"Kawaii metal" trailblazers Babymetal have continued their ascendancy since the release of concept album The Other One in 2023, and official addition of Momo Okazaki as an official member. 15 years into their careers now, any notion that they exist purely as a novelty act has long been debunked and now with the release of METAL FORTH, their 4th "official" album (5th overall, as The Other One is considered a concept album outside of the band's main canon), they have the credibility to bring in a wealth of renowned special guests to further expand their sound.
Beginning with "from me to u", the Jordan Fish produced effort has Babymetal going at full throttle from the outset. Special guest Poppy is a seamless addition to the sound, exclusively performing in harsh vocals that give the song an extra edge it would have lacked otherwise. There are several tracks which explore Babymetal's heavier side in different ways, with "Song 3" meshing their J-Pop influences with divisive Russian group Slaughter To Prevail's nu metal tinged deathcore, while "Kon! Kon!" somewhat follows on from older song "Shanti Shanti" with the central Asian musical influences, this time provided by Nu Delhi crushers Bloodywood and Spiritbox bring the heaviness back in the second half courtesy of "My Queen"
That doesn't mean the guests exist solely to make Babymetal heavier. The Electric Callboy led "RATATATA" brings the party with the German group's trademark irreverent electronicore, while Polyphia's contribution, "Sunset Kiss", is a wonderfully melodic prog piece and Tom Morello's effort "METALI!!" harks back to old school hard rock with its riffs.
This doesn't mean the albums 3 Babymetal-only tracks are drowned out in an album that has more guest musicians than an early Soulfly album. Paledusk's DAIDAI wrote the electronically driven "KxAxWxAxIxI" which feels much like the Metal Galaxy track "BxMxC" and is actually one of the standout tracks on METAL FORTH, along with "Algorism". Kami Band alum Leda is part of the closing track "White Flame ー白炎ー" which calls back to the band's Metal Resistance era with huge power metal overtones. Arguably, the solo tracks are Babymetal at their strongest, falling back on the elements from previous records that made them so popular in the first place.
That's not to say that the guest features are "bad" at all. It's just that, with so many different styles on show, it makes it difficult to give METAL FORTH a cohesive sound and the constant genre shifts make it feel like a compilation album rather than a full-length album with an overriding theme - even moreso than their first album, which had primarily been released as standalone singles over a 3 year period before being put together as an album. The songs work on their own but the album needs a few more purely Babymetal tracks to ground it and keep everything on course.
Overall, though, METAL FORTH is arguably terrific fun to listen to. It may be better to listen to in easy to digest chunks and everyone is going to be divided on which of the sonic experiments worked better than others, but it was an extremely bold call to push their sound in so many different directions all at once and they just about pull it off. These collaborations will have given the Babymetal production plenty of ideas for future music but it would be nice if they could refine these new elements into something a bit more cohesive next time around.
METAL FORTH is out now via Capitol Records. Stream the album below.
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