Babymetal: What the Japanese Viral Sensations Learned From Metallica

The Babymetal album is being re-released with two bonus tracks. Why are these tracks important to the band?
Su-Metal: We decided to include a live version of “Gimme Chocolate!!” because it’s one of the songs that are really known here and we know that the fans outside Japan really love the song. Everybody remembers every single part of the music, how to react to it and how to dance to it, so that’s why we wanted to present a different take on this song. The second song is “Road of Resistance.” The song is about basically paving a new path, this is what we’re trying to do with our second world tour. And, of course, it’s the song that features Sam [Totman] and Herman [Li] of Dragonforce. Dragonforce is known for their speed metal so this track has really fast riffs. It’s a very, very cool song.

What are your favorite lyrics on the record?
Su-Metal: [In] the song “Ijime, Dame, Zettai,” there is one phrase that means “I will protect you no matter what.” I feel very connected to that because we play the song at the end of our set. All of us are super tired from the whole show, but there’s one part in our choreography where we all walk to the center and look into each others’ eyes and it’s like, “OK, let’s do this.” It also reflects to where we are in reality. To me, it’s a very, very important part of our show and that’s why I like it.

Yuimetal: This is not really my favorite lyric, but “Road of Resistance” is my favorite song. . . . I like it because the lyrics reminds me that when things get tough, you still can do it.

What hopes do you have with the album reissue?
Su-Metal: Obviously, we don’t come to America often. It’s very difficult, you know, schedule-wise and everything. With this album finally being physically available here, I feel that, hopefully, the album will be the medium that keeps the fans close to us. They will finally be able to hold it in their hands. Even though we’re so far away, this album’s going to connect us with fans again and we just want to keep that relationship going.