audiences it's amazing. The lyrics compare women to female foxes. In Japan foxes are known as shape shifters and the lyrics say that women often have to hide their true feelings and change the face they show to the world, not in a sly way, but for the benefit of others even if they are crying inside. The breakdown is a traditional Japanese tune "Sakura, Sakura" or "Cherry Blossom, Cherry Blossom", but Su sings "kitsune, kitsune" (fox, fox). So in the music, lyrics and also in the dance, Japanese traditions and traditional attitudes to women are subverted. The peak of this comes when Su shouts "Otome wa nametara ikan zeyo" or "Maidens should not be underestimated" and in the video threateningly draws a knife from her microphone or in concerts does a front kick. If you are going to review more Babymetal songs take a take a look at their live performances. Maybe you will like their appearance live at Sonisphere. ua-cam.com/video/Ro-_cbfdrYE/v-deo.html
> "They are the product of a Japanese talent agency called Amuse" Well... They precisely are the brainchild/former hobbyhorse of one of Amuse's producers and Amuse basically came to it much like the virgin Mary got her child: Suddenly it was there and they had to handle it... LOL
@@steffenjachnow8176 Yes Kobametal is the brains behind Babymetal and they were just another sub-unit of Sakura Gakuin at first with no life beyond that and very little funding. I would love to see the "powerpoint presentation" that Kobametal gave to the Amuse management with his plans for Babymetal and to get more funding .
Uneven Structure - Frost/Hail They're a progressive metal band who excel in creating incredible and surreal atmospheres in their songs. Think you'll like them!
Babymetal (Japanese: ベビーメタル, Hepburn: Bebīmetaru) (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese kawaii metal band. The band consists of Suzuka Nakamoto as "Su-metal" (Vocal and Dance) and Moa Kikuchi as "Moametal" (Scream and Dance). The band is produced by Kobametal from the Amuse talent agency. Their vocals are backed by heavy metal instrumentation, performed by a group of session musicians known as the "Kami Band" at performances. The band was formed in 2010, with the original lineup of Su-metal (Vocal and Dance), Moametal (Scream and Dance), and Yui Mizuno as "Yuimetal" (Scream and Dance), with the concept of creating a fusion of the heavy metal and Japanese idol genres. Originally a sub-unit of the Japanese idol group Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal became an independent act in 2013, following Nakamoto's departure from Sakura Gakuin. Babymetal released their eponymous debut album in February 2014. Their second album Metal Resistance was released worldwide on April 1, 2016. Babymetal has also embarked on several tours, with a majority of their tour dates taking place outside of Asia. On October 19, 2018, Babymetal announced that Yui Mizuno (Yuimetal) had decided to leave the band due to poor health, following her absence from live performances since December 2017.[1] Since her departure, the band has performed with one or more backup dancers at live performances. In 2019, the band introduced three backup dancers called Avengers who performed in rotation at each live show to form a trio with Moametal and Su-metal.
O shit, Babymetal!! Does this mean we are gonna get Band-Maid soon? I know you are more about listening to the song and giving it more of a detailed breakdown, but Babymetal live shows are worth checking out for performances
Great reaction and insight, as always. When it comes to Japanese rock/metal I feel obligated to recommend Ningen Isu, though I have a feeling this might be the other band from Japan, you already got a recommendation for.
If you want more music from Japan, check out Galneryus - Angel of Salvation (the album version, not the shortened music video). It's an amazing piece of neoclassical metal.
Speaking of fusing metal with pop and other elements I would recommend a reaction on Skynd - Jim Jones. An extraordinary fusion of metal and latin is Puya - Fundamental.
Hello. Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to assess the reaction itself, since without subtitles it is impossible for me to follow it. Anyway, your body language tells me that you liked it, but without a doubt Megitsune is one of his best songs, to my liking. I hope that in the future you can upload the videos with the subtitles option, because reading the comments it seems that they are quite interesting.
Geebz, having seen that you've checked out some Japanese metal, I think you should check out Galneryus ("Silent Revelation" would be a great piece to decompose by them) and also check out Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas ("Let Me Hear" would be a great track to decompose by them)!
Another Japanese band to react to is Sokoninaru. They have influences from so many different places and I think you'd really like them. Their song Tenohira De Odoru shot them into some fame 2 years ago, deservedly so.
Aloha! They are an acquired taste but great musicianship. For some other cultural tunes: (Symphonic Black Metal), Dimmu Borgir - Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse, (Swiss folk metal) Eluveitie - Omnos, (Norweigien progressive) Borknager - Winter Thrice. Borknager has 4 singers, mind blowing stuff!!!
Almost all Japanese can be broken down to 5 simple sounds: A E I O U = Ah, Eh, , ii(like "see"), oh, and oo (like "you'). For example, all K+vowel would sound like Kah Keh Kii Koh Koo. Following the same application, Megitsune becomes Meh - gii - tsoo - neh. That'll get anyone started easily. P.S. You'll probably see it instead as Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko (A I U E O), not A E I O U.
What about the punk scene? "My War," by Black Flag? "Slip It In" by Black Flag? "Holiday In Cambodia" by Dead Kennedys? Or death metal, like anything Cannibal Corpse, or better - "Phobophile" by Cryptopsy? Now, THAT would be sweet.
Id be stoked if that other J-Metal band youre talking about is Dir En Grey. It has to be Vinushka... trust me. Also Babymetal has a song with the Polyphia guitarist on their latest album too.
Good reaction and analysis. BABYMETAL is a fusion of metal with Jpop aesthetics - and yes it is the three girls you saw in the video. Their live band, the Kami Band, is made up of the best session musicians to be found in Japan and they can play anything.
The studio recordings do tend to be a bit over produced, especially Su-metal's vocals - they are at their very best playing live and that is where you will really hear the power in her voice, plus the backing of the Kami Band - and the live performance is what they are all about while losing absolutely none of the quality - if anything they improve on it.
They have about 50 songs and virtually none of them are the same. They play almost every metal genre but will blend in many other musical styles and genres, so some may be a bit more pop leaning while others are straight metal, but they do everything in between and in one or two songs they will be at both ends of the scale at the same time.
They started in 2010 when they were aged 12, 11 and 11 and the whole idea was based around the lead singer's vocal talents and stage presence despite her tender years. 10 years on and they have gone from strength to strength and they fill arenas as one of the very best live acts in the world (and they have awards from international publications to say so, it isn't just my opinion).
'Megitsune' regularly tops fan polls for their favourite song and has been played live more than any of their songs. This is really a female empowerment song. It reflects a lot of the Japanese culture starting with the traditional instruments (shamisen) in the intro and the lyrics about women being compared to foxes (kitsune - which also explains why the fox masks were so prominent in this video) which in Japanese mythology are able to shape shift and take human form in order to deceive. They are saying that women wearing their make up and hiding their true feelings are not trying to deceive anybody, they are simply trying to please everybody - so they are not kitsune (foxes), they are actresses and megitsune (female foxes or vixens) - and they are strong.
The breakdown with the pig squeals uses the exact melody of an old and very well known Japanese folk song called 'Sakura Sakura' (Cherry Blossoms).
When Su pulled the short blade (tanto) from her microphone (you may have missed that, I think you had your eyes closed) she said "Otome wa ... nametara ikan zeyo." (Maidens ... shouldn't be underestimated). This is a famous quote from a Japanese gangster movie said by the daughter of a gang boss.
Much of the video was shot on location at the Asagaya Shinmei Shrine in Tokyo. This has become a place of pilgrimage for BABYMETAL fans visiting Tokyo.
As a composer I suspect you will enjoy the more technical songs like 'Tales of the Destinies' (full on prog metal according to Mike Portnoy), 'Rondo of Nightmare', 'Amore' or 'Shine'. Those are the songs I would recommend first for you.
Songs like 'Gimme Chocolate' get a different "WTF" reaction, they may be fun but you won't get so much from them until you are more familiar with what BABYMETAL are, so please don't jump at that just because it has most views.
def rondo of nightmare. . really really shows off the band
@@Blizzard0fHope I don't think this guy is interested so much in virtuosic musicianship as he is in interesting composition. With that in mind, I'd second the recommendation for Tales of the Destinies ua-cam.com/video/UY0UPwKdXFk/v-deo.html
Amore ua-cam.com/video/UetwDri5lIY/v-deo.html
or even Iine!! ua-cam.com/video/qVdBBOpSoN4/v-deo.html
Very informative post. I cant say I'm a fan but I appreciate everything about them after watching numerous reactions to their live performances, even gimme chocolate:) I do love their choreography (not something you see in metal aside from guys standing side by side w/ their guitars and moving the necks up and down lol) and general Jpop aesthetics as you put it and the band is obviously very talented. They're certainly far more talented than I thought the first time I saw them on youtube. And to start so young! I saw some of their very early stuff and they were definitely born to be stars. Anyways, great backstory/info on them.
@@zelgkopitar8799 Thanks - and yes I never realised choreographed dancing was something I was missing with my metal for all those years before I stumbled across BABYMETAL.
Thank you so much for this info! I'm not a Babymetal fan, but I do appreciate their music and think they're very talented. The metal genre needed them, and their energy.
I do like the cultural influence in this track. That's a straight old school japanese melody
さくら さくら
Yes, absolutely. The breakdown is using the melody from "Sakura, Sakura", a Japanese folk song from the Edo period, but with metal instrumentation, pig squeals and changed lyrics.
@@egodreas Sakura "Cherry Blossoms" ua-cam.com/video/AK51LblcEOw/v-deo.html
@@derricktipps9867 I believe it's called Hirajoshi scale
I saw them once live I think 2-3 years ago and it was their first time in Canada. If anyone wants to know it was the Heavy MTL. Almost no one really knew who they were before the show. A lot heard of the name Babymetal or were intrigued by it and at they received a great ovation. They are energic live and even if you don't understand what they're signing, they definitely gets you with the instrumental. I would definitely see them again if I had the chance
You may be surprised but that was back in 2014, time flies!
@@FastWa1ker Damn! Time goes so fast!
They are coming to Canada again, tickets on sale now ! 🙂
its a happy day? for me this is the best band in the world, for the first time they are coming to my country no octuber, i cant wait !!!
If you are gonna do Babymetal generally live is better. Headbanger 1997 and Rondo of Nightmare are good places to start
Road of Resistance Live in Japan is where to start when it comes to live.
@@jason7120 No. It's a good performance, but far too long, repetitive, and has the huge "empty" spot of the crowd "singing" with no music or assistance from the girls.
@@Kaylakaze Ummm... That's what makes them the best live. Crowd interaction. That feeling you get when a 16 year old wields such power. If you think that's not good to show in a live, you fail absolutely on what makes BM so special live. There is a reason Road of Resistance is looked at as the go too in Live shows, it is because it has Everything. The theatrics, the music, the crowd interaction, and the girls putting out 200% in every second.
@@jason7120 Except it's not. Headbanger from Legend '97 is the go to show for crowd interaction. It's a far more dynamic performance, has a much more powerful crowd, much better performance by Su, much better theatrics, and the girls do far more in their choreography and singing. And if RoR didn't have 4 minutes of nothing but "oh wo wo wo" while the girls do nothing but walk and fist pump (no dancing), I could say it's a matter of opinion, but that section ruins it.
@@Kaylakaze Headbanger from Legend 1997? It's decent but not even one of the best performances of Headbanger. Legend 1997 as a whole is an overated show. The show is nostalgic but Su's voice was nothing that it is now, also Baby Bones, gag me with a spoon... Headbanger best song they did in that entire set. I love it but it doesn't show the whole picture, hell it barely shows the crowd, and you miss out on their power not showing the crowd. Shooting dry ice into the crowd is cool but doesn't show crowd control, just makes them not see shit for a minute. Your argument is so poorly articulated, hell Headbanger is one or my favorite songs, but you suggest Legend 1997... Big Fox Festival maybe it has a similar spectacle to 1997 and Su is a far superior singer in that show, Legend S maybe... but even then you don't have an audience eating out of your hand like in RoR live in Japan not even close. The perfect BABYMETAL live show you need that goosebumps feeling everyone gets in RoR live in Japan as Su, Moa, and Yui walk down that bridge, something you don't get with any of those... I know Headbanger Legend Metal Galaxy, that one has some good crowd interaction and all Su did was stand there holding a stick. That extended part with Moa and Kano (I think it was Kano) pumping up the crowd. Everyone dropping and bowing. That one is superior to even RoR Live in Japan.
No you failed to prove how Legend 1997 Headbanger is the best live. Legend 1997 is just a poor show to pull stuff out of so not your fault maybe you haven't seen the superior quality of other shows. So your better argument is Headbanger Legend Metal Galaxy.
There is a great live performance of BABYMETAL. Check out Rondo of Nightmare live @ Budokan Black Night . Very cool
YES! I came down to the comments to suggest Rondo of Nightmare live!
Another japanese band that are really worth checking out are Maximum the Hormone
Yeees, Maximum the Hormone, Otoboke Beaver, also good ol' Melt-Banan with "Shield for Your Eyes, A Beast in the Well on Your Hand", some of the best Japan has to offer.
tricot are amazing as well, probably my favourite Japanese band. JYOCHO, Elephant Gym, Mass of the Fermenting Dregs are other good Japanese bands.
@@jayzonedc6474 Elephant Gym are from Taiwan.... They, with Tricot, are my favorite Math Prog band!
@@JGM0JGM Thank you for the correction
Oh man....I used to blare MtH from my crap car/speakers ('on last leg when bought' 91 civic hatch, stock system) back in college in 07. Completely forgot about them until this comment. Memory lane, here we go....! ty
edit: unrelated to music, but gods I miss that car. So small and snappy...I'll never get drive those eastern OK mountain roads the same ever again :(
It's an O. K. music video. If you want to see where they truly shine though, it's in their live performances. The Kami band (backing band) is just top tier, and the girls performances have incredible choreography and execution. I 100000x recommend checking out the rondo of nightmare @black night Budokan with the full "Mischiefs of Gods" intro. It will make your socks stick to the wall two rooms over.
YESSSSS Megitsune (may-ghee-tsu-nay) That instrumental breakdown at 6:20 is one of my favorite parts of the song!
The melody is from an old Japanese folk song taught to shamisen players called Sakura Sakura.
Meh ghee tsu neh
The part that is probably missed/hardest is the TSU sound, which doesn't exist in most (if not all) other languages. The T acts like a hard stop, transitioning into Sue. Only have seen it in Japanese. Closest would maybe be a pause like ' used in Native American languages.
The _"ts"_ sound exist in Slavic languages, we just write is as _"c"_ 😉 Unfortunately Japanese took the Romanji script from the worst sources they could 😅
its not ghee is git may git sue nay
@@WookieWarriorz no it's "mee jit sunny"
ALOHA!! Nice reaction!
This song is メ me ギ gi ツ tsu ネ ne.
"キツネ ki tsu ne" is fox, "メギツネ me gi tsu ne" is female fox.
I hope you continue their reaction.
I looking forward to it !
@Der Bettnässer
"MEGITUNE" is an old Japanese word so originally written in hiragana. But Japanese people have a sharper image of KATAKANA"メギツネ" than HIRAGANA"めぎつね". I think this is probably the reason they chose KATAKANA , to match their sharp image.
Sorry for the poor English.
Awesome reaction, thanks for giving my favorite band some more exposure! As others have already said in comments Babymetal is really a band that needs to be seen and listened to in live performances, so I’d recommend virtually anything live by them. There’s a few that are UA-cam safe that don’t get hit with copyright claims (anything from Budokan or Legend 97 seem to be fine) but there’s also a channel called Babymetal Reactor Resource that has been uploading “safe” versions for reactors to use so any of those would also work. Road of Resistance, Akatsuki, Rondo of Nightmare, and Karate are some of the other commonly reacted to tracks.
Congrats on 100 000 dude, it's well deserved \m/,
congrats on hitting 100k subscribers. much deserved!
Yesss! Babymetal! I'm a huge fan of theirs!
YES....YES...YES.....BABYMETAL !!!!
Glad you decided to review them it's unusual but good and the production is awesome
almost 100k in such a short amount of time! love your reactions
Yes BABYMETAL is just the girls and the songs are written by pro writers and recorded by studio musicians and then played live by The Kami band, which is a group of rotating studio musicians. And they're amazing musicians.
1. "group of rotating studio musicians" is the understatement of the century. They're literally PhDs of music and teachers at the highest college/uni levels of various institutes.
2. The songs aren't written by "pro writers". They are simply professional musicians. "pro writers" sounds so dirty and demeaning. Several (if not the majority) of their songs are written, arranged, and composed by the regular session band members.
What you wrote just sounds so harsh, negative, and devaluing of the band members and the bands integrity to me. But I probably misinterpreted you completely.
@@vhaarr several if the majority are written by the session members? Wrong. Leda Cygnus has contributed to several songs both with arrangements and recording. But that's it.
The engineering and perfection probably goes hand in hand, some of the best musicians in Japan were assembled for this era of BabyMetal. However having Idol industry influences there will be that element of production that can be heard in their music
Definitely check out Kagerou or Distortion next
Kagerou doesn’t get enough love, even from their diehard fans. Such a wonderful song.
@@metalswifty23 Actually love how diverse the fan favorites are :-)
If u want more technically song, just try BABYMETAL - Tales of Destinies
Please do this!
Yes Japanese metal is and has been killing it for years now. Babymetal is best live, not just for the show but the less produced, rawer sound is even better then the studio, the singer Su is a beast live.
great reaction and analysis!!
welcome to BabyMetal Galaxy, and yes. MEGITSUNE is pretty much describes what BabyMetal are, but we must warn you that you've seen nothing yet, BabyMetal best experienced LIVE but they also got some good MV, this song for example, every song sounds different and i bet as a composer you'll enjoying this a lot if you willing to continue your BabyMetal journey.
just expect the unexpected and as Su-Metal (the lead singer) says, "don't think, FEEL!"
keep the good work and have a good day!
"Road of resistance" will be a better choice to see what the band is capable of
Also PLEASE react to Ningen Isu, they are a solid 3 peace japanese metal band too and have over 30 albums!
No. RoR is so often cited as what they 'can do'.
They can do _anything_ .
They are so much more as a group, a band, a performance: what they do in RoR (although that's great too) is just another example of exceptional talent.
They continue to surpass this.
@@Varksterable Well... i don't know... now that one of the girls left, and one of the guitar players of the background band passed away, the last album was... too weak. There was good songs, but the collaborations were awful...
@@Varksterable well, that's your opinion. I don't think they surpass it but explore other things. ROR is still the fastest track from them IMO
@@keluargabuleminang
"Fastest???" Is that how you measure music now?
BxMxC will blow your mind then.
It's irrelevant. My point was that babymetal is more (much more) than a single song.
That is my opinion, yes. That's all I can offer. Are you some holy seer that can offer better? Because the tone of your reply sure implied that.
@@Varksterable Once again that's your opinion, I don't argue or anything I just give my opinion. Now you answer my comment, so I answer back that's all.
I don't say Baby Metal is just one song, I just propose ROR because it's a compendium of technicality, speed and melodies. Now if you want to argue about this you can if you want, but I don't see the point.
If you are trying japanese bands, Toe is a most goodbye is one of my favorites, uchu conbini is another cool one with 8fils/tobira and Jyocho with the bluish house or a life without a sun (I don't really remember the name of that one but is freaking awesome)
You should check out Akatsuki by Babymetal. It's absolutely beautiful!
Thank you so much for this video, I do hope you cover more Babymetal in the future.
Ooohhh.. Definitely check out their live performance..
Rondo of Nightmare is a great BabyMetal song to react to.
Too bad I missed those log vids. I so want to see you react to some!
Greetings from Scotland,just subscribed and enjoying your videos.couple of suggestions for you.1st one is myles Kennedy with watch over you acoustic for billboard,2nd is any shinedown song,Brent smith the singer has an amazing voice
Omg. You totally should check out something live from them. The musicians behind the girls are actually part of the band. Super cool
Takes of destinies is an insane one with many technical aspects all around. Highly recommend.
Which they actually did live! At Tokyo Dome, anyone got a reliable link?
Since we've turned you into a metal head, you might enjoy Sylosis. Their album Conclusion of an Age is absolutely under appreciated. Idk what song I would recommend, maybe Reflections Through Fire, Blackest Skyline, or Teras. The whole album is amazing front to back and the extra Vultures song is also amazing. Sheer thrash metal talent on all fronts. If they make it on the list, as always, I'll look forward to watching that video. Keep up the good work man. Alllrriigghhttt
You really are the coolest rockish reaction person on UA-cam. Mahalo.
Their live shows are amazing, definitely check some of their live content that's on here.
Great review / observations - fun channel all round.
if you really wanna see a great display of their guitar work do the live shows. . specifically Rondo of Nightmare . . with intro. . every memebers of the bandall get a solo and the song is also a Su solo singing song so its an amazing showcase of a song
Watch them live and be amazed.
Knew u would get to this at some point lmao, its a guilty pleasure
You should check out From Dusk Till Dawn by Babymetal- really interesting track!!
Been following you and subbed for a while now, but, BABYMETAL is the whole reason I got into reaction videos to begin with. I am a metal musician/multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, and to be honest BABYMETAL is my favorite band for several years now. The whole thing from concept to production is just immaculate. Live BABYMETAL is ALWAYS better than the albums, which simply serve to teach you the songs before you attend a show. (I've seen them live here in North Carolina, year before last) They have been together for 10 years and even held #1 Rock album, their latest, Metal Galaxy, on Billboard when it was released. The band is built around the singer, Nakamoto Suzuka, whose voice is super powerful, she cuts through the heavy music like a knife through butter. The musicians are the best Japan has to offer and the songwriting is outstanding, they have quite a few "masterpieces" in their 50 plus song catalog. Go deeper, you'll be surprised again and again as they cover almost every genera of metal and have invented their own, "Kawaii-metal". Their stage shows are second to none with some production that are staggering in scope with some of the most elaborate stages you have ever seen.
My suggestion is BABYMETAL - AKATSUKI, Black Night BUDOKAN (yes, that Budokan)
Kitsune Dao!
Lol love them. Just now with my limited knowledge i heard her say ....Not a Kitsune( Fox) but a Megitsune ( um..Megafox?) Lol
Haha Megafox .... Megitsune is female fox, so not trying to deceive, just an actress trying to please.
Megitsune = Female Fox (Vixen)
Love it!!!!😍😍😍 My favourites are Karate, Gimme Chocolate, and Doki Doki.
Heyo, after watching your Aurora and Wardruna video I thought that if you want something magical in cinematic and music you may wanna check out Clann with the Kin Fables project, it does come in three parts but the first part is 7 minutes or so and touches the soul, and I was stumped that I could barely find any reactions to it. Keep up the good work, your videos are soothing and very enjoyable
You should look up the unhelpful guide to BabyMetal. It's kind of crazy the whole universe they created and from what it sprung...
You are asking about Key Kobayashi, also known as Kobametal. He is the producer of Babymetal. He created the group. The original front was Su-metal (lead vocals), Moa-metal and Yui-metal. Yui left due to health problems and was replaced by rotating back up dancers.
I think you'd love Orestes by A Perfect Circle
Nice review! If you love the instruments and the vocals, I suggest you Headbanger Live Legend 1997. You'll be a witness for their immense energy, crowd interaction, the Kami Band's skills and other stuffs. I bet you'll love this!
Catch you at the foxhole! Kitsunes up!
Babymetal’s crowning achievement would have to be “Arkadia”, the finale from their latest album. Since you enjoy Tim Henson, your probably also like the collaboration he and Scott LePage from Polyphia did with them, “Brand New Day”, which is the closest thing I can call to 8 string pop metal.
But funnily enough if you want to hear great Japanese folk metal, Whispered from Finland do it the best (who’d’ve thought?). Give their track “Lady of the Wind” a listen/ reaction: ua-cam.com/video/0Bg-1zM1x-c/v-deo.html
When it comes to Arkadia, I highly recommend listening to it with Starlight and Shine, as the three of them work together to create an emotional journey through the stages of grief (roughly) - loss (Starlight), acceptance (Shine), and moving on (Arkadia). Some of the best live performances of these three have been uploaded to the Babymetal Reactor Resource channel with a translucent logo over them to avoid copyright issues. Geebz, if you want to react to them, the version without the logo is linked in the description of each one, so you can watch that and then edit the logo'd verison into your vid so it doesn't get blocked.
Brand New Day is also an excellent suggestion. Unfortunately, there aren't any good live videos of it on YT; just that one that splices the one pro-shot performance of it with fancams. :( The unspliced pro-shot (streamable dot com slash uyxv3z) gets blocked by the copyright bots on upload, sadly. Hopefully the aforementioned resource channel will get it uploaded soon. ;)
@@silly_programme5061 I think he tends to prefer studio versions over live, as he likes to examine things from an engineering perspective and get the artist’s truest intent, which crowd noise, bad acoustics, and less than ideal mics tend to obfuscate.
@@kvltmart That's certainly fair, but with Babymetal specifically it will only give him part of the picture. The choreography actually forms an integral part of the songs; for example, in Megitsune as we just saw, you see the girls miming stereotypically feminine actions such as putting on makeup and flipping their hair in between headbanging and other wild movements. Meanwhile, the lyrics are talking about how society puts pressure on women to hide their true emotions behind a facade of pleasantries. I know that he's a composer and not a choreographer, but the visuals really are an important part of the experience.
On top of that, Babymetal writes a lot of their songs with crowd interaction specifically in mind, so hearing them _without_ crowd noise is actually farther from the "artist's intent". Lastly, their live sound production is (in most cases) actually better than their studio sound production, which tends to be very brickwalled and doesn't really let Su's vocals shine, and the live band is so technically proficient that their live shows are often very true to the albums (especially after the studio magic applied before publishing a pro-shot).
@@silly_programme5061 Ahh, maybe you’re new to the channel? Geebz doesn’t look into lyrics, visuals, or the meaning behind things (except on very rare occasions such as Tool’s “Wings For Marie” duology), so the stage performances wouldn’t factor into it at all for him. If you notice, most of the time he even avoids looking at the video while he listens so he can focus on just the music, and all vocals are treated as an instrument rather than a storytelling device through words. And it’s not about how pristine the live recording may or may not be, but rather the music itself being the only element in play, no crowd noise or anything. Geebz likes to listen carefully for even the quietest/ tiniest reverb and stereo effect details, that’s his jam, studio engineering, not so much live mixing.
@@kvltmart "he likes to examine things from an engineering perspective" then studio Babymetal is of course the best way for him
"the artist’s truest intent" but a the same time, he won't get that with the studio as it's just a "demo" version of what they're actually about
Talk about a complicated group ahah xD
I know I'm late to the party, but some other recommendations from the Japanese Metal scene:
BAND-MAID / onset - ua-cam.com/video/mVrN-j_Uc0U/v-deo.html
Wagakki Band - 焔 (Homura) + 暁ノ糸 (Akatsuki no Ito) - ua-cam.com/video/ponTbDDMYjw/v-deo.html
*and*
Wagakki Band / Bring Me To Life with Amy Lee of EVANESCENCE - ua-cam.com/video/hk1GtYK7BJM/v-deo.html
(The fact that they covered a song *with* the singer of the band is amazing!)
BAND-MAID
My favorite metal band from Japan is Maximum of Hormone. Unfortunately they have bad history on UA-cam and it's hard to find their classic videos. But the ones they officially have in his channel are good too.
The song ALIEN would be a interesting reaction to watch from you. 😉
ua-cam.com/video/TdwT5JlH8gM/v-deo.html
Madlad!!❤️😄, I love to see lovebites swansong w/piano intro
Oooh, this is some quality reaction right here, thank you. Go for Tales of the Destinies if you want more technical song by them, otherwise you can go for any of their songs people here might already mentioned, their songs are so diversed.
Loved the video! You should take a look at Rondo Of Nightmare by BABYMETAL (sorry if my english is poor)
Your English was fine :) Thank you for the suggestion.
Blood Stain Child from Japan! Epsilon is probably their most popular album. Metropolice is a great song
Babymetal music is so different from anything else in metal. They tend to blend styles, so I would be interested in the differences that you hear from song to song. I first listened to "Gimme Chocolate" and it was a bit much for me, but I like how they have grown - they have so much energy and stage presence live.
Babymetal suggestions are often followed by Band-Maid (rock) and Lovebites (power metal) - both are all-female bands. I really like Band-Maid and think the songs show off how talented they are. I have not explored Lovebites much (the vocals are not quite to my taste), but I have enjoyed the live performances I have seen.
Have fun :)
Oh please let the 'other japanese metal band' be BAND-MAID 🙏
It's a dream of mine since I first saw this channel and started falling in love with Band-Maid which happened at the same time of these things coming together.
Fingers crossed 🤞
I love how he's always so self aware of how wrong he is when pronouncing names
Please take a look at Ningen Isu's Heartless Scat
omg he was so focused, impressive really
Great video as usual. I would love if you did a video on Skynd. They were on tour with Babymetal at one point
Would be interesting to get your take on the Japanese bands Polysics and Melt Banana. Completely different but love them both.
I'll try this one more time since you're listening to japanese bands
Sokoninaru - tenohira de odoru
Toe - goodbye
Geebz is currently sitting at 99.8k subs, I feel like he's either recording his 100k video or frantically refreshing waiting for those last couple hundred to sub.
All female from Japan.
Band-Maid hard rock Freedom live
Lovebites. Heavy Metal Holy War live
Mary's Blood. Hard rock. Wings live
ALDIOUS. Rock, +- hard We Are. Live
Doll$boxx. Hard rock. Take my Chance. (Mv is real cute-but beware the growls).😈
Okay five bands to start out with If I knew how to link any songs... but with my carpal tunnel, I can't type a lot. But what the heck A little pain lets you know you're still alive
Loved how to really get into everything and break everything down so well! My favourite reactor on UA-cam right now!
You need to get into some
eluveitie - rebirth.
Multi-instrumental folk metal with fiddles, penny whistle, flute and even a hurdy gurdy. They also have male and female vocals.
So plenty to unpack 😏.
Here are some very worthy suggestions if they haven’t already been given to you. They are from Steven Wilson (Same guy from Porcupine Tree), in order of personal preference: Luminol, The Watchmaker, The Holy Drinker, The Raven that refused to sing (the song). All from the album The Raven that refused to sing.
It it pure bliss. Top class production and song writing.
My friend, watching your facial expressions during the video was priceless. The noise of the gears clicking in your head was distracting me from the music. 😄 Great reaction though and I am glad you enjoyed it.
😁
So, so many great hard rock/metal bands from Japan---they are really killing it! Gotta check out Galneryus, "Angel of Salvation." Basically a power metal masterpiece ode to Tchaikovsky. Also highly recommend Versailles (my all-time fav), "Ascendead Master." They're virtuosic neo-classical metal with a pretty-boy vampire theme. Unlucky Morpheus, "Cadaver/Revadac." A technical, power metal supergroup with an amazing virtuous violinist. Buckets of talent! TRiDENT, "Continue" An all-girl three-piece hard rock similarr to Band Maid. Also highly recommend Tears of Tragedy, "Void Act" Very straight forward, prog-ish metal with a clean, contemporary style female vocalist. Yousei Teikoku, "Paradiso-Inferno. " Hard to really describe them other than, "Gothic, Dark-Fairy Metal" Hell, I really could keep going....😁
if you enjoyed the mix of cultural instrument with metal i would suggest checkign out Wagaki Band - Senbonzakura, they are extremely talented and put traditional japanese instruments at the core of their songs.
Another band i would recommend is MAximum the hormone, my favorite japanese band by far. some of their most popular track that are always nice to react to would be :
-Koi no megalover
-Zetsubou Billy
-Let’s Talk about Menkata Cottelee
-yoshuu fukushuu
-What's up people
No traditional instrument with them however, just pure savage metal to be heard.
It would be more fun to watch the live version of them.
The backing band are all veterans of the japanese metal scene (the bassist Boh is a fooking beast). The 3 girls are signed to a label that makes kids music (think mickey mouse club). There is a producer that allegedly got the idea of little girls signing pop melodies over heavy metal from a dream and here we are.
He actually got the idea when he saw Su-metal singing with her previous Jpop trio and thought her voice was so powerful she would be wasted in pop and that she had the potential to sing to much louder music - the sort he liked as a life long metalhead. So when he got the chance to work with her a year or so later he put BABYMETAL together around her as a sub-unit of the Jpop group that had just been formed by their agency with his idea of fusing metal with Jpop aesthetics. She was his only choice as lead vocalist and he chose her good friends Yui and Moa as her support for backing vocals and dance because of their talents as singers and dancers and for the fact they would work well as a trio.
Yeah didn't the guitar player play with Marty Friedman?
@@RohannvanRensburg Yes one of them did, that is Takayoshi Ohmura, most easily identified when he is playing his glittery pink guitar.
> "The 3 girls are signed to a label that makes kids music"
That's not correct. They are signed to a talent agency that hosts artists of all performing arts (including acting and such). Sakura Gakuin (I'm sure you meant this) is one of the projects that Amuse Inc. (said talent agency) produces and BABYMETAL originated from that.
I like this song. But it’s obviously very weird. High energy, catchy, shredding, cheerleading so-re bit, good for exercise. I don’t listen to their other songs though. I think I saw a UA-cam concert where they were performing in front of a picture of the weeping blessed virgin, just very strange stuff. Can’t get too into it. Agree that it’s radio-pop level production, very slick.
Consider giving a take on Sunflower by Jakub Żytecki? It’s more of that edgy and cool-at-first, but at the end of the day quite exhausting and maybe a little silly, virtuosic showcasing genre that guitar culture and UA-cam culture have culminated in (you know what I’m talking about, you’ve done reactions to some of those sorts of artists). Sunflower is an interesting track, though. His guitar composition is fairly novel in addition to the virtuosity, and they made some interesting mixing/engineering decisions.
i did see this live and it was played so freeking tight its almost unbelievable, but there are some great musicians gathered on stage with Baby metal (i was way more intrested in the musicians as i was in the underaged girls 1 of them just turned 18 when i saw them live)
nice video. japan has a lot of interesting bands trying to fuse disparate genres together. coaltar of the deepers is another example that i think you should give a listen. songs like zoei combine big chugging guitar with distant shoegaze-y vocals. its very cool stuff.
I'd be intrigued by your reaction to something like Merzbow.
There's a lot of great music from Japan. I love Boris and Sigh are a great band. Or Acid Mother's Temple for something a bit different.
Another Japanese band you should check out is Vow Wow, they had Neil Murray on bass for a while too ! Rock me Now, Helter Skelter and I Feel The Power !! Great band and live they blow you away !! Only band I heard that were louder than Vow Wow were the great Motörhead !!!
Its so weird... I've been an anime fan almost as long as I've been a metal fan (close to 25 years now) and this should be a band I LOVE, but I have such a WEIRD dislike of them.... this is like the 3rd or 4th song by them I've heard and they always just kind of weird me out. LOL
Also, you want to dig into the good stuff, check out Dir En Grey. They are a Japanese metal band that have endured for more than 20 years, and started off as Visual Kei (which is sort of a Japanese Glam style) but have transformed into a more traditional metal outfit over the years. Kyo, their vocalist, is a BEAST. He is comparable with Mike Patton from Mr Bungle/Faith No More (etc) and is just amazing. Check out Juuyoku by them, for a great example of his range and the crazy things he does with his voice as an instrument.
Dead Flag Blues or East Hastings from Godspeed You! Black Emperor (CD versions)
Nice to hear what you had to say about Babymetal. Considering that you reacted to "Dance of Eternity" recently, I really think you should take a look at Babymetal's "Tales of the Destinies". It's an explicit Dream Theater tribute, heavily inspired by precisely "Dance of Eternity". Apparently it took over 2 years to write, and has only been performed live once.
Babymetal are the three (just two now) girls. They are the product of a Japanese talent agency called Amuse and that agency employs writers and musicians to play on the albums while the girls do the singing. They are more of a live act and are very theatrical in their staging with dancing and crowd interaction being very important. When they play live they are backed by the "Kami Band" who are all top hired musicians.
Megitsune is Babymetal's female empowerment song and when they sing it in front of all female audiences it's amazing. The lyrics compare women to female foxes. In Japan foxes are known as shape shifters and the lyrics say that women often have to hide their true feelings and change the face they show to the world, not in a sly way, but for the benefit of others even if they are crying inside. The breakdown is a traditional Japanese tune "Sakura, Sakura" or "Cherry Blossom, Cherry Blossom", but Su sings "kitsune, kitsune" (fox, fox). So in the music, lyrics and also in the dance, Japanese traditions and traditional attitudes to women are subverted. The peak of this comes when Su shouts
"Otome wa nametara ikan zeyo" or "Maidens should not be underestimated"
and in the video threateningly draws a knife from her microphone or in concerts does a front kick.
If you are going to review more Babymetal songs take a take a look at their live performances. Maybe you will like their appearance live at Sonisphere.
ua-cam.com/video/Ro-_cbfdrYE/v-deo.html
> "They are the product of a Japanese talent agency called Amuse"
Well... They precisely are the brainchild/former hobbyhorse of one of Amuse's producers and Amuse basically came to it much like the virgin Mary got her child: Suddenly it was there and they had to handle it... LOL
@@steffenjachnow8176 Yes Kobametal is the brains behind Babymetal and they were just another sub-unit of Sakura Gakuin at first with no life beyond that and very little funding. I would love to see the "powerpoint presentation" that Kobametal gave to the Amuse management with his plans for Babymetal and to get more funding .
Uneven Structure - Frost/Hail
They're a progressive metal band who excel in creating incredible and surreal atmospheres in their songs. Think you'll like them!
I love this band
Babymetal (Japanese: ベビーメタル, Hepburn: Bebīmetaru) (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese kawaii metal band. The band consists of Suzuka Nakamoto as "Su-metal" (Vocal and Dance) and Moa Kikuchi as "Moametal" (Scream and Dance). The band is produced by Kobametal from the Amuse talent agency. Their vocals are backed by heavy metal instrumentation, performed by a group of session musicians known as the "Kami Band" at performances.
The band was formed in 2010, with the original lineup of Su-metal (Vocal and Dance), Moametal (Scream and Dance), and Yui Mizuno as "Yuimetal" (Scream and Dance), with the concept of creating a fusion of the heavy metal and Japanese idol genres. Originally a sub-unit of the Japanese idol group Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal became an independent act in 2013, following Nakamoto's departure from Sakura Gakuin. Babymetal released their eponymous debut album in February 2014. Their second album Metal Resistance was released worldwide on April 1, 2016. Babymetal has also embarked on several tours, with a majority of their tour dates taking place outside of Asia.
On October 19, 2018, Babymetal announced that Yui Mizuno (Yuimetal) had decided to leave the band due to poor health, following her absence from live performances since December 2017.[1] Since her departure, the band has performed with one or more backup dancers at live performances. In 2019, the band introduced three backup dancers called Avengers who performed in rotation at each live show to form a trio with Moametal and Su-metal.
here before 100k!
O shit, Babymetal!! Does this mean we are gonna get Band-Maid soon?
I know you are more about listening to the song and giving it more of a detailed breakdown, but Babymetal live shows are worth checking out for performances
Band Maid might be the other recommendations he had 🤘🦊🤘
@@martinmetal7481 Well I hope so
Great reaction and insight, as always. When it comes to Japanese rock/metal I feel obligated to recommend Ningen Isu, though I have a feeling this might be the other band from Japan, you already got a recommendation for.
If you want more music from Japan, check out Galneryus - Angel of Salvation (the album version, not the shortened music video). It's an amazing piece of neoclassical metal.
Mucc, The Gazette, Wagakki Band, Band-Maid, and Dir En Grey. All great bands from Japan.
Speaking of fusing metal with pop and other elements I would recommend a reaction on Skynd - Jim Jones.
An extraordinary fusion of metal and latin is Puya - Fundamental.
Hello. Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to assess the reaction itself, since without subtitles it is impossible for me to follow it. Anyway, your body language tells me that you liked it, but without a doubt Megitsune is one of his best songs, to my liking. I hope that in the future you can upload the videos with the subtitles option, because reading the comments it seems that they are quite interesting.
iine is a pretty nice song as well, shows their diversity of musical genres.
Geebz, having seen that you've checked out some Japanese metal, I think you should check out Galneryus ("Silent Revelation" would be a great piece to decompose by them) and also check out Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas ("Let Me Hear" would be a great track to decompose by them)!
Another Japanese band to react to is Sokoninaru. They have influences from so many different places and I think you'd really like them. Their song Tenohira De Odoru shot them into some fame 2 years ago, deservedly so.
Aloha! They are an acquired taste but great musicianship. For some other cultural tunes: (Symphonic Black Metal), Dimmu Borgir - Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse, (Swiss folk metal) Eluveitie - Omnos, (Norweigien progressive) Borknager - Winter Thrice. Borknager has 4 singers, mind blowing stuff!!!
Almost all Japanese can be broken down to 5 simple sounds: A E I O U = Ah, Eh, , ii(like "see"), oh, and oo (like "you'). For example, all K+vowel would sound like Kah Keh Kii Koh Koo. Following the same application, Megitsune becomes Meh - gii - tsoo - neh.
That'll get anyone started easily.
P.S. You'll probably see it instead as Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko (A I U E O), not A E I O U.
Beyond Creation - Earthborn Evolution
What about the punk scene? "My War," by Black Flag? "Slip It In" by Black Flag? "Holiday In Cambodia" by Dead Kennedys? Or death metal, like anything Cannibal Corpse, or better - "Phobophile" by Cryptopsy? Now, THAT would be sweet.
I would live to hear your take on Bloodywood's song Gaddaar
Id be stoked if that other J-Metal band youre talking about is Dir En Grey. It has to be Vinushka... trust me. Also Babymetal has a song with the Polyphia guitarist on their latest album too.
Ningen Isu probably ?
If we're heading in this direction, I'd dig seeing your reaction to Heartless Scat by the band Ningen Isu