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MUSIC

Babymetal's video is the greatest ever — or the worst

Brian Mansfield
Special for USA TODAY
Japanese pop-metal group Babymetal, consisting of Moametal, left, Su-metal and Yuimetal, perform "Give Me Choco!!" in the group's new video.
  • Babymetal is a J-pop/death-metal girl-group trio. Yep%2C that%27s what it is%2C all right
  • The group%27s new single is called %27Give Me Choco%21%21%27
  • Babymetal%27s members go by the names Moametal%2C Su-metal and Yuimetal

Here's the latest entry in Signs the Music Apocalypse Is at Hand — a Japanese girl group playing ultra-poppy death metal.

Babymetal calls its music Kawaii Metal — a bizarre blend of death-metal, EDM rhythms and sugary J-pop melodies. The group's new single, Give Me Choco!!, begins with a speaker-shredding guitar assault that quickly gives way to machine-gun-rapid chirpy vocals and a chorus as addictive as chocolate-covered cereal and Saturday morning cartoons.

The trio of girls — who go by the names Moametal, Su-metal and Yuimetal — released their self-titled debut album Feb. 26 and played two concerts at Tokyo's renowned Budokan concert hall earlier this month.

The Give Me Choco!! video looks like some kind of bizarre animé, with a dark-goth set and band members playing in skeleton costumes, and the three girls execute intricate choreography, flash heart signs and make windmill arm motions like they're playing air guitar. At one point in the video, as Moametal and Yuimetal are dancing around her, Su-metal gives her best "McKayla Maroney is not impressed" face.

After the Jezebel website posted the Give Me Choco!! video Saturday, a commenter wrote, "Somewhere in Norway there is a metalhead in corpse paint standing in a forest crying tears of blood."

The group's Facebook page says they are "starting to receive attention beyond the idle and beyond Japan, and they are pursuing the road of the only one instead of the number one."

Another video on the Babymetal YouTube channel says the legend of Babymetal "is written in the book of the Fox Apocalypse."

Which, of course, raises the question: What does the Fox Apocalypse say?

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