“We decided, ‘Let’s put in everything we’ve got and move forward’”: How BABYMETAL overcame adversity and shot for the stars

Given the many ways in which BABYMETAL operate in a field of one, it was easy to think they couldn’t fall foul of the same mundane problems as other bands.

They’re brought together by a divine purpose, after all. In an interview with Billboard in 2016, MOAMETAL suggested the trio hadn’t chosen to be members of BABYMETAL but selected for membership by the Fox God. And even if you set aside the lore, the trio’s magnetism with audiences was reflected in their bond with each other. Nothing, one assumed, could come in the way of that.

On May 8, 2018, the band kicked off their world tour in Kansas City, Missouri. Unsurprisingly, it was the subject of fevered anticipation. But that excitement would soon turn to confusion. As they took to the stage to the opening choral chants of In The Name Of – a track from an album that wouldn’t be released for another 17 months – it became obvious that something was different.

The musicians were there. So, too, were the dancers – with a couple of notable additions, in fact. And, of course, SU-METAL and MOAMETAL. But where was YUIMETAL?

Perhaps, fans later recalled thinking on message boards, this was a new intro the band were trying out and she’d take to the stage shortly. A couple of songs later, it became clear that wasn’t to be. Nor was her absence addressed at any point during the rest of the show. Given the ardent nature of BABYMETAL’s followers, the consternation felt by the couple-thousand inside the Uptown Theater was soon shared by their global fanbase.

This was unfortunate, given that a month before Kansas City there had been news of developments in BABYMETAL’s world. Since 2015, April 1 has become known as Fox Day, when special announcements about the band are shared. In 2018, a video marked the beginning of METAL RESISTANCE EPISODE VII, with the words: “Until now, we have only experienced the light side, the legend of three metal spirits. An unknown dark side also exists, a legend of seven metal spirits, THE CHOSEN SEVEN.”

What did it mean? Perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, the question should have been: how, if at all, did this proposed narrative change when YUIMETAL disappeared from the stage?

YUIMETAL had been absent from BABYMETAL shows before – the previous December, she had missed two dates in Hiroshima due to illness. It was therefore assumed to be a similar situation, although unlike in Hiroshima, this time around the audience wasn’t informed of what was going on beforehand, adding to the frustration. Eager for answers, one magazine reached out to the band’s management for comment.

“YUIMETAL remains a member of the band, but she is not on the current U.S. tour,” came the response. “There is a new narrative for the future of the band which is currently evolving. The storyline has changed.” Whatever the future held, nobody could get any kind of accurate reading on its possibilities.

BABYMETAL have operated in mysterious, even clandestine, ways since the start. It’s part of the intrigue. Their world is a fantastical one that encompasses quests and characters and costumes, all designed to captivate, but also to vigorously control how everything comes across, in a manner one Kerrang! writer suggested “makes One Direction look like Fugazi”. And yet, like the best examples of bands with overarching concepts, BABYMETAL’s was interesting enough to dissuade people from pushing too hard to know more about their inner workings. When someone from the press asked a question that overstepped the mark, there was always the default “Only the Fox God knows” response to fall back on.

With this development, however, some began to wonder whether BABYMETAL were altering their narrative less in the interest of entertainment and more to cater to what was going on behind the scenes. Speculation continued until October, when, with YUIMETAL having missed the dates on the U.S. and European legs of the world tour – including an appearance at Download Festival – it was announced she’d left BABYMETAL after eight years.

“YUIMETAL had expressed her desire to return [to] performing with the group in the following months after last December’s performance due [to] health concerns,” the band’s statement at the time read. “During her absence, both SU-METAL and MOAMETAL as well as the entire staff team had been preparing for her awaited return. However, YUIMETAL came to a decision that she will not be performing at BABYMETAL World Tour 2018 in Japan and that she will no longer be a part of BABYMETAL.”

YUIMETAL would soon issue her own statement. “I have mulled over this over and over again but I have decided to leave BABYMETAL at this time,” she explained, adding credence to the suggestions she had been unwell, while also throwing another reason for her departure into the mix. “I had the strong desire to appear onstage again but my physical condition is not at its best even now, and further I feel that I would like to pursue my dream, one that I have had from a long time ago, of going on my own as Mizuno Yui. It is these factors that led to my decision.”

What is certain is how hard the situation was on the two members of BABYMETAL left behind.

“I remember feeling scared of the audience and the way they looked at us,” MOAMETAL told K! in 2023 about stepping out onstage as a duo. “There were times when I would feel doubt in their eyes and I even started to doubt if the decision we made [to continue as a duo] was a mistake. But discussing it with SU-METAL, we both agreed that it wasn’t, and we shouldn’t run away. We decided, ‘Let’s put in everything we’ve got and move forward.’ It would be a lie if I didn’t feel uneasy at the time, but knowing that SU-METAL was with me gave me reassurance, and it wasn’t just me that felt anxious.”

If 2018 was something of an annus horribilis for BABYMETAL, then 2019 was the year when the now-duo showed they weren’t just surviving but thriving.

It helped that in the years beforehand, they’d played with a cavalcade of big-hitters, from Guns N’ Roses – gifting their frontman Axl Rose a Fox mask – to Korn, who surprised the band onstage during one of their shows. And while those luminaries cemented their BABYMETAL fandom in the process, they imparted wisdom upon the duo.

Still, despite their expertise, as well as the insights shared during chats with Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Corey Taylor, All Time Low and Billie Eilish, it was the enduring advice of another legend that helped BABYMETAL to navigate their way through this most challenging of chapters.

“Rob Halford from Judas Priest telling us to stay metal has always been within our hearts,” SU-METAL told Kerrang! in 2019. “It’s been something that we have always had in the back of our heads every time we are facing any obstacles or we receive bad reviews.”

Thankfully, the reviews were positive when BABYMETAL achieved another massive career first, performing on Glastonbury’s Other Stage on June 30, 2019.

“It was one of those festivals that I had always admired,” SU-METAL told us, “and to have the privilege of being there was remarkable. I will never forget the faces of the audience. They were in shock at first, but as the performance carried on, they started to smile and dance with us.”

While BABYMETAL weren’t the heaviest band ever to visit Worthy Farm – grindcore legends Napalm Death appeared in 2017 – four of the eight songs from their scorching setlist (Elevator Girl, Shanti Shanti Shanti, Distortion, PA PA YA!!) were from their third album, METAL GALAXY, released that October.

Reviewing the record at the time, K!’s Nick Ruskell noted that while PA PA YA!!, featuring Thai rapper F.Hero, seemed an outlandish song when released as a single, it was relatively straightforward in the context of an album that “fulfils its mission by being even more bonkers than anything you’ve heard from [BABYMETAL] before”.

In addition to pushing the envelope in the eccentricity stakes, METAL GALAXY found its authors broadening their horizons to encompass sounds from the many parts of the world their touring had taken them – using Indian rhythms on Shanti Shanti Shanti and Swedish folk on Oh! MAJINAI (featuring Sabaton’s Joakim Brodén). Commercially, in another first, METAL GALAXY debuted at Number 13 on the Billboard 200, making it the highest-charting Japanese-language album in its history.

As landmarks go, reaching 10 years as a band, as BABYMETAL did in 2020, was a momentous one. They even celebrated with the release of 10 BABYMETAL Years, their first retrospective collection. But some worried it might also be their last when a cryptic message released on October 10, 2021 suggested some sort of ending.

“Together with all 10 episodes of METAL RESISTANCE coming to a close, the 10-year legend will be sealed from the world,” the message read. “Until that seal is broken, BABYMETAL will disappear from our sight. Time is running out. There is no eternity in God’s descent.”

And then there was silence. A year of silence.

Given how frantically productive BABYMETAL had been in their first decade, 12 months of inactivity felt like an age. There was a tremendous sense of relief, then, when on October 11, 2022, the band announced their return and heralded the release of THE OTHER ONE, their first concept album. The accompanying press release promised “all-new tracks for us to experience the other BABYMETAL story that no-one ever knew about”, beginning with first single, the thunderous and orchestral Divine Attack – Shingeki –, with subsequent singles unveiled at monthly intervals until the album’s arrival on March 24, 2023.

Reviewing THE OTHER ONE, K! acknowledged how BABYMETAL’s absence had seen them grow in maturity, suggesting “there’s not so much on their fourth album that will raise eyebrows or provoke a laugh”. But for all the refinement and interesting detours into dance music, the review also noted that the track Metalizm’s “fret-burning soloing is a reminder that metal remains the band’s home planet”.

That home planet had, admittedly, become a slightly lonelier place, despite SU-METAL and MOAMETAL’s exceptional efforts in carrying BABYMETAL forward. During the second of two gigs in the Japanese city of Chiba, when a third coffin was brought onstage, fans began to speculate that the band may be introducing a new member.

The rumours were confirmed when, during a show in Yokohama on Fox Day, Momoko Okazaki was welcomed into the band, taking the name MOMOMETAL – thereby reinstating BABYMETAL to a trio for the first time in five years. A brand-new era had begun…

This feature originally appeared in the special-edition Kerrang! Presents BABYMETAL magazine

Read this next:

• How BABYMETAL broke boundaries and pioneered the kawaii metal genre
• Fantasy, foxes and flipping the script: Inside BABYMETAL’s extraordinary lore
• How BABYMETAL entered uncharted territory