10 Best Japanese Rock & Metal Bands You Need To Listen To

4. Babymetal

Perhaps one of the most unique musical hits to light up the global stage in recent times, Baby Metal put on a genre of musical performances dubbed as Kawaii Metal. Put simply, they are heavy metal meets Japanese Idol groups.

The idea came together in 2010, when Suzuka Nakamoto, Moa Kikuchi, and Yui Mizuno, then part of the Idol group Sakura Gakuin, were asked by the group’s producer Kobametal to engage in music that would be a fusion of the Idol and metal genres. What’s quite remarkable here was that the members themselves had little prior experience of metal music.

Nonetheless, they took to it like fish to water. They performed extensively at shows and released singles that became fixtures on the Oricon charts. In 2013, they got first break at a major label, with the release of the single Ijime, Dame, Zettai. Later that year, they left Sakura Gakuin, after Nakamoto finished her junior high school graduation and hence could no longer be part of the main group.

They released their first EP in 2014 and have only continued to gain fame and popularity since then, even performing alongside icons such as Metallica and Slayer.

Songs to get you started include Gimme Chocolate!, Road of Resistance, KARATE, The One, and many others.

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After battling Galactus and pinning Hulk Hogan in the main event of Wrestlemania, I've taken a break from living in fantasy worlds, to focus on writing about them. I'm a comic book geek, a wrestling mark, a break dancer, and a scientist. One of those things may not be true.