A great symbol of our polarized times, BABYMETAL emerged in 2014 to a huge amount of excited hyperbole and a similar amount of vitriolic disdain. More than a decade on, the kawaii-metal genre-busters have defied the odds and become part of the furniture. “Metal Forth” is their fifth album, and a noisy reminder that whatever people might think about blending Japanese pop and thunderous modern metal, the reality is that BABYMETAL have transcended the “one-off gimmick” tag with ease. No longer simply a novelty, they have proved themselves as a crushing live band, releasing music that is always considerably heavier than expected. Admittedly, those shiny pop and electronic elements are still a matter of taste, but nobody has combined the brutal with the bright-eyed with anything like the Japanese band’s white-hot levels of exuberance.

The follow-up to 2023’s conceptually indulgent “The Other One”, “Metal Forth” is the snappiest BABYMETAL release to date. Dominated by often inspired collaborations with the great and good of modern metal, it is arguably the first album they have released that necessarily stands or falls on its own merits. Previous BABYMETAL albums always came with a deluge of ridiculous but irresistibly entertaining mythology, exposition and mystical, quasi-philosophical claptrap. It would be wrong to claim that all of that has been stripped away on “Metal Forth”, but a lack of obvious interventions from the Fox God suggests that Su-Metal and her colleagues are having a focused musical moment. These songs are monstrously weighty as any in the BABYMETAL catalogue, with guitar tones that echo the most destructive deathcore. Even the trio’s vocals seem written along heavier, darker lines, and so despite retaining much of their in-built sweetness, “Metal Forth” paints our heroines as a grittier and more impactful band than ever before. The tunes, as you might expect or possibly even demand, are as deliriously infectious as ever.

It begins with a flurry of team-ups that will definitely keep the kids happy. “from me to u” is a fast and fiery electro-metal stomper that pits Su-Metal against the currently ubiquitous Poppy, resulting in the next best thing the Boston-born singer has done since that KNOCKED LOOSE collab. “RATATATA” pulls off the remarkable feat of making ESKIMO CALLBOY vaguely palatable, while BABYMETAL rifle through their subgenre Rolodex, settling on a warped hybrid of industrial techno and sledgehammer metalcore. As previously released on SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL‘s “Grizzly”, “Song 3” is the heaviest song BABYMETAL have in their arsenal, thanks in part to the Russians’ obvious stewardship of the riffs. Obnoxious and extreme, at least by pop-metal standards, it will surely become a staple of both bands’ live sets. The explosive “Kon! Kon!” , which features Indian heavyweights BLOODYWOOD, should come with a health warning and some new dancing shoes.

The rest of “Metal Forth” continues with more guests and even less fucking around. “Sunset Kiss” is the beautiful meeting of BABYMETAL‘s kawaii code and POLYPHIA‘s ecstatic guitar wizardry. SPIRITBOX cast their alt-metal spells all over “My Queen”, serving up a colossal chorus hook into the bargain. And for sheer, unadulterated joy, “METALI!!” brings the inimitable ingenuity of Tom Morello together with perverse electronic rhythms and a liberal sprinkling of futuristic exotica, resulting in more fun than most people can realistically cope with. There is a risk that “Metal Forth” will be dismissed as a SOULFLY-like free-for-all, but there is no shortage of inspiration flying around here. Three guest-less tracks maintain the same standards, with the closing “White Flame” standing out as a particularly fine, full-throttle power metal anthem, and the oddball “KxAxWxAxIxI” taking the prize for thinking further outside the BABYMETAL box, as mutant dubstep collides with gnarly, post-djent metal.

Even their greatest fans may have doubted BABYMETAL‘s fitness for the long haul. But whether by fortune or design (or both),Japan’s greatest metal export of the 21st century has reached a fifth album with reputation and credibility intact. “Metal Forth” is an audacious delight.