Many years ago I used to pay attention to Japanese metal and pop music. It was worth minor laughs to hear how youth in the land of the rising sun would twist American rock styles.
There was my favorite, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. They were a band of little guys in black “Secret Agent” Patrick McGoohan suits who made raw R&B grease-chain sung in their native language. Much to their credit, it occasionally exploded.
I described it for the Village Voice a decade ago (and I’m repossessing my stuff):
“[Seek] out ‘Hotel Bronco’ from last year’s Gear Blues, which is reminiscent of Alfred E. Neuman’s sublime ‘It’s a Gas!’ — published as an acetate-coated cardboard single in Mad magazine eons ago — except with guitar exchanged for Farfisa and ‘Sonova beetch!’ as blurted lyric.”
But on to Babymetal, straight outta Nippon and overdosed on cute, mixing up a pabulum of relentlessly repetitive thrash pop for those who can never get enough of marching in a parade, jumping on a trampoline, or doing coordinated dance exercises very quickly.
Twenty thousand people, in an arena in the official video for “Road of Resistance,” with half a million views in a couple days, show Babymetal edging into the mainstream. And so they must be rated.
It’s Scorpions lead guitar, then into meaningless Euro-thrash metal and yodeling that was ridiculous 20 years ago. Except now the yodeling is by perfectly uniformed little girls in red chiffon instead of big unkempt German guys in denim.
The part needing no translation is the pitiless river-dancing and youth physical fitness routines set to metal background furnished by a band of expert hacks. Babymetal flags are waved and twirled in martial formation.
Watch and listen to their video-taped live material. It’s nerve-shredding. You’ll never be able to eat chocolate candy again.
