One of last year’s breakout success stories was Babymetal. Combining J-pop with Dragonforce-like hyperdrive power metal, Su-metal, Yumetal and Moametal managed to sell in the area of 17,000 copies of their debut album without it being commercially available in American retail stores, available only digitally as an import. Despite a tour with Lady Gaga, sold out or near-capacity shows in Los Angeles and New York and several shows happening here this year, the band still hadn’t landed an American record deal – until now. It’s been announced that the band have signed a deal with Phil Anselmo’s Housecore Records.
The deal will see Babymetal’s self-titled 2014 album re-released, with their next record also coming out on the label. Anselmo said he first became aware of the band after seeing them pose for a picture with Carcass’ Jeff Walker last year at Sonisphere:
“It’s about expanding horizons,” Anselmo said about Housecore’s decision to sign Babymetal. “First, we picked up King Parrot from Australia, and now we’ve got a Japanese band. It’s a global thing. We’re taking over.” When asked about the gimmickry of Babymetal and the fact that many metal fans don’t take them seriously, Anselmo bristled:
“Have you heard Pantera’s first three albums?,” he asked. “Shit, they didn’t change from a hair metal band to one of the heaviest bands in metal overnight. It took a lot of work to reinvent them. I’m going to take Babymetal, work with them, and take them to a new level of confidence and power.” Beyond the reissue of the self-titled album, he plans on having them hit the road with labelmates Eyehategod for a tour that’s preemptively being called the “Eyehate Babymetal” tour. You can see the tour dates here.
