A Shocking World Reformation Metal Song

Also known as HOLY FUCK BATMAN Babymetal are back and I think they want to kill you. Or at least, burn you to death. Or moe you to death. I'm never actually sure which. It stands to reason though that as soon as I finish reviewing the last Sakura Gakuin album the video for Ijime, Dame, Zettai, the long awaited and forever buried in a live-only format song has been released. And HOLY FUCK is it epic. Not just the song, oh no. The video is more epic than Tyr. In fact, the bloke in the video looks like he might be from Tyr...

Anyway, here is the video:



So, where to start? I suppose the beginning might be the best place...

A flaming guitar, a sorrowful piano piece, SUMETAL singing a sad vocal line that would sound a little more sad if she wasn't singing "lu lu luuuu lu lu luuuuu", unless that's a really meta dig at all the comments on Blabbermouth that flame Babymetal but admit that "at least it's better than Lulu" (in reference to Metallica's shit collaboration with Lou Reed, if you haven't heard of it). The girls themselves are robed in a way that reminds me slightly of Satyricon's epic video for Mother North (though, minus the corpsepaint, blood and nudity), and the Babybones band thing have returned. Then there's the man from Tyr...

Then metal...

From here on I'll let you decide your own way. I love the fuck out of it, especially when Moa and Yui are dual-soloing on guitars (Moa's tapping = hilarious), Sumetal's vocals throughout, and the not-very-subtle dig at rap/hiphop as the one repressing the Tyr guy...

*insert "help, help, I'm being repressed!" here*

Anyway, from this, I'm supporting even more what I said in my review on LI. You can graduate Suzuka from Sakura Gakuin but PLEASE do not let her leave Babymetal. Really. She's fucking awesome. And this is also fucking awesome. Power metal, no hints of techno or rap or anything. Just good old metal. And win. Lots and lots of win.

Enjoy fuckers.

Sakura Gakuin - 2011 Nendo~Friends~ review

Long overdue, despite saying last week that I'd be reviewing all these albums really quickly by the end of November, I've done exactly nothing since (due to having my left ear rather helpfully decide that it really didn't want to work anymore), but I'm getting around to reviewing all these bloody things now I'm fixed. Eventually. Next up will be either Super Girls I guess. Or Passpo. Or BiS. Oh, who the fuck knows. But I'm not reviewing SKE's album anymore. Any original album with so many tracks, so few of which are new, is nothing more than a best-of album masquerading as a real album. Anyway, SakuGaku tiem.

Preamble: So, with this album I'm a good eight months late with the review. Good start. The cover looks sort of like you'd expect, the graduating girls in the middle and everyone else elsewhere. The logo design is horrible though. Anyway, with hope onwards to the music.

Himekyun Fruits Can - Renai Miracle review

I've got so many reviews to write now it's getting ridiculous, so I'm going to try and bash them all out before the end of November so that I can spend all of my December writing up year-in-review posts that everyone hates just to annoy them when I "overlook" a certain album they think is the best thing ever just because they really like the girls in a certain group yet have no conception about the musical merit (or increasingly, the lack thereof) whatsoever.

So, my to-do list from now til the end of daysthe year:

• Super Girls review (album released in February)
• Sakura Gakuin review (album released in March)
• Himekyun review (album released in August)
• SKE48 review (album released in September)
• BiS review (album released in October)
• Passpo review (album released in November)
• H!P Year in Review
• xxx48 Year in Review
• Stardust/Avex/Local/Indie Idols Year in Review
• Final post and awards

So, I have my work cut out for me considering I've now not posted anything since mid-September. I'm not going to do TGS' album because I've a feeling I won't like it, and will flame it mercilessly.

But anyway, I digress. Himekyun Fruits Can are from Ehime. Some Japanese guy in Paris introduced me to them at the Buono gig in February; straight after he proclaimed his eternal devotion to Momochi and H!P. I guess being a fan of local idols doesn't make you DD. But yea, he introduced me to them. Then I forgot their name. Took a quick wotatrip to Manchester and the skills of people with smartphones to locate their name, at the Tokyo Idol Festival website or something, and from there I've not looked back. Did a brief intro to them in my pervy post, but haven't said anything since then. Until now. So, review time.