BABYMETAL continue to build towards the release of their ‘Metal Resistance‘ album on Apr. 1, and their new single “KARATE” was played live at various outlets recently.

Here’s a recording:



*In case that goes down, here’s a mirror.

“KARATE” reminds me of a heavy metal version of a Do As Infinity track, which is a definite positive as the latter’s songs are usually catchy. The instrumentals provided by the Kami Band are widely regarded to always be on point, and that doesn’t change here with an intro that engaged me instantly and somehow manages to merge perfectly with a catchy J-pop hook.

The fusion of constant energy from the talented band with SU-METAL‘s consistently developing talent as a front-woman makes this group shine and difficult to duplicate (though others try). The “screamo” by YUIMETAL and MOAMETAL is honestly still a bit jarring, but I’m growing used to it by now and they’ve gotten better as they’ve gotten older. SU-METAL’s still obviously the star of the track, though, and she dominates it with an on-point haunting pre-chorus that leads to an even better performance over the addictive hook. Her progression and evolution is probably shown to be most complete over the outro, where she really powers through the track and finishes it off on an extreme high that makes you want to hit repeat.

I dunno if I’m supposed to love this shit by whatever musical elitist standard, but sorry, this is amazing and I can (and have) listen to it over and over.

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Here’s the album trailer for ‘Metal Resistance’, which also serves as what I think is a music video teaser for “KARATE”.

Give us the damn music video.