Maps of Music

BABYMETAL (2014)

Where the lyrics of BABYMETAL take you, and where it was really made.

Some songs on this debut album date back to 2010, when the band was still a sub-unit of the idol group Sakura Gakuin.

Key places

Recorded at Wacken Open Studio (2014)

Recording site Wacken Open Studio — Wacken Open Studio is one of six studios credited for recording the album, alongside S.O.L.I.D. Sound Lab and others. The point is placed at city-center level. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Babymetal: debut studio album by Japanese heavy metal group Babymetal
• First released 26 February 2014 in Japan through BMD Fox Records
• Re-released 29 May 2015 in Europe through earMusic, and 16 June 2015 in the United States through RED Associated Labels (RAL) and Sony Music Entertainment
• Music dates back to the band's origins in 2010, when it was a sub-unit of the idol group Sakura Gakuin
• Includes tracks from the band's earliest released singles
• Style: fusion of J-pop and heavy metal, referred to as kawaii metal, sometimes with bubblegum pop, hip-hop, drum and bass, and dubstep
• Lyrics are in Japanese and focus on issues for young girls, such as acceptance and standing up for oneself

Background

• Performed as a Sakura Gakuin sub-unit from 2010 to 2013
• Vocals for the first song Doki Doki Morning recorded on 30 October 2010
• Five singles released from 2011 to 2013, inside and outside Sakura Gakuin
• Ijime, Dame, Zettai, the most successful of those singles, peaked at number six on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart
• Late 2012 to early 2013: series of headlining shows, with new songs performed at each one
• May 2013: first tour, Babymetal Death Match Tour 2013: May Revolution
• At the end of the Legend 1997 show, the band announced two Nippon Budokan shows and this album, set for release on 26 February 2014 in a standard edition and a limited edition bundled with a DVD
• Shortly after release, two sold-out Nippon Budokan shows were held with the accompanying band Kami Band

Recording

• Recorded at S.O.L.I.D. Sound Lab, Heartbeat Recording Studio, MukuStudio, Sound Arts Studio, Wacken Open Studio, and ABS Recording
• Mixed at S.O.L.I.D. Sound Lab, Heartbeat Recording Studio, Art Pop Entertainment, Hama Shobo Studio, and King Sekiguchidai Studio
• Mastered at Form the Master and Parasight Mastering

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Babymetal is a Japanese kawaii metal band formed in Tokyo in 2010, fusing heavy metal with idol culture and elaborate choreography.
• It began as the heavy music club sub-unit of the idol group Sakura Gakuin; producer Kobametal, of talent agency Amuse Inc., conceived the project.
• The band became independent in 2013 after Suzuka Nakamoto graduated from Sakura Gakuin.

Members

• Suzuka Nakamoto (Su-metal): lead vocals and dancing, the main vocalist.
• Moa Kikuchi (Moametal): backing vocals and dancing.
• Momoko Okazaki (Momometal): backing vocals and dancing; officially joined as the third member in April 2023.
• Yui Mizuno (Yuimetal) was a member from 2010 until her departure announced in October 2018 due to health issues.
• Session musicians known as the Kami Band perform the instrumentation live.

Career

• Early on, the band made its debut appearance at a Sakura Gakuin concert in 2010 and released a first single in 2011.
• The major-label debut came in January 2013 with "Ijime, Dame, Zettai".
• The self-titled debut album (2014) reached the Billboard 200, and the band played the Budokan in 2014 and Tokyo Dome in 2016.
• Metal Resistance (2016) was the highest-charting Japanese album in the UK Official Charts history, and the first Japanese album in over 50 years to chart in the US Billboard Top 40.
• Metal Galaxy (2019) made the band the first Asian act to top the Billboard Rock Albums chart.
• Metal Forth (2025) became the first all-Japanese band release to reach the Billboard 200 top 10.

Reception

At release

• Received generally positive reviews from music critics
• Japanese critics gave the album acclaim
• Rolling Stone Japan's Kazumi Nanba: called Song 4 a highlight and the album a unified work representative of 2014
• The Japan Times' Patrick St. Michel: described it as a less cynical, more pop-friendly version of Maximum the Hormone's last album, Yoshu Fukushu
• The Japan Times: said the album works best when the band drops its gimmicks, and called Gimme Chocolate!! extremely catchy
• AllMusic's Tim Sendra: gave it four and a half stars out of five
• Rock Sound's Sarah O'Connor: called it fun and completely absurd
• Kerrang!'s Paul Travers: called the music cynical and fabricated, yet utterly brilliant
• Metal Obsession's Tristan Peterson: said the album made metal cute without losing its edge

Reappraisal

• Metal Hammer readers voted it the best album of the 21st century, July 2016
• PopMatters: called it the fourteenth best metal album of 2014, December 2014
• Loudwire: called it the forty-first best metal album of the decade, November 2019

Records

• Oricon Weekly Albums: number four, week of 10 March 2014, first-week sales of 37,463 copies
• Oricon Daily Albums: number one on 1 March 2014
• Billboard Japan Top Albums Sales: number two, first-week sales of 31,000 copies
• Billboard 200: debuted at number 187, week of 22 March 2014, a rarity for Japanese acts in the United States
• Billboard Heatseekers: number four
• World Albums chart: topped
• Official Albums Chart (UK): number 103
• US iTunes album chart: number 35; number one on the iTunes metal charts in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom
• RIAJ: Gold, December 2014, for more than 100,000 physical copies shipped to stores

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Gimme Chocolate!! was not initially released as a single, but it brought the band and the album international success; its live video from the Legend 1997 Su-metal Seitansai concert had more than 100 million views as of 4 July 2019
• The album was also released in a special limited edition titled Babymetal Apocalypse Limited Edition, exclusively for members of the group's fansite
• The mid-2015 worldwide re-release added two bonus tracks: the new song Road of Resistance and a live Gimme Chocolate!! from O2 Academy Brixton
• Herman Li and Sam Totman appear on Road of Resistance, and are featured artists on the UK digital release
• Nakamoto said a girl from the United Kingdom wrote that Ijime, Dame, Zettai helped her deal with school bullies

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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