BEYOOOOONDS (with five “O”s in their name”) continue to kill it with another blast of pop goodness! For me personally, this is a group that has single-handedly injected a massive fire back into HELLO! Project with their personalities, enthusiastic spirit, and just plain incredibly fun music. Their mega-workout themed update on a 400 year-old classical piece-turned gay-rights anthem-turned football stadium rocker was a humongous winner in it’s own right, and now they’ve unleashed “HOT!”, a full-on banger of a rock tune that’s a new epic for the masses.

Now if you’re somebody who’s gotten into idol through the whole Babymetal/rock idol/or this so-called “alt” thing, you might be thinking “Man, I don’t care about this H!P stuff.” and I’m here to tell you, this is the one to get on board with. No really, turn up your volume and hit that play button….

I know, right?!?!? It’s just like Kerrie said, “This is legitimately idol-metal.” This thing just  nails all the tropes and sticks the landing beautifully. The guitars are super-crunchy, the hooks are addictive, and there’s some perfect wota-mix material just begging to be shouted out in a packed arena. The translated lyrics are a nice bonus that brings me to another side of BEYOOOOONDS that I really enjoy: The group is totally willing to be funny and self-aware of the underlying silliness that comes with the excessivness of this industry, and that makes them really click with their audience in a very fun way.

And how about the MV itself? What a blast! Lots of great surreal visuals, wonderfully expressive performances, and there’s a quite a few cheeky pop-culture easter-eggs throughout it, including nods to Cyndi Lauper and Twisted Sister! Just like to “Go-Waist” video, I’ll quite likely re-watch this multiple times becomes it’ll never get old. The whole package is terrific!

https://twitter.com/BEYOOOOONDS_/status/1195692130141786112?s=20

I know a few of you readers are already on the BEYOOOOONDS train, but I hope the rest of you get them on your radar too! If you’ve become weary of certain aspects of the bigger name acts that dominate this scene, I think you’ll find these H!P upstarts a fresh take to reignite the rockin’ spirit of fun that brought you to begin with. Take one step beyond, people!!