Idol Metal

For pages and posts that relate to heavy metal music performed by idol groups.

The New Babymetal Single Is as Fitting a Tribute as We’ll Ever Get for Yuimetal

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

By now, you’ve probably heard the stream of “Starlight”, Babymetal’s first release in (/checks watch) two and a half years, good lord. There’s an MV, too, which we’ll get to in a second. First, though, let’s take these things in meta-chronological order and note: Yuimetal is officially out of the group:

Hot take to follow! First that MV:

And now to go ahead and reverse that order … Continue reading →

BLACKNAZARENE Is Kind of Blowing My Mind Here

/ Homicidol Maniac / Leave a comment

Have I ever mentioned the “Idols That Maniac Frequently Forgets Exist, Ranked” list? That started off as a pretty okay joke post, then became alarmingly serious as I worked on it — I seriously forget about a lot of idols. I’ll probably never publish it. But for real, BLACK NAZARENE is on there, which is a shame given the self-driven wota hype about their debut earlier in the year.

And it was a good debut! The deflation was less an issue with BLACKNAZARENE than it was wotas’ inability to sensibly respond to stimulus. Nonetheless, while the group has in fact been developing nicely and carving out their niche over the course of the year, they’ve been below the radar because they aren’t the most prolific thing in the world. Maybe they’re making a move now, though, because (as Andrew pointed out) they dropped themselves a new MV today, revealing and unacknowledged but apparent semi-abandonment of their “THUGxkawaii” image:


One half of that formulation does make sense

Continue reading →

Babymetal to Almost Certainly Soon Be Releasing New Album

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Just kind of riffing on my dude Daemon’s post from the other day, but it’s true, and not like in the way that I got way out in front of myself and thought that this year’s international tour was a precursor to an album release (instead it was precursor to more fan tears than I thought possible!). No, this seems pretty legit. Just play along.

First this got dropped into the world:

I’m assuming that it was kind of quietly regarded because it’s a) for the graphic novel and b) was released by the publisher, not Amuse. Fine. But … hey, that’s Babymetal music, music that was theretofore unheard by we mere mortals, and there’s some heft to the whole presentation, like there’s more to it.

Par for the Babymetal course, no doubt. Par for the Babymetal fan course, though, is to relentlessly overanalyze everything within broadcast distance of potential new material, and in this case some sleuthing uncovered our likely future. Continue reading →

We Review Things: NECRONOMIDOL | “VOIDHYMN”

/ DAEMON / Leave a comment

Since their inception in 2014 NECRONOMIDOL has been extremely productive, feeding their fan base six EPs, a single and two full albums.  Despite serving up new material on a regular basis, the current quintet has cultivated a fan base with a very vocal appetite for more. Underneath the striking imagery and Cthulhu mythos is a premier group of vocalists who perform tirelessly in Japan, have brought their intensely joyous brand of darkness to Europe twice and are soon returning to the United States for a third time.  

On September 29th, NECROMA will be releasing VOIDHYMN, their third full album in three years. The new ten-track offering consists of six entirely new songs and four re-recordings of previously released tracks.  

We at Homicidols were lucky enough to be offered an early listen to VOIDHYMN and will be presenting a track-by-track review in reverse order because:

  1. It’s more Satanic that way, and
  2. To first answer the key question in most everyone’s mind: “Why did they re-record ‘Skulls in the Stars’ when the Deathless version already had Himari’s vocals?”

Continue reading →

Yajima Mai Will Bathe in Your Blood and Sound Great Doing It

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

You know that good things are afoot, and differences are being made, when folks start to excitedly ping you about a new thing before that thing has even actually happened. I’d been stoked about what was to come from the new Yajima Mai album going back to when I was still just traipsing after her and hoping that she’d get a good, solid break, there being clear and indisputable evidence that this young woman had all of the This and That that a performer needs to excel, needing only some good fortune.

Mai’s first full album, Vampiress, is just a month away, and today came the MV that validates all of that waiting and hoping:

Continue reading →

Would You Like to Hear [CORRECTION THREE] of NECRONOMIDOL’s New Songs?

/ Homicidol Maniac

These videos aren’t new, friends, but I had this guy right down here sitting there in the Weekender, and I was like, you know, it’s kind of rude to just leave this here. Remember the good ol’ days, Maniac, when you used to just about zing straight out of your clothes like in an 80s cartoon any time favorite idols of yours got a total bootleg fancam video uploaded to YouTube and you just had to blog a post? Those were good days. Exciting days! And NECRONOMIDOL was one of the most featured things in those days, before they got all big and swanky and stuff and before you realized that there were like 7,200 idol groups to cover.

I originally just published the videos for one thing, but right as that was happening came along a preview of “SAMHAIN”!

Back to our featured programming!

No! As it turns out, I missed that they’ve played “IN BLACK” live as well!

All hail fancam.

So anyway! Here’s “thanatogenesis”, from Necroma’s upcoming VOIDHYMN album:

Continue reading →

I Am Just All about This AIBECK Song

/ Homicidol Maniac

I wish I had all the time in the world to dig into this post, but time is alas short and I’m going to share this with about half of the commentary that it warrants: AIBECK, long a weekender stable thanks to their copious live video output but rarely one to wind up getting the full post treatment because … this was the last one, actually. Semiannual feature appearances aren’t uncommon among the most chika idols of the homi variety, but I always thought that AIBECK, with their “Idol Counter Attack” thing and BILLIE IDLE-esque insistence on being something beyond idol, would have been more of a catch-on.

At the very least, maybe this new tune will get you onto the bandwagon: Continue reading →

Gird up Your Loins: NECRONOMIDOL’s New Album Is on the Way

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

Long had it been rumored, suspected, hinted at and blasphemously prophesied that darkness idols NECRONOMIDOL would soon, eventually release another record, their fairly exhausting touring schedule and requisite omnipresence in the chika scene made it unclear as to exactly when that was going to happen. Now we know!

Also, please tell me that’s a Beetlejuice reference in the art

Continue reading →

We Interview Idols: 14th Generation Hanako-san of the Toilet

/ Homicidol Maniac

This past weekend, our man Daemon hit up the East Meets West Music Fest; with Monsterpanda in tow as translator, he sat down with literally three of this site’s all-time favorite idols. Today, we have his report back from crossing paths — and surviving — with Hanako-san.

On the morning of the opening day of the East Meets West Music Fest, we are directed to a rehearsal studio that sits among the warehouses of industrial Anaheim. Far from Disneyland but about a mile from Chain Reaction, site of festival itself, the studio’s walls are plastered with photos of The Dickies, Agent Orange, Voodoo Glow Skulls and other indie icons of Orange County. Over a door with a hand written sign that reads “Control Room” is a doodle signed by Derek Riggs, the artist who created Iron Maiden’s mascot “Eddie”. While the place doesn’t exactly feel haunted, we are led through the door next to the control room to conduct a face-to-face interview with a blood-drenched ghost visiting all the way from Japan.

14th Generation Hanako-san of the Toilet is a 404 year-old youkai (ghost) who haunts fourth-floor bathrooms and performs as a solo punk idol. As she explains in the intro to her shows by holding up sign boards to the audience: “My head has been cut off. I cannot speak. But I can sing.” And sing she does in a brittle, child-like voice, but more significantly, she screams. Of all the harsh vocalists in chika idol, Hanako-san is perhaps the most natural screamer. Her screams are primal and ferocious and seem to come out of her more effortlessly than clean vocals.

Upon introduction to Hanako-san, she comes across as schoolgirl-cute in her signature red and white complete with a shiny red randoseru (the iconic backpack for Japanese schoolchildren). She is as unfailingly polite as any Japanese idol would be and often bursts into sincere giggles. The only indication that we are in the presence of something more ominous are her bandaged neck, blood-red eye and eyepatch, and the bloodstains patterning her white shirt and socks.

Hanako-san’s visit to America is not only the first time that she has been outside of Japan, but the first time she has ever been on a plane. My first question to her is to see how she is adjusting. Continue reading →

The LunaBell Lives!

/ Homicidol Maniac

Oh man! You newbies might not be as … warmed? warmed by this one as much as folks who’ve been around for a few years, but: Suzu Hinata, ex of petit pas! and eventual winder-upper as solo idol on the same label as some other cult favorites, is in fact still alive and in fact still idoling and in fact kind of building on this whole The LunaBell thing. It’s only been (/checks watch) like almost a year since last we heard from her, but now we hear from her again!

In this case, it’s a couple of demo tracks on Soundcloud: Continue reading →