Unexpected act of mercy

Early BABYMETAL songs tell stories that are easy to follow, even if you didn't know the language. In 'Karate', three imposing death's head figures square off against our three METAL protagonists, although there is only one male aggressor who engages them in battle. In a back-and-forth contest, he lands a powerful blow, knocking the three girls down. Big sister, SU, struggles back to her feet and helps MOA and YUI up. Together, they gather their strength for one last strike. However, the antagonist who downed them has disappeared. SU's sonic blast hits the three masked figures, breaking their masks to reveal... themselves. It's quite true that we are often our own worst enemies. Having defeated their fearful, rageful, aggressive parts of their personalities, the girls are finally at peace. Easy story.

My first thoughts on watching this video was that all this Karate fighting seems to be at odds with one of the band's definitive messages of 'ijime, dame, zettai' (commonly abbreviated as IDZ) or 'no more bullying forever' and is one of the tracks in their self-titled debut album. I guess I was thinking 'Karate Kid' initially. But this fight is more of an inner struggle to defeat the worst parts of ourselves that keep us down and out, rather than directing violence against another person.

SU and YUI demonstrate strength in breaking things, but my favourite sequence is when MOA uses her heightened senses to pluck an insect in mid-flight out of the air. It had disturbed her meditation, and having caught it, she could have crushed it out of existence so that it would never bother her again. Instead, she gently releases it in an unexpected act of mercy, letting it rejoin its companions and go on its way. Her celebration of and respect for life no matter how seemingly insignificant packs the strongest gut punch. It truly embodies the spirit of IDZ, and watching it greatly uplifted my spirits.

With BABYMETAL, the positive emotional payoff is refreshingly different, in comparison to the cathartic release of angst and rage when listening to, say, Linkin Park, which I did listen to quite a bit back in the day. I'm all for it.

SU-METAL solo: 'No Rain, No Rainbow'

SU-METAL solos offer a change of pace within BABYMETAL's 'live' performances. Slower, slightly softer, the focus is often on the emotional delivery of someone longing for human connection. Perhaps it's also that SU is bereft of her supporting vocalists, MOA and YUI, that her voice sounds so completely alone, and lonely. It's a vocal quality that offers more variety than just headbanging for the audience to experience and appreciate.

For 'No Rain, No Rainbow' I chose to feature above a more recent version of the song as SU's voice has since matured, and as such carries a sense of loss with more gravitas. Her younger voice still makes for a beautiful rendition, but an older voice suggests having had more to lose, and more to regret.

I don't have the musical vocabulary to describe what I hear, but I feel this song is particularly effective in hitting the emotive elements through the way the chorus is structured. I don't know if it is accurate to say, but the chord progression sounds like the way water falls in tiers (yes, clearly an English pun, and probably unintentional), but that's what it sounds like to my ears. It then picks up, only to fall again, so I am constantly experiencing a sinking feeling every time the chorus comes around.

Then there's this breathtaking staging effect as a beam of white light appears to emanate from the grand piano, lighting a path to SU's feet. With poise and dignity, she walks to the piano while the band plays an instrumental bridge. The band cuts out so we can just hear her play the piano accompanying herself as she sings a couple of lines of verse...

But then there's a sudden, inexplicable length of silence that cuts in mid-verse. It appears to be a mistake or a glitch, perhaps in the audio recording, but in other performances, the band does pick back up and continues until SU comes in once more with the chorus. But in this performance, we next see SU at a different part of the stage, illuminated in a circle of light, dead centre within ripples of tears falling into perhaps a pool of tears, and she continues the verse where she left off. Guess you had to be there to know what really happened. Regardless, 'No Rain, No Rainbow' is still a beautiful song, beautifully rendered.

Great job!

Today being Labour Day is as good as any to introduce Black BABYMETAL with the song 'GJ!"

As we've seen, a BABYMETAL 'live' show is a full-on high energy effort that often goes on a few days running. The concept of Black BABYMETAL has a lore to it which I won't get into as it is confusingly inconsistent, and much is probably lost in translation. Regardless, to give each other a break without disrupting the momentum, parts of the performance are taken by SU solos, and some are MOA and YUI duets under the Black BABYMETAL label.

GJ likely stands for Good Job, as the phrase appears in the chorus. The opening beat is a cheerleader rhythm of encouragement for the team to put in extra effort, but done in metal with a bass guitar assist, the sound is heavy -- more like the beat of galley drums, getting the slaves working together to pull the oars.

Picking up from the instruments, YUI and MOA launch into rhythmic verse about the daily grind of sheeple going to work, comparing the daily commute to a 'wall of death', a term describing the commencement of a mosh when people from opposite sides of the pit run headlong towards each other and collide in the middle. Pretty accurate description for rush hour at the MRT station. During the verse, their movements are punchy sharp, imitating the pushing and shoving on jam-packed trains. For the pre-chorus, they revert to cheerleaders egging on the crowd. But their gestures are from their fingers and below their shoulders while leaning slightly back, which suggest less encouragement and more taunt, as if to say, 'is that all you got?'

The second verse is about the opposite of going to work, and that is going shopping. Likewise, shopping is yet another mosh pit as everyone tears through malls looking for the best discounts and offers of free extras. The movements here have become more combative, showing finger guns in the short instrumental break, and some defensive shielding amidst more pushing and shoving in the verse.

In between, the chorus hits with contrasting melodic lightness, incredibly catchy as their choruses usually are. Their movement also lightens up a little. They keep their sharpness, but throw in more fluid, rapidly flickering movements as they sing of escaping the crush and grind of the work-consume cycle. Being "happy-go-lucky" is the way to go: 'aiming too high brings us no good' so 'take it easy' instead.

Easy for these girls to say. It's clear they work very hard at what they do, and aim for the stratosphere with their ambitions of changing the world for the better with BABYMETAL music. The big difference is that they found their ikegai (the intersection of passion and competence in supplying what people need and are willing to pay money for) while they were still relatively babies, and went ahead to pursue it. The rest of us will just be grateful for Labour Day when we can put up our aching feet for a while, and hopefully not squander it on meaningless shopping. Take it easy, folks!