Flashes of brilliance

Japanese Metal act Mary´s Blood has their new album “Fate” on official release in Europe. When you search for Babymetal on Swedish online shop Ginza, this album pops up as a suggestion so it is clear that Babymetal has helped this outfit to get some recognition here. Mary´s Blood is all out Japanese (talking about everything including the lyrics now), and they play fairly traditional Metal. What they have that really sticks out is an insanely good guitarist named Saki. Her solos are an absolute delight and she really leave most of the competition in the dust. Good enough reason to check this band out.

Check them out on YouTube.

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The Xena/Babymetal Connection

This post is written out of a deep love of both the television show Xena Warrior Princess (1995-2001) and the Japanese Kawaii Metal band Babymetal. When Xena aired on television, the show floored me. It had an incredible vibe to it. It did not take long before I was knee deep in that world – affectionately known as The Xenaverse – and I published quite a lot of material in Sweden (magazine articles, fanzines, a complete episode guide etc) and I also wrote a piece about the Swedish scene in Nikki Stafford´s “How Xena Changed Our Lives: True Stories By Fans For Fans” (ECW Press, 2002). In other words, I got to see that world pretty up close. Truly, when it was over I never thought that I would get to experience the same kind of fandom again. But I was wrong, because never in a million years could I have predicted the rise of Babymetal.

It took me a while to discover them, but once I did I had a lot of catching up to do. And there it was, the incredible fandom of this wonderful phenomena. I knew it eccoed what I had seen once before, and that Babymetal could not fail with this kind of support. I have seen the fans create so many wonderful things (much of it shown on this blog) and I know that they are the biggest thing since Kiss in Rock & Metal to achieve this kind of reverence. That comes from the strong visuals, and the mythology that has been crafted all along. Producer/creator Koba Metal has done an incredible job to get them to where they are today. But not even he could have seen all this coming, not the incredible highs and the heart warming support from all ages. Many fans of Babymetal have been listening to music for 50 years or more. The Kawaii aspect is powerful but although people will no doubt try to copy this, the proper DNA can only be found in the original.

Xena carried on for six seasons back in the day and there has been talk about a new reboot of the show, or movies. Some day it will surely happen. But the legend that was the original has left us a legacy that is hard to beat. As for Babymetal, they are still building the Kawaii Metal Empire, and I can see no reason for them to quit any time soon. In Babymetal, we have this utterly unique and wonderful – I would say near otherworldly – thing that has the power to make grown combat veterans happy (read the feedback Babymetal get on YouTube). They have the power to lift your spirit and that is a gift from the Gods.

And the people will respond. With love.

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Xena reboot in limbo

NBC has put the Xena reboot on hold. Apparently, the writer/producer jumped ship back in April so the concept they had been looking at did not work out in one way or another. The show was to include a new cast and Xena and Gabrielle was set up to be lovers.

Let it rest.

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