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.
Their first single “Roar of Resolution” was a black and groove metal appeal to all those on the fence about liking loud idols. For reassurance, HATEGLEAM went so far as to definitively state that they were “ANTI IDOL” as stated by their merchandise and still operational Souncloud page. Sure, Hina and Umishima were models and YouTubers in addition to performing as vocalists, but they were DEFINETELY NOT IDOLS.
But who cares about labels anyway when you’re providing foundational music in the idolcore genre? Back when harsh vocalists in idol could be counted on our fingers (Rei, Yuna, Non, Yukueshirezutsurezure) HATEGLEAM was two of those digits.
You can practically hear Broken by the Scream being birthed in that track.
Unfortunately, even though all logic dictated that there was a definite niche for HATEGLEAM to fill, they struggled in generating a following. Shortly after the release of their first and only album, Along with the hatred (which cannot be found anywhere), they announced their disbandment.
The members initially vanished into thin air, deleting Twitter accounts and scrubbing their website. A little over one year later, however, a slightly familiar looking visual kei group named Spooky Treat suddenly appeared wishing everyone a perpetual Halloween.
With that one-off MV, the members of HATGLEAM vanished yet again, leaving behind a single protected Twitter account and a legacy of unmet potential and promise. Four years later, the only member whose whereabouts I could track down was drummer and composer Ide “S.D.” Yosuke, who is currently arranging and performing music for anime and video games.
