This monochrome firework

I started this BABYMETAL journey with 'Monochrome' on The First Take. I'm just a whatever's-on-the-radio's-fine-with-me mainstream guy, so I have no alignment to any musical preferences at all. While I did listen to Linkin Park (which is sort of metal) for a while back in the day, I was no fan of the genre as a whole. But when I stumbled on BABYMETAL performing on piano, I was intrigued. What would a metal song sound like without the metal? The performance SU and MOA presented was beautifully melodic, passionately, and sincerely delivered with love and tenderness -- so uncharacteristic of my stereotypical conception of metal that I got drawn in right away. If this is what metal can be, I want more!

Immediately, I searched for and found the official lyric video. Certainly, the instrumentation was heavy, as I'd expected, but the guitar produced yet another beautiful melody of its own, leading in to SU's main vocals and MOA's supporting vocals that hit like hammer on anvil, respectively, with the drummer putting out rhythms at a speed I'd never heard before. I didn't see any choreography since it was a lyric video, but when I discovered more of their music, the dance was yet another layer on a package that was both thoughtfully composed, and movingly heartfelt. And I'm a sucker for theatrical performances with high production values. And poetic lyrics that make you think. This band ticks all the right boxes for me, so I'll be stuck in this foxhole for quite a while yet.

Anyway, the featured video (above) is not the official lyric one, but a fan edit that was clearly painstakingly put together to integrate the official video with the band's 'live' performance, as I would have experienced in KL, although the size of the audience would have been a tiny fraction of what we see here. The girls here are dressed in their pre-world tour 2023 outfits, but if you go back to look at their current concert attire (which I saw them wear for the first time on The First Take singing 'The One -- Unfinished ver.'), they're still wearing all-black, but with plastic chromatic frills that reflect light in a spectrum of multi-colours. It's a clever way to brighten up an otherwise drab monochrome dress with a costume feature that creates dynamic rainbow colours with every movement. I believe this song is the very inspiration behind this unique design choice.

'Monochrome' appears on the KL tour setlist right in the middle of the repertoire, making it the feature song of the concert. For the special connection I have with this song, oddly enough in its non-metal form, it's definitely this fanboy's favourite.