Poll: Babymetal

[Yopaz]

The vocals are a total mess. It really sounds like someone took some random japanese pop song and superimposed it over a really generic metal track. The two just don't flow together, and the high pitched voices of the girls really don't complement the music whatsoever.

This, so much this. I only lasted 46 seconds into the first video before the god awful vocals made me stop.

The poll really needs a 'bloody awful' option.

I am also missing a negative poll option. Both weird and gimmick can be positive based on the context. I know a lot of music that I consider good because it's weird and a good gimmick (such as Bullet Time's album where they made one melody and had various bands come up with their own lyrics and sing that) can also be a positive. When it comes to this I am not sure if it's a matter of a bad gimmick or just overall bad music. It sounds like someone trying to combine pop and metal where the metal part is terrible all on its own and the pop doesn't fit in at all. With better metal and less upbeat pop this could turn into a good gimmick. As it is now it's just a piece of terrible music.

 

[MetalDooley]

Fucking terrible imo.The music is about as generic and boring as it gets.The vocal style does not fit the music at all and sounds like a joke youtube vid where someone took a pop song and gave it a metal backing track.And the synchronized dancing...fuck no.

All in all this just seems like the worst kind of cynical manufactured shite

 

[MrBaskerville]

Boring nu-metal riffs with annoying vocals (+crappy production sound), i can't see them as much more than a gimmick and i really don't like them at all. When it comes to combining J-Pop and Metal i think Marty Friedman did a better job.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Is there any Japanese music - other than their quite amazing classical composers along with movie/game music composers - that would play in Minor? I know this might be stereotypical but it would seem that everything that sells from there is in Major.

Also... Not bad playing from the band and nice dancing - I admit to that - but there are 3 singers on first song couldn't they at least have different range - or do all of the singers have the same exact tessitura?

 

[Cerebrawl]

Good japanese metal band with female singer:

 

[Mersadeon]

Anyone got any other links that don't go through youtube? Germany unfortunately is still plagued by the bane of my god damn existence, GEMA, so I can't watch it (yes, I know there are plugins to get around that, but this isn't my PC so I can't install anything). I don't think I'm going to like it, but I wanna try.

 

[Cerebrawl]

Anyone got any other links that don't go through youtube? Germany unfortunately is still plagued by the bane of my god damn existence, GEMA, so I can't watch it (yes, I know there are plugins to get around that, but this isn't my PC so I can't install anything). I don't think I'm going to like it, but I wanna try.

Well here's a better band:
http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Onmyo-Za---Konpeki-No-Soujin-/31cb2180de6102a68ef026eda675962a

 

[Eamar]

Nope.

It doesn't even sound like metal - just Jpop over the top of a generic metal-ish backing track (and I'm someone who enjoys a wide range of vocal styles in metal, from death metal screams to full on operatic).

Also, I know they're older, but at least one of those girls doesn't look over 10, let alone in her teens. That kinda freaks me out.

 

[MrBaskerville]

Is there any Japanese music - other than their quite amazing classical composers along with movie/game music composers - that would play in Minor? I know this might be stereotypical but it would seem that everything that sells from there is in Major.

Also... Not bad playing from the band and nice dancing - I admit to that - but there are 3 singers on first song couldn't they at least have different range - or do all of the singers have the same exact tessitura?

Dir Ein Grey plays a lot in minor also Boris and probably a lot more. They have a huge music scene over there(and i'm sure they have good stuff in all kinds of genres), but for some reason we only get to hear their annoying bubblegum pop (Which is limited to minor). It's like if Europe was judged slely on the likes of Aqua,Toybox, Cartoons, Dr Bombay and all that other trash we produced in the 90s.

 

[Drummodino]

Uh... okay. That is a thing.

Yea I didn't like it. Although considering I'm not a big metal fan (I like symphonic and that's about it) and definitely not a J-pop fan, this is kinda to be expected.

And yea it looks gimmicky as all hell.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Well I guess I didn't take this as seriously as a lot of people here are seeming to. I enjoyed it just because it was kind of silly and unexpected. I imagine once the novelty wears off they wouldn't have much going for them.

That last song actually kind of gave me a Children of Bodom vibe (another silly, cheesy band, except I think they take themselves seriously).

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Well I guess I didn't take this as seriously as a lot of people here are seeming to. I enjoyed it just because it was kind of silly and unexpected. I imagine once the novelty wears off they wouldn't have much going for them.

Even silly bands require some competent musicianship. The band Alestorm is the best example of this. The music is straight up silly gimmicky power metal for when you're drunk to laugh along with, yet there are some solid riffing going on and some decent song structuring. It all wraps up into a nice package. This however was just a generic, boring, lifeless wasteland of the most lame metal riffs. The only interesting thing about it was the unusual vocals, and they get stale very quickly.

As I said, even silly or jokey bands require good music. Hell, even The Mentors had awesome guitar riffs and solos, and they were about as ridiculous as you get.

 

[Talvrae]

I have been following them for about 6 mounth now, it is gimmicky, and weird, but strangelly it work well his catchy

 

[Nokturos]

It's not really metal, though. It's just J-pop with some distorted guitars.

 

[bluegate]

Spoiler: Catch me if you can

Well, I like them for what they are, an idol band with metal inspired music in the background, as such I don't expect too much from the music in terms of complexity or whatever. Their music is catchy, just like many other idol bands, and that is enough for me to give it a listen once in a while.

They are a bunch of girls with the dream of being a singer/idol and they seem to be doing a good job, the crowds that visit their live performances seem to have a lot of fun and participate pretty well, can't really dislike em.

 

[Cerebrawl]

Well, I like them for what they are, an idol band with metal inspired music in the background, as such I don't expect too much from the music in terms of complexity or whatever. Their music is catchy, just like many other idol bands, and that is enough for me to give it a listen once in a while.

The music is generic and their vocals are out of place and more annoying than catchy.

I'm not a big fan of growling, but Galmet does the "cute girls do metal" thing so much better.

Spoiler: Galmet - Promised Dawn

Or for that matter:

Spoiler: BRIDEAR

Spoiler: DESTROSE

Spoiler: Mary's Blood

 

[Kyrdra]

Anyone got any other links that don't go through youtube? Germany unfortunately is still plagued by the bane of my god damn existence, GEMA, so I can't watch it (yes, I know there are plugins to get around that, but this isn't my PC so I can't install anything). I don't think I'm going to like it, but I wanna try.

http://www.youtubeunblocker.org/permalink.php?url=xIQ0pQ5KYfPxWSu2MueIUEqG6h4V1AQY88f71wGygrVNnncI9XHorwkjLrWq2QDMSDqssfL5OFSI2SOmS5wfzg%3D%3D

youtubeunblocker.org helps in most cases.

Anyway: Heard a lot better. Their voices clash with the rest of the track. It is not something I could listen longer to

 

[Quazimofo]

It wasn't particularly good, but it wasn't particularly bad either. Not the best metal I've heard but not the worst; though to be fair I really don't have that high of standards. I'll openly enjoy the "generic sounding" metal if it sounds good to me. However, the auto-tune in the vocals is annoyingly blatant. At least in the second song you posted (the one I started with). The auto-tune in the first and third wasn't as obvious/annoying, though the first song was just plain annoying anyway.


So overall, meh. Nothing particularly grabbing enough for me want to look deeper into it. Neat idea though. I'd be interesting to see other people who did something similar but better. Just not right now. Now I'm feeling some nightwish.

 

[duwenbasden]

The third one's opening sounds a bit like Malize Mizer, bbbbbut that's about it.

The second one is okay, generic but doesn't grind my gears as bad (you see the Stockholm Syndrome kicking in yet?)

I prefer not to talk about the first one.

Anyway, I am sorry about the rest of your career, rest-of-the-band.

On the scale of soups, I rate it the Campbell tincan cream of chicken. Really high in sodium, not really much of anything interesting.

 

[Alarien]

dafuq did I just watch?

Seriously though, it's Jpop over a Metal background and I ... have no real problem with that. Not my thing. Not horrifying, but I wouldn't listen to it either. It's a silly, but potentially amusing gimmick and some people might like that. If it gets them out of pure pop and into actual rock or metal, good by me.

I really don't care what your entry drug is.

Also, I will ask this, and this is a serious question for the metal heads: why in hell do you actually like the gravelly incoherent lyric style? I was looking at the video for Galmet and it reminded me of a lot of metal bands popping up in the mid to late '90's and which have appeared to have assumed the primary definition of "metal" now. Even Dethklok is more coherent than a lot of this.

Not criticizing, asking honestly because I don't get it. I always enjoy having good singers with actual tone and melodies, which used to be a part of the metal scene (no, I'm not referencing glamhairshit from the '80s), but this seems to be the accepted go-to norm now?

On that note, I actually found the Bridear tracks above pretty great.