avatar

BABYMETALBABYMETAL

Estimated reading time: 2 minute(s)

★★★☆ This is the toughest review I’ve had to write all year. Yes, this is the debut album from what was ostensibly a marketing stunt, a J-Pop girl band fused Akira-style with a metal band. It shouldn’t be good, like the first DETHKLOK shouldn’t have been good. What to say, then, about the fact that this album features muscular riffs, sick solos, wall-to-wall ear candy, and two of my favorite breakdowns of 2014? The vocals are the weakest part of this album, as the Disneyfied autotuned teen wailing doesn’t entirely mesh with everything going on behind it. But of course that just makes the whole car wreck that much more compelling and fun.