Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Perfect metal divas BABYMETAL has signed a deal with Sony, and are now set for the American release of their self-titled debut album. The re-release will feature two bonus tracks — “Road Of Resistance” featuring Dragonforce & a live version of “Gimme Chocolate” — and will be available digitally on May 12 and physically on June 16.
On the deal, Sony commented:
Says Bill Richards, VP of Marketing at RAL/Sony Music Entertainment: “After witnessing the band’s sold-out New York show, we knew we wanted to be involved. The core metal fans and metal press seem to get BABYMETAL, which shows how the language of music transcends boundaries. They hit all the entertainment buttons and are really fun to watch.”
Here’s a a review from Billboard on that show.
But America isn’t all they’re looking at, because they’ll also be making a European release after signing with earMUSIC.
Their Kobametal-produced album will also see a 2015 European release, via earMUSIC. It will come out May 29 in Germany, Sweden, Finland, and Spain, on June 1 in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark, and on June 2 in Italy.
So here for this.
Certain fanbases probably don’t want to hear it, but BABYMETAL are the ones who have the most organic Western debut by an Asian act aside from Psy. They’re the ones being pursued by companies, and thus their debut around the world doesn’t have to basically consist of desperate media play to get their name out.
So yeah, oddly enough, the combination of idol J-pop and heavy metal has already managed to carve a place out for BABYMETAL around the world in their genre. And after finishing as the top Asian artist on the World Album Chart (#5) in 2014, the only question left is whether they can take their act truly mainstream overseas or not.
