Babymetal singer Su-Metal says the band have “learned a lot from Metallica.”
The Japanese trio admit they knew little about the genre before they were brought together to front the J-pop sensations. But they learned from the biggest metal band of all as they honed their act. And they even play Metallica songs before they take to the stage at their gigs.
Su-metal tells Rolling Stone: “It’s not only something for us, but the fans get excited when they listen to Metallica and, with Babymetal, it keeps with the rhythm. Before we joined Babymetal, we weren’t that familiar with metal, but we learned a lot from Metallica. Watching their shows and even meeting them, they were really nice to us.”
Her bandmate Meometal says she hopes Babymetal can reach the same level of performance that James Hetfield and co produce regularly.
She says: “Just watching their stage we learned so much. They separate who they are onstage and who they are backstage. That’s something we learned from them and we hope one day we’ll be able to reach that kind of level onstage that Metallica has onstage. It feels like they do receive power from the metal gods when they’re on because it’s amazing.”
Babymetal reeled their self-titled debut album last year and it will be reissued outside of Japan next month. They are on the shortlist in the Breakthrough category at this year’s Metal Hammer Golden Gods which takes place at London’s Indigo2 on June 15.
