This past Friday, Japanese rockers BABYMETAL dropped their latest album, METAL FORTH. And as expected, it’s total chaos. The album’s title literally means “beyond metal,” and that’s precisely what this album is. METAL FORTH isn’t your dad’s heavy metal album. It’s a candy-coated, steel-plated, intergalactic girl power odyssey featuring collaborations with Poppy, Spiritbox, Tom Morello, Bloodywood, Electric Callboy, Polyphia, and Slaughter to Prevail. And clocking in at a lean 35 minutes, METAL FORTH is all killer, no filler.
If you’ve heard some of the early singles from the project, the high energy EDM meets metal banger “RATATATA” with Electric Callboy, the glossy goth-pop banger “from me to u” with Poppy, and the feral “Song 3” with Slaughter to Prevail, you already know the ladies of BABYMETAL aren’t afraid to experiment with different sounds and genres. “Song 3” especially stands out with Slaughter to Prevail’s frontman Alex Terrible’s hardcore roar going up against SU-METAL’s pristine vocals like a modern-day Beauty and the Beast.
The rest of the record sees BABYMETAL being just as playful and savage. “Kon! Kon!” with Indian metal band Bloodywood blends folk-metal and fox spirits into a headbanging street festival, a true headbanging cultural exchange. “KxAxWxAxIxI” is straight˝-up kawaii-core chaos, think Sailor Moon fronting Slipknot. “Sunset Kiss” with Polyphia has one of the most insane guitar solos you’ll hear all year. And “My Queen” with Spiritbox is probably the most epic cinematic track on the album, sounding like something you’d hear soundtracking the climactic fight scene in an anime.
Then there’s “METALI!!” with Tom Morello. A funky, ridiculous, riff-heavy track, because obviously the guy from Rage Against the Machine and the queens of kawaii-metal were going to make a party-ready jam that you can mosh to. The album’s closer, “White Flame — 白炎 —,” ends things on a spiritual note, reminding you that under all the glitter and growls, BABYMETAL still has that J-pop heart beating fast beneath the fluorescent costumes. But fear not, the track still packs a punch with insane guitar work and a breakneck pace.
METAL FORTH is BABYMETAL’s first album since 2023’s THE OTHER ONE, which cracked open their self-made Metalverse, and feels like they’ve smashed through the portal entirely and are now joyriding through different worlds, collecting the coolest musicians they find along the way. It’s bigger, messier, and somehow even more ambitious. Fifteen years in, SU-METAL, MOAMETAL, and MOMOMETAL have proven that they are more than just an image or a gimmick; they’re one of the most exciting forces in the rock scene today.
Final verdict? METAL FORTH is like taking a mouthful of Pop Rocks and wasabi before diving into a hot pink mosh-pit. BABYMETAL isn’t just beyond metal, they’re rewriting its rulebook and showing just how fun heavy music can be. Girl power has rarely sounded this unhinged!
METAL FORTH is available to stream on all major DSPs. Physical formats can be purchased here: https://shop.metalforth.com
