On a Seattle night full of different hard rock and metal concerts going on from Queens of the Stone Age at Climate Pledge to Bad Omens at the Showbox Sodo I think I picked the right show to cover at the sold-out WaMu Theater with a co-headline tour called BabyKlok with Japan's hottest metal export Baby Metal and the fictional death metal band in the Adult Swim animated TV show Metalocalypse.
Opening the whole show was the guitar shredder Jason Richardson of All That Remains. His 40min set was a mind-blowing guitar sting acrobatics that blew some minds! Check out his latest solo album with Falling in Reverse drummer Luke Holland called II. A wild mix of Prog Death Djent Metalcore.
Next up was Dethklok. The band on this night portraying the fictional band on the animated TV show "Metalocalypse" was Brendon Small – guitars, lead vocals, Gene Hoglan – drums, Pete Griffin – bass and Nili Brosh – guitars.
If you've never seen Dethklok live its a animated video per song to the TV show with the live band basically non-lit in silhouette. The fifth full-length album from the band was released 8.22.23, called "Dethalbum IV".
On the same day the band released a movie titled Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar on both blu-ray and digital. The soundtrack album released three days after the "Dethalbum IV" album 8.25.23.
Since we were dealing with photo pass issues I didn't get to see the full set, but with the few ending songs I got the see and photo was rabid! Fans of this TV show and band are definitely diehards. Setlist included: Deththeme / Briefcase Full of Guts / Birthday Dethday / Awaken / Bloodlines / Concert Etiquette with Facebones / The Gears / Hatredcopter / Dethsupport / Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle / Concert Tips with Facebones / Aortic Desecration / I Ejaculate Fire / The Duel / Murmaider / Thunderhorse / Fansong / Encore: SOS / Go Into the Water. Go watch some episodes here.
Are You Ready? This sold-out Seattle crowd definitely were when Baby Metal hit the stage. Hailing from Tokyo, this band concept delivers 3 female singers in the actions, the imagery and the cuteness of J-pop backed by one incredible heavy metal band. Aka Kawaii Metal. Sure the girls are talented with their full-show dance moves and singing and complete main stage focus of the show, but lets give props to that band! Known as the "Kami Band" these monster players are silhouetted most of the time in the background and on this tour in masks, I could handle a show of just them playing, they are that good!
I've seen Baby Metal live a few time over the past years and this was the first with the newest member "Momometal" who replaced "Yuimetal" who left the band in 2018. Momometal was awesome. She fit very well with Sumetal and Moametal vocally and in motion. Those girls work super hard on that stage each night. To sing and do all the dance choreography is impressive.
Baby Metal released their 4th album earlier this year as a concept album called "The Other One". Based on their year-long hiatus Babymetal took from music, it also celebrates the group's ten-year anniversary. Read more here.
With 3 of the 11 songs played live off the new album, the track "Metali!!" featuring Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello was my favorite. A crushing catchy metal Japanese shamisen flavored vibe track with Tom's solo.
Setlist included: Babymetal Death / Gimme Chocolate!! / PA PA YA!! / Distortion / BxMxC / Mirror Mirror / Monochrome / METALI!! / Megitsune / Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!! / Road of Resistance
Overall Baby Metal in concert are an energetic djent metal meets catchy J-pop extravaganza with a very visual and active crowd participation show. For more info on tours, merch and more of Baby Metal check out their website: https://babymetal.com