Welcome to our latest Homicidols feature where we take some time to reminisce about idols, units, songs, MVs and other events from the past that have left an indelible impact on our impressionable little minds. Whether this becomes a weekly, bi-weekly, or occasional thing (or if we forget about it altogether in a few months time) remains to be seen. What I can promise you is that the longevity of Time Leap Tuesdays will not be driven by popularity, not because we have integrity as writers and refuse to be swayed by public opinion, but because we just don’t look at our website metrics all that often. Every couple of months I check the site’s traffic stats just to be reminded that, “Wow, people really like LADYBABY a LOT!”
For our inaugural entry, we’ll take a leap back in time to the heady days of 2015. BABYMETAL had just completed their first extensive tour of the US and Europe, and Western punks and metalheads still found themselves struggling against their sudden and undeniable interest in Japanese vocal and dance units. The perpetually raging debate over on r/BABYMETAL was whether or not the Kami Band were official members of the group. It was near impossible for some to come to terms with liking rock acts that didn’t have a single member who played an instrument or, even worse, regularly performed without a live backing band at all.
Enter HATEGLEAM, the idol-fronted metal band hybrid built to remove all those reservations.
