The Somewhat Longish Short Story of Babymetal In 2007 Suzuka Nakamoto was part of a singing competition held by the talent agency Amuse Inc. Thanks to her great performance, Amuse Inc. created a group called Karen Girl's. The result of the audition had three girls representing the group. The group better known as 'the little sisters' of Perfume sang several songs for the anime called Zettai Karen Children. Karen Girl's released 2 Singles, "Over The Future" and "My Wings", both singles in 2008. Sadly for them, the group was disbanded. In 2010, Amuse Inc created the idol group Sakura Gakuin with Suzuka Nakamoto, Ayami Muto (ex Karen Girl's), also Moa Kikuchi, Yui Mizuno and 6 other girls. The group was created to enhance the talent for singing, dance and acting. In the same year, one of the producers of Amuse Inc. called 'Kobametal' created a sub-group inside Sakura Gakuin called BABYMETAL based (according to some rumors) on an idea of Suzuka Nakamoto to have a group with different music. For that reason BABYMETAL was created with a mix of genres between J-Pop and Heavy Metal. 'Koba' selected Moa and Yui to represent the sub-group alongside Suzuka. The three girls started the project without knowing even what the meaning of Heavy Metal was. The girls took the names of Su-Metal, Yui-Metal and Moa-Metal. After months of rehearsing, the sub-group of Sakura Gakuin debuted live with Doki Doki Morning at Yokohama Red Brick in the Sakura Gakuin Festival 2010. Sakura Gakuin released their first album called Message in 2011 with Doki Doki Morning as song 9 in the track list. In 2011, almost a year after the live debut, Doki Doki Morning was released as the first single of BABYMETAL with a music video. Iine, another new song for the band also debuted live before an official release at Shibuya O-West, an event when BABYMETAL played their 3 official songs. For 2012, Sakura Gakuin's sub-group released their second single BABYMETALxKiba of Akiba premiering their second tune, "Iine" ( NOT Line, :lol: ), and their third song, a cover of Kiba of Akiba called Kimi To Anime Ga Mitai. By June 4, BABYMETAL released their third single called Head Bangya!! with another new song called Uki Uki Midnight. Head Bangya debuted live days before the release in the Pop'n Idol 02 at Zepp Tokyo. While Uki Uki Midnight debuted live at the famous Legend Corset Festival. On August 19, BABYMETAL played for the first time in the Summer Sonic Festival. By October 6, BABYMETAL played their first show of a 3 show series of Legend I, D, Z. The first show, Legend I, took place at Shibuya O-East. The sold out show had the live debut of the songs: Babymetal Death, Akatsuki and Onedari Daisakusen. Also, BABYMETAL played for the first time with a live band called 'Kami Band' and the debut of the current member, Leda Cygnus. Until this time shows were fully backtracked and/or pantomimed with the Babybones Band. On November 10, BABYMETAL played their first overseas show. The event took place in Singapore as part of the Anime Festival Asia Singapore 2012 at Singapore EXPO. The second show of Legend I, D, Z series took place at Akasaka Blitz on December 20 to celebrate the "Su-Metal Seitansai (Birthday celebration)" called Legend D. On January 9 2013, Ijime, Dame, Zettai was the first major single for the band with a CD/DVD version. The single had a new song by the band called Catch Me If You Can and also had the first studio collaboration, the limited edition song Ijime, Dame, Zettai Nemesis Version with guitarist Chistopher Amott from Arch Enemy. Legend Z, the last show of the Legend I, D, Z series took place at Zepp Tokyo on February 1. Legend Z had the debut of the current Kami Band members Takayoshi Ohmura on the lead guitar and Hideki Aoyama on the drums. On March 31, Suzuka Nakamoto graduated from Sakura Gakuin in the Sakura Gakuin Graduation Event 2012 at the Tokyo International Forum. In the last performance of her as a Sakura Gakuin member, BABYMETAL played Head Bangya. After some rumors that the band could be disbanded after Suzuka's graduation from Sakura Gakuin, the producer Kobametal and Amuse Inc. decided to keep supporting BABYMETAL. By May, BABYMETAL did their first tour called: "Babymetal Death Match Tour 'May Revolution'", considered a training tour by the band. These shows were the first full shows with the Kami Band. The Kami band members were: Hideki Aoyama on the drums, Boh (debut with BABYMETAL) on the bass guitar, Takayoshi Ohmura and Leda Cygnus on the guitars. By the end of June, BABYMETAL played their first "Seitansai" for Moametal and Yuimetal called Legend 1999 and took place at NHK Hall. On July 7, BABYMETAL started their 'Summer Fes Tour 2013' including shows at Summer Camp 2013, Join Alive, and Summer Sonic shows, this time with the Kami Band. Closing the Summer Fes, BABYMETAL played for the first time in the Inazuma Rock Festival were the current Kami Band member, guitarist Mikio Fujioka debuted with the band. On October 20, the band played in the Loud Park Festival 2013. The second "Su-Metal Seitansai" took place at Makuhari Messe on December 21; the show was called Legend 1997. The song Gimme Chocolate debuted, an acoustic version (Piano and vocals by Su-Metal) of Akatsuki was played, and an album release was announced. BAW (Babymetal Apocalypse Web, the official BABYMETAL fan club) was announced officially that day. February 2 2014, BABYMETAL played their first Show in Taipei, Taiwan at the ATT Shout Box. They collaborated with the Taiwanese band Chthonic in the last song of the show, Megitsune. On February 25 BABYMETAL released the music video Gimme Chocolate to support the album release a day after. On February 26, BABYMETAL released their debut album. The album reached the [\#1](//www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=1) in the Metal chart on iTunes US and in European countries like Germany and United Kingdom, also reached [\#1](//www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=1) in Taiwan, Japan and Singapore. The album also reached Top Charts on Amazon, Billoard and several times in Oricon and Tower Records in Japan. On March 1 and March 2, BABYMETAL played the Budokan 2 Days, Legend Doomsday shows at the Nippon Budokan. The sold out shows started and made official the Kami Band era, since then BABYMETAL ceased playing shows with Babybones. On June 23 and 24 BABYMETAL played their first Apocrypha shows, both shows at Tsutasya O-East. Apocrypha I had Hideki Aoyama on the drums while Apocrypha II debuted Yuya Maeta on the drums. The shows served as presentation of the new Kami Band member and also as warm up shows for the European leg. After the Apocrypha shows, the band landed in Europe on July 1 to play in France. On July 3 they played in Germany. On July 5, BABYMETAL played in the iconic Sonisphere Festival sharing stage with bands like Metallica, Carcass, and Iron Maiden. The show at Knobworth Park had the presence of almost 50000 metalheads while BABYMETAL was playing. The next day at The Forum in London, BABYMETAL played their last show in Europe. Just 20 days after the European Tour, BABYMETAL landed in United States for their show at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. The Lady Gaga Art Rave Tour brought BABYMETAL to play in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Utah and Colorado; doing a 4 song setlist. After hitting the road with Gaga, BABYMETAL played their last show in North America in the huge Heavy Montreal Festival in Canada on August 9. On August 16 and 17 BABYMETAL played for third time in the Summer Sonic Festival. On November 4, BABYMETAL played for the first time in New York as part of the Back To The US/UK Tour, held at Hammerstein Ballroom. The last overseas show of the year was on November 8 at the O2 Brixton Academy in London, England. The third show in England had the release of the new song called The One with the studio collaboration of the guitarists of Dragonforce, Sam Totman and Herman Li. \[/center\]\[left\] **Current line-up:** Su-Metal (Suzuka Nakamoto) Yui-Metal (Yui Mizuno) Moa-Metal (Moa Kikuchi) **Kami Band:** Ohmura Takayoshi - Guitar Leda Cygnus - Guitar Boh - 6 String Bass Yuya Maeta - Drums Fujioka Mikio - Guitar Aoyama Hideki - Drums **Past Members:** Yousei Teikoku - Guitar Kobayashi Shinichi - Guitar Ryo - Bass Ikuo - Bass Shin - Drums Maeta Shuki - Drums Kado Shuntarou - Drums Hidefumi Usami - Manipulator -Included within- \[left\] MV: Doki Doki Morning Iine Ijime, Dame, Zettai Megitsune Gimmie Choco Venues: Anime Festival Asia 2012 Setlist: 01-Doki Doki Morning 02-Iine 03-Uki Uki Midnight 04-Head Bangya Summer Sonic 2013 Setlist: 01-Death 02-Megitsune 03-Catch Me If You Can MV-Ijime, Dame, Zettai Inazuma Rock Fest 2013 Setlist: 03-Catch Me If You Can 05-Head Bangya 06-Ijime, Dame, Zettai Loud Park 2013 Setlist: 04-Megitsune 06-Head Bangya 07-Ijime, Dame, Zettai Summer Sonic 2014 Setlist: 01-Death 02-Gimme Chocolate (w/Call & Response) 03-Catch Me If You Can (Kami Band Intro) 06-Doki Doki Morning BD: **Live Legend I D Z Apocalypse** I Setlist: 01-Death 02-Iine! 03-Kimi To Anime Ga Mitai 04-Uki Uki Midnight 05-Onedari Daisakusen 06-Akatsuki 07-Doki Doki Morning -ENCORE- 08-Head Bangya 09-Ijime, Dame, Zettai D Setlist: 01-Death 02-Kimi To Anime Ga Mitai 03-Uki Uki Midnight 04-White Love, Angel of Death ver. (Speed cover) 05-Over The Future, Rising Force ver. (Karen Girls Cover) 06-Head Bangya!! Night of 15 Mix 07-Onedari Daisakusen 08-Doki Doki Morning 09-Iine! 10-Ijime, Dame, Zettai -ENCORE- 11-Head bangya!! 12-Tsubasa Wo Kudasai, Flame ver. (Akai Tori Cover) Z Setlist: 01-Ijime, Dame, Zettai 02-Iine! 03-Kimi To Anime Ga Mitai 04-Onedari Daisakusen 05-Akatsuki 06-Uki Uki Midnight 07-Catch me if you can 08-Doki Doki Morning -ENCORE- 09-Head Bangya 10-Death 11-Ijime, Dame, Zettai **Live Legend 1999 1997 Apocalypse** 1999 Setlist: 01-Death 02-Iine! 03-Kimi To Anime Ga Mitai 04-Uki Uki Midnight 05-Chokotto Love, Big Time Changes ver. (Petit Moni Cover) 06-Love Machine, From Hell With Love ver. (Morning Musume) 07-Onedari Daisakusen -ENCORE- 08-No Rain, No Rainbow 09-Catch Me If You Can 10-Doki Doki Morning 11-Megitsune 12-Ijime, Dame, Zettai -ENCORE- 13-Akatsuki 14-Head Bangya 15-Ave Maria Outro 1997 Setlist: 01-Ave Maria (Intro) 02-Headbanger!! -Night of 15 mix- 03-Doki Doki Morning 04-Iine! 05-Tamashii No Rufuran, Return To Myself ver. (Yoko Takahashi) 06-Uki Uki Midnight 07-Gimme Chocolate 08-Kimi To Anime Ga Mitai 09-Megitsune 10-Ijime, Dame, Zettai -ENCORE- 11-Onedari Daisakusen 12-Catch Me If You Can (Extended Intro) 13-Head Bangya 14-Akatsuki (Unfinished Version) 15-Death